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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

#341

Post by digianarchist »

proberts wrote: post #319
victorhn wrote: post #188

I am currently working on a TN2 visa (Mexican citizen), my company wants to sponsor me my H1B and then, if i got it, sponsor my GC. I heard that there is a route where you can go from TN2 visa directly to GC, but that the process is risky if not handled carefully. What is your view on this?

There's no issue with moving from a TN to a green card; the process just needs to be managed carefully and all this really means in the end is coordinating the timing of the filing after deciding on the green card path (that is, whether through USCIS or a US Consulate).

Something that's never been clear to me. Suppose you file the I485 and show immigrant intent but the application falls through; how long do you have to wait before you can reenter on a TN visa?

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

#342

Post by Loodie374893 »

Hi Peter. Thank you very much for your help.

I am a Canadian field technician hired on paper by a Canadian company. I live in Canada. Though, in fact, I work and I am entirely managed by a French company owning part of the Canadian company. They often make me travel to the US with no visa. So far I have had no problem. Could I have issues in the US?

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

#343

Post by elevenoh »

barbazoo wrote: post #222
elevenoh wrote: post #191

Which country's PR would you recommend for a looking-to-exit-Canadian looking to a) pay less tax (53% income rate is too high!) & b) face less investing regulation (e.g. Ontario banning access to certain crypto exchanges)? Is there a popular one these days? e.g. paraguay

Just out of curiosity, how do you end up with a 53% income tax rate? Federal: 33% of taxable income over $216,511 Provincial: 20.5% on the amount over $222,420 (max, BC) Obviously the average rate will be far less than the marginal rate. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individ...

33% + 20% on all income over ~450k.

Ofc the average is less than this top marginal rate.

But it's quite the disincentive.

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

#344

Post by elevenoh »

markdown wrote: post #256
barbazoo wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of curiosity, how do you end up with a 53% income tax rate? Federal: 33% of taxable income over $216,511 Provincial: 20.5% on the amount over $222,420 (max, BC) Obviously the average rate will be far less than the marginal rate. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individ...

They don't end up with a 53% rate. Just a tax dodger who's trying to avoid giving back after they've benefited from a system.

53% on all income over ~450k.

Do you agree with this? I don't. So I look at other options.

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

#345

Post by elevenoh »

digianarchist wrote: post #305
barbazoo wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of curiosity, how do you end up with a 53% income tax rate? Federal: 33% of taxable income over $216,511 Provincial: 20.5% on the amount over $222,420 (max, BC) Obviously the average rate will be far less than the marginal rate. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individ...

Canadians usually quote their top tax bracket than their effective rate. Effective rate is much lower obviously.

Right. I kind of think like this by default.

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

#346

Post by elevenoh »

barbazoo wrote: post #280
markdown wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't end up with a 53% rate. Just a tax dodger who's trying to avoid giving back after they've benefited from a system.

That's what I was thinking too.

Ay, cmon now.

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

#347

Post by alanlammiman »

proberts wrote: post #262
alanlammiman wrote: post #221

Do EB-5 investor visas work well in practice for those looking to start a business in the US? Looking at the rules it would appear to be straightforward as long as you have the capital -invest $1.8M and employ 10 people. It there a catch other than the amount of the investment that makes it hard in practice?

They do work well; there's just a significant backlog.

thanks

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

#348

Post by bialpio »

ab_testing wrote: post #301
bialpio wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IANAL. Can non-citizens run US-based companies? If yes, can't this be done through a company, then OP would just be forbidden from drawing a salary from this entity?

Yes . Non citizens can run us based companies as long as they do that from outside the US. If they want to come to the US to run their US based company, then they have to decide on a visa. There is E2 which is a business based visa but only for certain countries. H1-B is essentially a skilled worker visa and it is assumed that you would have a company and a boss who would file for that visa.

> If they want to come to the US to run their US based company, then they have to decide on a visa.

Only if they want to get paid in any way, right? Can a person run their company w/o drawing any profits (i.e. no W-2 needed) and not have to go through the visa process? If I were to look for a way out of the situation ("I want people to pay so that I have money to maintain the infrastructure"), this is how I'd try to approach it ("create an entity that is allowed to accept money from other sources and use that money only to run the infrastructure").

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

#349

Post by hnfong »

yonibot wrote: post #238

I’m a Canadian software engineer but my degree is in law (I’m a self-taught developer). Do people in my situation manage to get H1B or TN visas despite not having a technical degree? Thanks a lot!

[Used to be in a similar situation as yours (have a LLB, became a software engineer), but not a lawyer in any capacity]

My understanding is that H1B rules allow 3 years of experience to count as one year of a relevant degree. So if you don't have any higher education in computing subjects, theoretically 12 years of relevant experience would meet the requirements.

That said even if you legally meet the requirements, non-typical cases often get mishandled due to administrative error. In my case, I applied for a L1 visa (which unlike H1B does not have degree requirements) but the officer somehow decided to apply H1B requirements anyway and rejected the application (he probably got confused). There was no feasible appeal process, so our lawyers advised me to go on a trip to another jurisdiction and re-apply. It worked out in the end, but the officer basically told me that we weren't supposed to shop around different consulates like that, but he did say he'd look up the law before deciding, presumably he wasn't able to find any legal basis for rejecting the application. (The process was pretty exciting!)

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