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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 #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mr. Abrego Garcia was declared by a court to not be deportable to El Salvador, yet he was. That is not due process.

He’s a Salvadoran citizen illegally in the US. He gets deported. If you get into Canada or Mexico illegally, barring bribery, you will get deported. No due process is owed you.

By the way, you might be interested in today's Supreme Court decision. In it, the Court affirms that aliens do, in fact, have due process rights.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a1007_g2bh.pdf

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

#342

I'm a Canadian software developer who'd like to join an American startup so naturally I've been applying to a bunch of jobs. More specifically, I'm looking to go with TN visa. In most job applications, I need to answer the two following questions 1) Are you legally authorized to work in the US? and 2) Will you now or in the future require sponsorship? I'm looking for advice on how I should be answering these question…

Legally, the correct answers are No and Yes.

Thanks Peter for your answer. I’ll be sure to apply this advice going forward.

With that being said, from seeing the replies to my original question, would you mind expanding on your answer a little more? I’m sure many of the other commenters in this thread would appreciate some more clarity here.

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

#343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The standard for employment-based permanent residency (green card) is extraordinarily high. As in, would likely place you in the top 1-5% of the most successful people in the country. That, or you have to invest $800k and create 10 jobs. No other country in the world requires foreigners to be significantly more qualified than its own population. You can move to France with a regular paying job no problem or just a fe…

> You can move to France with a regular paying job no problem or just a few thousand euros in savings Unless something has changed dramatically in the last decade this is patently false. Getting an EU work permit was historically very hard with employers having to demonstrate that a position can't be filled by an EU citizen before a non-EU citizen candidate can be considered.

The difference in the US is that it's (comparably) extremely difficult to change status from a temporary visa to a permanent one. Even if you are highly qualified. For example the most common academic visa, the J1, is explicitly a temporary exchange program and you can't have immigrant intent (on application). Most universities won't give out academic H1Bs even though they're cap-free.

In most European countries, once you're in, you can find a way to stay. One exception I can think of is Switzerland, which can be pretty annoying for temporary visas because they don't count for time accrual.

Austria has a pretty good system (RWR) that lets you job seek and is a pathway to permanent residency as a 3rd country citizen. I think there are similar programs in France and Germany.

For example "very highly qualified" in Austria is satisfied by almost anyone with a STEM degree, being under 35 and (amazingly) being an English speaker. If you have that initial visa, companies can hire you without worrying about sponsorship.

You could also use that as a route to the Blue card I think. I wouldn't say the bar is exactly low, but a lot of mobile people are sufficiently educated and are paid enough. As in, a typical European STEM salary would cover it.

But also the grandparent's comment is out of touch. Of course countries want people who are more skilled than local labor, that's the whole point. Aside from the benefit of attracting talent and higher tax revenue, it's much harder for your voters to argue that immigrants are taking your jobs this way.

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

#344
Hallo Peter! Thanks for putting yourself out here.

You gotta look up another immigration attorney in the Valley, Rajat Kuver. He's a super cool guy and has for years done work on complex commercial and family immigration cases.

Good luck to all your endeavors and happy weekend.

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

#345
With widespread layoffs in the tech industry, it’s worth asking what role is immigration really playing in meeting labor market needs? Are there truly skill shortages in the U.S.?

Many argue that programs like H-1B are less about addressing talent gaps and more about cutting labor costs. What’s your take?

In its current form, does the program actually protect the interests of the domestic workforce? Is it filling a legitimate labor need that can’t be met internally - or is it primarily structured to benefit investors looking to inflate stock prices?

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

#346
post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think the TN is not a work visa? The US State Department website literally refers to it as "the TN visa", https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/employme... : > The nonimmigrant USMCA Professional (TN) visa allows eligible citizens of Canada and Mexico to work in the United States as USMCA professionals in prearranged professional level business activities for U.S. or foreign employers.

When I looked at working in America several years ago, many people I spoke to and people commenting about it on Reddit/HN/Blind emphasized that it's TN status, not TN visa. They even suggested that calling it a visa when trying to enter the US could get your application rejected. I'm not sure if things have changed since then but if so there's probably lots of people who heard that same advice in the past and haven't…

Visa and status are different things and exist simultaneously. A visa is used to cross the border, a status is what enables one to be in the country. Many people on H1B don't have a physical H1B visa either as they have "adjusted status" from some other status to H1B without leaving the country and hence cannot possibly have a visa, which can only be issued in a US consulate, which don't exist in the US per se.

Colloquially people refer to a status granted through a particular visa category as "visa" e.g. "I am studying on F-1 visa", "H-1B visa employees" etc.

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

#347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a friend who was asked to unlock her phone, and she did, and then… they did nothing. They watched her do it and moved on to the next question. Seems like asking someone to do this is just a good test to see the kind of individual they’re dealing with. It’s not practical to thoroughly search phones at scale and plus they know people can just have burner phones anyway. If you’re cagey and combative they know you’…

It's CBP It's not actually about any form of screening. It's a power trip. Only the dumbest criminal or terrorist would bring an incriminating device across the border and have any need to say "no" to that request. Which, stopping dumb criminals and terrorists is important and valuable and they do exist, but nobody applied to work for CBP in order to check the phones of dumb criminals. They applied because they have…

Still, if a dumb criminal or terrorist does slip past you, that just means you’re an even bigger idiot. So might as well ask people to unlock the phone.

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

#348

Thanks for doing the AMA! I'm a US citizen born abroad - I got my citizenship via (I believe) INA 320 when I was a child. I have a US-born father who was not eligible to pass on his citizenship at the time of my birth. I lived in the US for most of my childhood up until ~2015 (initially as an LPR), and at some point, I obtained a US passport. I don't have a certificate of citizenship, only a US passport. Given the wa…

Obvious question: does your passport expire before 2029 or not?

i.e. will you need to renew it under the current, or next, admin?

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

#349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Im a Canadian and go to the US for work fairly regularly. Something I didn’t realize is that the laws are different in preclearance areas. https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/P-19.32/FullText.ht... For example, you are allowed to withdraw your application to enter the US and leave the preclearance area. Additionally you are bound by different laws for search and siezure. At this point I am only going to the US t…

Can you be block-listed if you withdraw your application to enter?

The ESTA form explicitly includes "withdrawn your application for admission", as part of the refused admission question.

So it's basically the same, and you will have to apply for a proper visa.

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