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

Hi Peter, thanks for doing this!

Using a throwaway here. I am an Indian citizen about to file for a marriage-based green card with my US citizen wife. I currently live in the US and we are a very vanilla case, in my opinion.

Have you encountered any new challenges over the past two years, owing to the current immigration climate? I see that the overall process is significantly longer than even just a couple of years ago.

No. The process is really the same and still pretty easy (when there are no issues like in your case), just slow.

Do I need to visit the US border day -of to get a TN-1 visa as a Canadian citizen? My immigration attorney in SF said I did but I’ve had other people tell me they got it ahead of time.

This sounded a bit crazy to me, I’d have to pack all of my stuff in my apartment and hope I get a T1 when I arrive at Pearson airport in Toronto? And if not I’ll have to find some place to stay.

Your attorney is mostly right. But we’ve had a number of clients apply at land-crossings, such as Peace Bridge, and explain that they’re just applying now to make sure that they can get a TN before actually moving to the U.S. and the CBP officers consistently have been fine with this. You still would need to enter the U.S., however. I would recommend calling Peace Bridge and asking. You should be able to get an answer.

Just wanted to vouch: Peter has helped me successfully obtain 3 complex visas over the years and has been equally successful getting visas for numerous friends.

Cannot recommend highly enough.

His advice has always proven solid as well.

Mr. Roberts, I appreciate your time.

My wife is a US citizen and I only have a US tourist visa. We want to move stateside. As her earnings for the last 3 years do not qualify her as a single sponsor, we wanted to use cash assets. How do we show proof of cash, and what are the stipulations? Is it a bank statement from my bank in my home country, do we have to deposit it in a bank in the US? Is there a time stipulation of how long the account has to be opened prior? I understand that my salary doesn’t count, although it would meet the requirements.

Your salary can be used to meet the financial support requirement (but definitely consult with an attorney before applying because there are other issues that you need to be aware of as well since you are here in visitor status).

Yes, that is the fastest way since there are no quotas but I’d also recommend looking at the EB1 category because even though it is significantly backed up for Indian nationals, it’s still a lot faster than the EB2 and EB3 categories and oftentimes within reach of talented professionals.

If I want to move to the Bay Area under my own money and not work while in the US, but instead build software while trying to fund raise money, am I allowed to do this under a B visa? If so which one?

There is an exception of sorts within the B -1 that allows those who will be applying for an E-2 investor visa to establish a business and seek investments for that business. There are limits however and gray where permissible preliminary steps become unauthorized employment.

Peter, I’m currently on H1B and my I – 140 was just approved this week. When can I technically change jobs and keep my priority date?

Is it true that my current company can withdraw the I – 140 petition within 6 months of approval and have you seen cases where it has happened?

Hi Peter,

I aim to apply for YC. I’m German. I have some questions regarding visas:

1 ) What kind of visa would I need for the three month program time? And how early in advance do I have to apply for it (ie do I have to apply before I know if I get accepted at all)?

2) What kind of visa would I need if I wanted to stay after the program (or if I don’t get accepted, to start the company in the US)? From what I read an O-1 visa might be the best option, is that correct (I submitted my PhD thesis and have relevant publications, but won’t get the official degree until mid next year)? How long in advance do I have to apply? Do I have to found the company first?

3) How much (approximately) will that cost?

Thanks!

Regarding 1), there is no one visa that applies to all but information will be provided about this during the process. Regarding 2), an O-1 is often the visa of choice for founders and most of those with PhDs (or near completion of their PhD) can make a good case for O-1. An E-2 also can be a good option. Regarding 3), please email me and I can give you the range that attorneys charge for O-1s.

Let’s say I’m living in Canada and am employed by the Canadian subsidiary of an american startup, and I fly down for a week to have some meetings meet up with co-workers for some face time.

Saying I’m heading down “for meetings, no productive work” seems to be a fast route for a B-1 visa from the customs agent I meet at the airport.

If I actually want to do “productive work” while i’m down there, what’s the best way to do that, ideally without needing to pay US taxes on earnings?

I can’t comment on the tax aspect but even if just for a day, you would need work authorization and the TN still is pretty easy for Canadians to get.

Friend who is a Singapore national is trying to figure out if he can do an online bachelors at Capella University in the US, specifically the Bachelor of Science in Information Technology have it be used to get an H1B or H1B1.

The sticking point is that he plans to complete it in a year- (he knows how to program and its a self paced program) will it satisfy USCIS requirements which say a foreign national must complete 4 years of post secondary study – is it specifically the years that matter or is it fine that its a 4 year degree done more quickly?

It’s the course credits that matter. He should make sure that the school is an accredited institution of higher education of course but I’d also have him run this degree program by an education evaluation service.

Thanks so much for the reply!

Just a brief followup- whats the reason for the education eval service? For context the school is US based, accredited, online and for-profit.

I’m not sure the issues people have with this school but there is also a fully accredited online / self paced school at Western Governors University, just so you know.

Capella University has a very low reputation / is for profit. My understanding is it is no better than ITT or University of Phoenix, which have a very bad and infamous reputation in the United States.

I asked you this once before (and thank you kindly for the reply) – has there been any recent tightening around TN that you’ve noticed? Has anything changed in the process in the past few months as the new frameworks still isn’t adopted?

Actually, in my experience, the TN process seems to have settled down again and we really haven’t had many issues in a while.

Is it possible to do business from a corporation registered in the USA when I am living in another country (in my case the UK)?

Hi Peter, thanks for doing this AMA!

Do you have any insights on whether getting an L1-A got more difficult with the current administration, and if / how the kind of documents / evidence needed for it changed recently?

I ‘ m asking because I just got my L1-A renewal rejected (after having it successfully renewed 2 years ago), on the grounds of insufficient proof of my position being managerial. My I – 94 expired and I don’t have another visa, so I had to leave the US – and it’s awful for my startup! Timing couldn’t be worse.

I ‘m applying for a new L1-A, so any insights on my question above, or any advice on how to maximize my chance of getting it as quickly as possible, would be super welcome!

I had an L1-B extension request inside the US and they came back with a request for more information. Honestly it looked like they were about to refuse my visa extension. I told the immigration lawyers that I’d be back in London over Christmas and they changed their tune. Applying through London, albeit with an L1 company blanket doc, took all of 30 minutes starting with review of the application and finishing with an interview where the person interviewing me obviously knew very little about my industry.

There appear to be wide discrepancies within the system that can be arbitraged.

Non-blanket L-1s are just really tough and probably the “best” example of irrational and unfair decision-making by USCIS. In short, extensive documentation of the structure / organization of the U.S. and foreign companies and of the employees managed and to be managed needs to be provided along with DETAILED descriptions of current and future managerial job duties. But L-1s are just tough and were tough even under the prior administration.

Thanks a lot for advice! How does L1-As compare with L1-Bs or O-1s on terms of being tough? Those two are my other options I’m considering.

An L-1A – if you can show management of people now and in the US – is much easier than an L-1B – unless the L-1B involves advanced scientific research and development.

Can you point us to official U.S. policy that leads to differentiated outcomes of immigration processing speed between nationalities?

Hi Peter, is it possible for someone on OPT STEM extension to be self employed either by forming a company or operating as an independent contractor?

Sort of. You should check with your school because in the end, it’s really the school and not the government that makes this determination. But there’s really no self-employment under STEM OPT. If the employment is through your own company, then there needs to be a structure in place where you are supervised by someone and don’t control your own employment.

Canadian citizen, working and living full time in USA on TN visa – is it permitted to concurrently do remote freelance for companies in my country of citizenship (Canada) while living in US?

US immigration law has still not come to terms with remote / digital employment so there is some gray here but the short answer is no.

Curious what you think (though given your profession I expect a somewhat biased response) – is there really a skills shortage in the US or do you think companies are trying to get cheaper workers?

The skills we’re missing could be easily trained for. People would happily do the training for free even if it lasted months (say through online portals that were self paced) just for achanceat getting a job / a guaranteed in-person interview at least.

There is a skills shortage again yes, but it is remarkably easy to remediate a significant portion of it, particularly in an industry with such profits.

I think though also Peter Thiel is right in his criticisms of colleges. They have dropped the ball significantly, especially compared to India’a colleges, which almost overnight rapidly shifted to an IT / Healthcare focus in the 1980 ‘s.

In my experience, I really do see a shortage of skilled workers and incredible competition for these workers.

Those are all good points and I’m not an expert in hiring. I just know that our clients – which is a narrow view of course – are simply looking to hire the best person for the job, regardless of immigration issues, and sometimes the best or just available person is a foreign national.

We are planning to hire someone on h1b with priority date for green card as 12 / 22 / 2009. Do you think this person should be able to get green card with next 2-3 years? Thanks for taking the question.

I’ve heard that being successful in an O-1 visa application can be very location dependent. So you can be better off applying somewhere far away, rather than a convenient office.

Is this something your office sees much of?

I really don’t see that. All the service centers have their issues and quirks but we’re still able to get approvals with all of them and taking largely the same approach with all of them.

Not sure if you can answer this. My priority date is Feb 2011 for EB3 India. The current date of filing for (is April) . How long might it take to become Feb 2011.