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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

#231

Post by bubblethink »

jmyeet wrote: post #221
8note wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

isnit right to call it abuse? certain employers can use h1bs to fill specific employment needs really well, and have a ton of experience with both sourcing foreign labour and matching it to work that needs doing in the US. its doing exactly what the program is looking for, filling a labour quantity at the price employers are looking for. The US government is optimizing for being able to do some volume of technical wo…

Nothing will convince me that the likes of Tata and Infosys are a good use of H1Bs. And because they flood the system with H1B applications, other actually valuable positions go unfilled. If the customers for these bodyshops could save money by outsourcing directly to India, they would've already. And beyond those big bodyshops you have any number of smaller H1B fraud schemes eg [1][2][3][4]. If you're Indian-born an…

>when there's significant unemployment in the sector then there is by definition availability

Humans aren't fungible.

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

#232

Post by bubblethink »

jmyeet wrote: post #224
bubblethink wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is your contention though. The government needs to prove that in a court of law that they are violating the statute or the regulations.

It's a fairly well-founded contention eg [1][2][3]. Here's a problem I often see when technical people, particular engineers, try to analyze legal issues: they tend to look for technical compliance (or noncompliance) or use standards like absolute proof but the law simply doesn't work that way. Legal decisions tend to come down to things like witness credibility, a holistic view of the facts and whatever evidence sta…

>it should be noted that a lack of a prosecution (yet?) is not proof of legality or compliance either.

Prosecution or lack of prosecution in this area are both political. The previous DOJ also sued SpaceX for not hiring asylees. I am not aware of an actual court victory. These tend to settle out of court and both sides get to claim victory and make headlines.

>they tend to look for technical compliance

I'm taking a more holistic view here, which is that the whole thing is so farcical that enforcing compliance here does more harm than good. Look at the operation that chained Hyundai workers and deported them for a photo op. What did it achieve? It created a diplomatic incident, the battery plant stopped producing batteries, and the state lost tax revenue.

>Those are some of the factors USCIS uses but no single factor is sufficient.

That's a whole different can of worms. There is endless litigation over things that USCIS does in its infinite wisdom. Fortunately, we have the APA and Loper Bright overturned Chevron, so it should restore some sanity to it.

Aside: >prosecutions for downloading something

There is no real prosecution for downloading. It's only uploading. The technical definition is the same as the legal one. The way DMCA prosecution works is that if you are in a torrent swarm and are uploading, you are distributing content, which is easier to prove under copyright law.

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

#233

Post by jnsaff2 »

mifydev wrote: post #207
proberts wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's definitely more difficult but well within reach of founders (particularly founders with funding and organic press coverage) and talented professionals. That is, until very recently. It's too early to say whether this is a trend or an aberration but the past few weeks we've seen USCIS apply a different standard, one similar to the EB1A standard. If this is a trend, then I suspect that the RFE and denial rates for…

Is it just aligning to EB1A standards, or more rigorous and picky process in general?

There are suggestions[0] that the crooks running the country atm are trying to use the EB1 visa quotas for the golden visas instead.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA3qrg2Kpbo

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

#234

Post by mettamage »

When you have an IR-1 in the process, but we decided to move to Europe is it then better to cancel that application or is it better to just let it go through the system and sort of cancel it at the point when we're invited for an interview?

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

#235

Post by aprilthird2021 »

jmyeet wrote: post #188
BeetleB wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The job is supposed to be treated as an open position and the recruitment is supposed to be done in good faith. So, if a qualified, willing, able, and available U.S. worker applies for a PERM job, the employer either must hire this person or terminate the PERM process and wait at least 6 months before restarting it. The "or" part in the last sentence is worth noting. At the place I've worked, the employer invokes t…

Generally lawyers need to be involved to make sure any rejections are compliant. There's a whole cottage industry around this. Personally, given the state of unemployment in the tech sector right now, I think it should be virtually impossible to fill a PERM right now because pretty much any position could be filled with a US LPR or citizen and the only reason it isn't is because the whole process is deliberately obfu…

I'm convinced people who say this:

> given the state of unemployment in the tech sector right now, I think it should be virtually impossible to fill a PERM right now because pretty much any position could be filled with a US LPR or citizen

are crazy deluded about the quality of the average US citizen software engineering job applicant vs the quality of the person doing that job. Or you haven't ever actually done hiring for a big tech company (who use most of the H1B and perm processes).

I'm not saying Americans are dumb. But the average CS graduate from an average or low tier college in the US (of which there are many many many) is not as good of a hire as the average int'l MSCS degree holder. There's obvious statistical reasons for this: namely the int'l is likely richer in his/her country than the average US citizen is here bc that person can afford to pay for a degree here and move here and get in here.

But this perspective treats these jobs as if they are factory jobs that as long as the position is filled, money can be made and that's not true in software engineering. The quality matters and it's one of many things the PERM process wasn't built to handle and which also many people don't understand who haven't done this hiring process

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

#236

Post by aprilthird2021 »

sammyspizza wrote: post #10

The current administration has made it very hard for tech workers to get perm status. Many larger companies are no longer sponsoring perm applications for workers on h1-bs because it is so difficult to meet the new requirements. Which of the new requirements is the most difficult for companies to meet and have you seen any creative solutions, especially for smaller companies and startups trying to get their H1-B folk…

PERM died as a viable option through two things:

1) constant layoffs which each time pause PERM authorization

2) some (but not all) major tech companies having to settle with the DoL or other similar entity about how they were making applications public for the labor market test. These settlements did not happen during this admin. And the higher exposure to average job seekers means defending the PERM is harder (partly bc you cannot claim that your employee is a higher quality employee, only that the on paper requirements like a degree and knowledge of various things, is met or not met)

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

#237

Post by cromka »

proberts wrote: post #81
daxuak wrote: post #23

Does H1-B really carry that 100k per-case fee? I remember hearing of it, but afterwards also individual stories of people getting H1-B. I don't know them personally unfortunately; not sure whether it was sponsored by not-for-profit research institutes or for-profit companies. I can't imagine this rule being economically feasible for most, though. And if the answer is actually a yes, would the company want to make sur…

Yes, the $100K fee exists and applies under certain circumstances, essentially if the beneficiary is outside the U.S. or ineligible for a change of status or change of employer. Most companies are simply not pursuing H-1B petitions where the $100K fee would apply but there are exceptions. It's possible to extend H-1B status beyond the 6-year max-out period if the beneficiary is in the green card process. But if the b…

What about recapturing about 2 years of unused H1B and coming back to US for a new position? Does the employer still need to issue the 100k fee? I would imagine they don't, since the visa is already issued, technically speaking?

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

#238

Post by cromka »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #228
immighelper wrote: post #209

My family and I all have green cards, but for the last 3 years, we have been living outside the US (in India) with re-entry permits. I work for a large tech company and have technically been "on assignment" for that time, but honestly, we've more or less shifted base entirely to India at this point. Our re-entry permits are coming up for renewal soon. We're considering giving up my wife's and kids' green cards, and k…

As a green card holder living outside the US, are you subject to US federal taxes, e.g., global taxation?

Yes, but indirectly, since in order to maintain green card they have to be on US soil for the bigger part of the year, which implies tax residency.

That having said, not everyone spends 6 months to maintain their card and without a reasonable need to do so, it risks losing the status.

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

#239

Post by catchcatchcatch »

BeetleB wrote: post #163
proberts wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think everyone would agree that the PERM process is an awful process for both applicants and for employers. The job is supposed to be treated as an open position and the recruitment is supposed to be done in good faith. So, if a qualified, willing, able, and available U.S. worker applies for a PERM job, the employer either must hire this person or terminate the PERM process and wait at least 6 months before restart…

> The job is supposed to be treated as an open position and the recruitment is supposed to be done in good faith. So, if a qualified, willing, able, and available U.S. worker applies for a PERM job, the employer either must hire this person or terminate the PERM process and wait at least 6 months before restarting it. The "or" part in the last sentence is worth noting. At the place I've worked, the employer invokes t…

[dead]

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

#240

Post by immighelper »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #228
immighelper wrote: post #209

My family and I all have green cards, but for the last 3 years, we have been living outside the US (in India) with re-entry permits. I work for a large tech company and have technically been "on assignment" for that time, but honestly, we've more or less shifted base entirely to India at this point. Our re-entry permits are coming up for renewal soon. We're considering giving up my wife's and kids' green cards, and k…

As a green card holder living outside the US, are you subject to US federal taxes, e.g., global taxation?

Yes. I don't need to spend time in the US to keep the green card, though, because of the reentry permit.
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