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I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

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Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#232

I’ve heard that an option for Canadian workers pursuing US citizenship is to apply for a TN visa, then apply for consular processing from Canada while under TN visa status. Does this seem like a good option? I’ve worked remotely for a small company for a number of years and am a core team member. I suspect I fit one of the definitions for an L1 visa except that the US company doesn’t have a presence in Canada other t…

Hey there, I'm a Canadian living in the US on an L1 right now, it was a good fit for me. What my company did was set up a Canadian Entity (subsidy) and started paying me through that for a year before I made the trip. It worked out well.

Are there any requirements for the Canadian Entity?

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#234

Hey Peter, I changed my employer last year while my spouses h4 visa was in process. Got to know last week that h4 visa was denied because it was referring to my old h1b which has become void due to switch. Can you give some options to get uscisnprocess her visa soon. Is it possible to get other type of visas as we would like to start an online e commerce business.

It shouldn't have been denied because the H-4 isn't tied to a particular H-1B employer but to your H-1B status which presumably you have maintained. An option which you should raise with your lawyer is to file a nunc pro tunc H-4 application. We've had these approved, particularly during the pandemic, for individuals whose status expired more than 6 months ago.

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#235

What sort of qualifications/awards/etc. are most compelling for O1 visas as a tech worker that would demonstrate you are at the "very top of your field"? What examples of work do you commonly see for people making these applications? I'm curious what types of things a regular tech employee could do while employed to demonstrate that they'd meet these criteria.

It's tough and the awards category is a particularly tough one because the awards really need to be significant and student/academic awards generally don't count. I would say that the categories most within an applicant's control and/or easiest to meet (relatively speaking) are journal review or event/hackathon judging, outstanding association membership (such as IEEE senior membership for example), high compensation (geographic and occupation based), press, and publications.

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#236

Thanks for doing this. I have a green card and have been out of the country for a few years doing a PhD. I’ve been getting reentry permits during that time. Due to corona and having a baby I haven’t been able to return to the US to apply for a new reentry permit and it’s now expired. How should I handle that, especially when crossing the border? Have they relaxed the rules due to corona?

Yes, USCIS, CBP, and the State Department have been much more lenient when it comes to long absences because of the pandemic. Your approach - whether you just show up and explain why you were absent for so long or apply for something called a returning resident visa at a US Consulate - will depend on a number of factors including whether you are now moving back to the US or just coming temporarily, how long you have been outside the US, and when your reentry permit expired, among others.

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#237
post #230

Hi Peter, If the S386 bill passes. Can I apply change of status 2 years after my I-140 approval date? Even if I no longer work with the company that sponsored my I-140. Thank you.

Under the current law, if it is a company-sponsored PERM-based I-140 petition (as opposed to a self-sponsored I-140 petition), no. Unfortunately, I believe -but I'm not certain - that this still would be true under the proposed legislation.

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#238

Are EU citizens employable in the US? Do NATO agreements give some sort of visa?

Why downvote a question like this? Is the thread solely for US citizens?

EU citizens have no special US visa options. Only citizens of a handful of countries have their own visas (Australia, Canada, Chile, Mexico, and Singapore). Everyone else is in the same boat.

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#240
post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compliance. If you're building a SaaS startup then it's very important to have physical presence in the US

Could you expand on this. Is this only for government-based contracts?

It's kind of a spillover effect where your customers need to meet compliance requirements from other customers such as US presence (not limited to US government btw - mostly around data handling requirements by Infosec teams). Thus as a service providers you are subject to these restrictions as well.

Another example, I know cases where you cannot run your service on AWS because the customers have a blanket ban on AWS - for competitive reasons.

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