I’m Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA • Hacker News Board

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

#261

Post by anond » Fri, Aug 25, 2017, 6:13 PM UTC

charris0 wrote: post #97

Hi Peter, thanks for sharing info on what I feel is quite an unknown subject to an outsider. I have a general question for you: As a skilled software developer with a relevant UK university degree (3 years BSC) and work place experience, interested in working in the US - What is the ballpark range of costs and wait time involved in getting a visa to allow me to work for a US company. What's the general procedure, - g…

(Not a lawyer, but US immigrant pretty familiar with E/F/H/J/L/O visas and Green card)

There are some exceptions but the procedure is usually : get a job offer from an employer that is willing to sponsor you, then talk to a lawyer... But a lawyer might be able to help you find ways to immigrate without a job offer, but that seems pretty unlikely to me.

The H-1B visa would normally be one of the 'classic' ways to be authorized to work in the US in your situation, the problem being that in recent years demand has far exceeded the available number (annual cap). For example this year 199,000 petitions were received during the first week, for only 85,000 H-1B available (including 20k for holders of advanced US degree). Therefore the USCIS now holds a lottery to determine which petitions will be reviewed first, and once 85k petitions are approved, you have to wait another year to apply...

The cost for an H-1B is nil for an H-1B as the employer has to pay for it and cannot ask you to reimburse those fees. You might have to pay in order to have dependants (wife, kids) added to your petition though.

The problem used to be to find an employer willing to sponsor you for the visa (the difficulty varies greatly depending on your industry), now the H-1B visa cap makes it more of a time issue unfortunately.

Other options you might look into depending on your how long you would like to work in the US: J-1 for an internship, E-2 for a company whose 'nationality' is the same as yours, L visas for a transfer to the same company in the US, F-1 visa for studies, and the O-1 visa which I will let you research by yourself and/or discuss with an attorney (the qualifications aren't as difficult at they may seem, trust me)

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

#262

Post by proberts » Fri, Aug 25, 2017, 6:14 PM UTC

kilimci wrote: post #253

Hi Peter, I'll finish my PhD in ECE around May 2018 and look for employment in the Bay Area. Do you think I should apply for NIW (I have over 300 citations and 10+ peer reviewed publications) or go through the process with H1B? My wife and our son are on F2 visa right now. My wife is a computer engineer and was not allowed to work on F2 visa during my PhD. Can she work as an H1B dependent? Do you think it is worth to…

I would need to know more but it sounds like you would have a strong EB1A extraordinary ability green card application so I would just go this route. And the NIW route is very slow and the law oftentimes misapplied by USCIS so it's not necessarily an easier standard to meet.

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

#263

Post by gyardley » Fri, Aug 25, 2017, 6:14 PM UTC

As a Canadian citizen married to an American - would voluntarily abandoning your permanent residency (say, to live in your home or a third country for a few years) make it more difficult to re-obtain permanent residency in the future?

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

#264

Post by klipt » Fri, Aug 25, 2017, 6:15 PM UTC

cletus wrote: post #231

dcs19010 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here are the odds, by country. Rate of legal immigration doesn't seem to be a primary determinate for that country's odds. www.usagreencardlottery.org/green-card-statistics.jsp

Slight nit: you want to add http to that so it gets linkified. Thanks for posting it. It's super-interesting. I always suspected the chance for my country (Australia) was _reasonably_ good. This bears that out. In fact it might even be higher (5%) than I'd expected. That being said I tried like 6-8 times and never won. But that's not too surprising even at 1 in 20. In fact I think I've only ever met one person who ha…

There are quotas by "geographic region" (roughly, continent): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversity_Immigrant_Visa#Distr...

Oceania (Australia, New Zealand and some other islands) happens to have few applicants relative to its regional quota.

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

#265

Post by proberts » Fri, Aug 25, 2017, 6:15 PM UTC

gyardley wrote: post #263

As a Canadian citizen married to an American - would voluntarily abandoning your permanent residency (say, to live in your home or a third country for a few years) make it more difficult to re-obtain permanent residency in the future?

No.

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

#266

Post by rootedbox » Fri, Aug 25, 2017, 6:17 PM UTC

I'm a US citizen in SF.. my girlfriend is Canadian. Is there any easy way for her to stay here long term minus marriage. She has a degree but not in a field where sponsoring is likely.

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

#267

Post by amingilani » Fri, Aug 25, 2017, 6:17 PM UTC

I'm currently in the process of gaining recommendations for my EB2-NIW visa. Would you have any advice for the recommendation?

Also I made a web app to make it easier for people to write recommendation letters for me[1]. If anyone here has critique, I would greatly apprecate

HN PLEASE DON'T POST IT, I PLAN ON MAKING A SHOW HN NEXT WEEK. But you're welcome to recommend me and share the fact that you recommended me via email/twitter.

[1]: https://recommend.gilani.me

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

#268

Post by proberts » Fri, Aug 25, 2017, 6:18 PM UTC

leff_f wrote: post #247

Hi Peter, can a sales representative for a Canadian company come to US to negotiate contracts/do sales (the work is done outside of US) with just B1/B2 visa? or a different type of visa required? Thanks!

Yes, admission as a B-1 visitor would be appropriate where as here the product sold is manufactured outside the U.S. and the beneficiary of the sales is an entity outside the U.S.

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

#269

Post by proberts » Fri, Aug 25, 2017, 6:18 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #215

proberts wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a complicated scenario and I would need to know all the facts to respond. Please email me offline.

Your HN profile does not contain your email address, you may want to add it. It's confusing because the 'email' field is not shown publicly, you need to add it to the about field.

Sorry. It's proberts@robertsimmigration.com.

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

#270

Post by gcdvl » Fri, Aug 25, 2017, 6:19 PM UTC

proberts wrote: post #258

gcdvl wrote: post #256

I won the green card diversity lottery and will finalize the process in about a month when I land in the USA. After that I'll be a permanent resident. I'll stay for a few months to set things up, leave for a few more months to sell some property and then move there permanently. If things don't go very well and I decide to relinquish the green card and return, will I be subject to any kind of exit tax? Also, I'm havin…

Regarding your first question, you should consult a tax accountant but the short answer is that the penalty provision doesn't apply unless and until you have been a permanent resident for at least 8 years. Regarding your second question, this can be a real issue and one option is to hire an attorney for the sole purpose of having your green card delivered to him or her. Whoever this is should charge you next to nothi…

Thank you for your answer. I had read about the 8 year rule but was afraid that there might be any other condition (like making more than ~ 100K in one year)

Regarding the address, I didn't know hiring an attorney was possible for that because I keep reading that the address must be a residential address. It's ridiculous that this can't be updated after one lands, but such is life and bureaucracy.

I still have a few weeks and will try to hire someone in my arrival city remotely.

I take it from your answer, the "General Delivery" is not an option? I find that strange because that would imply me having to identify myself to get the mail, so in a way it's actually more reliable than using a friend's address.

Thank you for generously letting us use your time.