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

Hi Peter,

Could you shed some light about what kind of profile could apply for (and get) an O1 visa? Specifically, if I have a tech company set up in the US that's pulling some decent revenue, is it worth applying for an O1? What other circumstances come into play against/in favor of this?

I've seen a lot of advisors and "influencers" all over the web saying that it's "easy". I don't think that's the case because nothing in US immigration is easy, unless your net worth is like 9 figures, maybe; but if it's not that far-fetched I may consider applying for one.

Alternatively, could one sponsor its own H1B visa? I guess the actual underlying question is: if I'm an entrepreneur with a real, solid company based in the US (but I'm not in the US and not a US citizen), what is the best way for me to move there and keep working at my company?

proberts · 2 years ago

I wouldn't characterize an O-1 as easy but it's often within reach of talented professionals, particularly founders. At the end of the day, the issue is less about the quality of the evidence - although that matters - and more about the existence of evidence that checks at least 3 boxes/criteria. And now, with the recent public announcements from the Administration, O-1 petitions with an AI component have an even greater chance of approval.

marymkearney · 2 years ago

Hi. I'm a colleague of Peter's who specializes in O-1 / EB-1A cases. I have a special interest in tech and engineering. Peter's nailed it here as usual. The key to "extraordinary ability" is to collect and present high-quality evidence, tailored to fit within the 8 rigid, archaic categories that qualify you for O-1 / EB-1A. That's much more important than being a "genius."

This sounds painful (and it can be), but it's also liberating. Knowing that USCIS is looking for exacting compliance with the checklist, means that you can give them lots of what they want: Exacting compliance with the checklist!

Based on the information you've given here, it sounds like you could be quite close to qualifying for an O-1. It's become a fairly standard route for non-US founders. It's a great option, much better than H-1B for almost all use cases.

abra0 · 2 years ago

Bonus question on O-1: what do you think are the easiest boxes to check for a talented professionals in AI? High salary and critical capacity for established organizations are a given, but what else?

moralestapia · 2 years ago

Thank you, I'll definitely give it a shot.

Swizec · 2 years ago

I have gotten two O1's and then the greencard version (EB2). It isn't easy in the "not a lot of work" sense, it's easy in the "not random" sense. If you put in the work (that also helps your career), tick off the required boxes, and present the evidence correctly, you will get the visa.

But yes an O1 takes a shitload of work.

marymkearney · 2 years ago

Hi, huge Swizec fan here. I've been following your extraordinary-ability story since 2016. It's an amazing, inspirational, funny saga about the work and perseverance required to get this done. Hope it's OK to share these here:

https://swizec.com/blog/how-i-got-a-visa-normally-reserved-f...

https://swizec.com/blog/sponsored-genius-visa/swizec/8612

https://swizec.com/blog/how-i-used-indie-hacking-to-sponsor-...

Congratulations to you, sir. This is how you do it. Thanks for sharing your epic journey! I'm glad it paid off.

upupupandaway · 2 years ago

Exactly the same situation here. Agree 100%.

dilyevsky · 2 years ago

I think gc equivalent for o-1 would be eb1. I got eb2 with just a masters degree

mingyeow · 2 years ago

How about a blockchain founder?

marymkearney · 2 years ago

Yes, certainly. Same requirements as other industries and occupations. And the same challenges: Fitting your 2023 accomplishments into the rigid required elements of the 1991 USCIS categories.

One especially helpful force multiplier here, would be to practice writing out a simple one-page description of your industry and your job. Like a little elevator pitch, that's easily grasped in a minute or two, by a time-pressed layperson USCIS examiner. You're basically explaining blockchain at a 9th-grade reading level.

This is hard! It can take a lot of iterations and analogies. But it adds a ton of value, when the examiner can grasp right up front what you do and why you're special.

When a USA citizen meets abroad and wants to marry a non-USA citizen, with the intention of the non-USA citizen pursuing permanent residence in the USA, does it have any effect on the process which country they get married in?

I've heard this and similar concerns from employees of multinationals who meet someone while at an overseas branch. They want to do what they can to avoid snags.

Firmwarrior · 2 years ago

I was in this boat back in 2017, and a lawyer working with my FAANG company advised me off the record that our best bet was to visit the USA, and suddenly have a surge of loving feelings and spontaneously get married in a tiny impromptu ceremony. Then apply for a change of status while in the USA.

I probably should have listened to her.. I did it the "right" way since I wanted to quit that job anyway. Got married abroad and filed an I-130. It took like 18 months to get it, it was nuts. I'm a native-born US citizen and my wife is from Japan, no criminal records or anything, and I was making 3-5x the national median household income this whole time, so it's not like there was anything tricky about our case.

I'd recommend you just talk to a lawyer. I hired a lawyer for our case, and it was about $3k total. It would've been entirely doable without the lawyer's help, but it was easier that way and I helped fund her charity work where she helps refugees and domestic abuse victims.

dxf · 2 years ago

No you did it the right way. I lived in Canada for 10 years, my partner is Canadian, and we debated what to do when we moved down from Canada to the US. We got an attorney to help advise us.

It is very much a problem if your partner is deemed to have entered the US under false pretenses. That is, if they enter the US on a tourist visa and then you get married and they apply for a change of status, immigration can look askance at your spouse -- "The original tourist visa was a lie, you always intended to get married and change status, they are now barred from the US for 10 years." It might be faster, but you don't want to run that risk, even if the probability of that happening is low.

BobaFloutist · 2 years ago

Yeah what you were recommended lets you kind of "jump the line" (for fiance visas, which take forever), and as long as you consult a lawyer and approach it sensibly it's pretty much risk free.

justinram11 · 2 years ago

Same thing in our case -- we didn't want to move to the US right away (wanted to spend ~6-9 more months in Taiwan anyway). It ended up being a 2 year slog through covid, was brutal.

Wish we would have had an overwhelming urge to get married when we were visiting my family in the states instead.

proberts · 2 years ago

It doesn't matter where they get married as long as the marriage is valid where it occurs and under U.S. law. The location of the process abroad is based on the non-U.S.-citizens's country of citizenship or country of residence. Regarding the specific process, whether in the U.S. through USCIS or abroad through the State Department/U.S. Consulate, definitely consult an immigration attorney to understand the timing, requirements, and risks.

zie · 2 years ago

A K-1, "Fiance Visa" I'm pretty sure requires the marriage to happen inside the US. At least that's how the immigration people explained it to us, and their website, while not saying it outright at least implies it:

> With your visa, you can apply for a single admission at a U.S. port-of-entry within the validity of the visa, which will be a maximum of 6 months from the date of issuance. You must marry your U.S. citizen fiancé(e) within 90 days of your entry into the United States.

Source: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrat...

zie · 2 years ago

Only if they pursue a Fiance Visa, which is(last I checked) usually the best way for the non-USA citizen to get their green card. A Fiance visa requires the marriage happen in the USA(after receiving the VISA).

biggc · 2 years ago

Recently, the K1 fiancé visa has been taking longer to process than an I-130 spouse sponsorship. I don’t have any hard numbers though.

jb12 · 2 years ago

Hi Peter! You did my E3 visa a while back. When I was standing in line at the US consulate in Sydney, the person in front of me was really nervous, visibly shaking. I saw that their papers had your letterhead, so I was able to calm them down a bit by showing them my papers, which also had your letterhead.

Thanks for all your hard work!

Quite a coincidence. Thanks for your help!

Dead Comment

CrunchyJams · 2 years ago

For anyone considering working with Peter, our firm has been a client for 10 years, have sponsored 5-10 green cards and 20+ visas. Peter has been amazing to work with and we've gotten emphatic thank you notes from people we recommended to him.

lemiant · 2 years ago

Worked with peter for 8 years from 3 founders to 300 employees. They are great

r-johnv · 2 years ago

Do you know the best way to contact Peter or his firm? Looking them up online I find broken links to the firm website.

I've been looking for an immigration attorney who specializes in EB1A for an early engineer in the startup founding team with a small number of publication (<30) but significant patent commercialization (2 granted patents >$2 million value). NIW is unfortunately not a good option due to the country backlog.

Peter's at a new firm: https://ogletree.com/people/peter-d-roberts/

Media announcement: https://ogletree.com/media-center/press-releases/2023-07-17/...

I'm a colleague of Peter's. I've sent him referrals. 100% agree he's awesome. He's now even awesomer with big-firm infrastructure backing him up.

araes · 2 years ago

Do the links to/at: [ http://www.robertsimmigration.com/contact.html ] not work?

Appears to list phone / fax / email for two offices, Connecticut and California.

thewinnie · 2 years ago

I'm a solo founder of software development company in USA. I've been doing everything on B1/B2 visa until goverment told me I spending too much time in USA and they cancelled my visa with recommendations to look for other options.

I tried to apply for E2 during covid and it took them almost 6 months to process my case but they declined it with a general reason that they don't see enough evidance to issue E2 for me at this moment but I can re-apply anytime if my situation change. (I applied by myself without any lawyer at all)

After consultations with different attorney I've been told that E2 is more for people who wants to invest but since I'm already established working business it might not be a good fit for me. And yeah they do recommend me to look on O1

1. Is it something interesting for you? Can I get paid consultation from you and maybe you'll help me?

2. Is it true that for existing established business with solo-founders E2 might be not a good fit?

Thank you in advance!

cromka · 2 years ago

Wait, you created a company in the USA while on B1/B2 visa and they voided your visa because you spent too much time, not because you opened and worked for your own company, something that is typically only possible with a permanent residency?

As someone who was very religious about his H1B in the past and had given up on a couple of simple passive income ideas only because I couldn’t incorporate, I feel a bit… naive.

Hi, if you have enough business track record to assemble an E2 package, then it's likely you'd be a good candidate for O-1 also.

1. I'd be happy to speak with you and go through your options. 2. That's not the most important factor; we do E-2s for existing businesses and solo founders all the time.

elevenoh4 · 2 years ago

What are the top items a solo software founder (of a treaty country) seeking e-2 might not have in their application/background or want in the outcome of an e-2?

efitz · 2 years ago

I have a lot of friends at work that have H1B visas. They try to get green cards but the process drags out often for more than a decade. Why is it so hard for people who want to be here, and who have well paying jobs, to get green cards?

8ytecoder · 2 years ago

There’s a limit on number of green cards per year. Then there’s a hard limit of 7% of that per country. There’s also a priority system with Family coming first. The combination of three results in a really long wait time for Indians without family (who are citizens) in the US moving on H1B. The current priority date is 2012 if I’m not wrong. It did progress faster during the pandemic but got quickly rolled back. Remember that those who come on H1B are already capped per year.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/v...

csomar · 2 years ago

It’s country based. I have family and it took them less than 6 months. For Indian and Chinese, they can forget about it.

toyg · 2 years ago

Surely you should ask that to your Congressman, not a lawyer...

fallingknife · 2 years ago

But if you are here on an H1B you don't actually have a congressman. The US citizens you are competing against do. And this is why the system works the way it does.

canucker2016 · 2 years ago

I recall hearing that the wait time for green card approval depends on the home country of the applicant. There were a lot of applicants from India when I talked with people who were getting a green card. So the wait for an Indian applicant was much longer than, say, an applicant from Canada.

Not sure what the wait times are now, but I doubt the USA has caught up on the Indian wait list, esp. during/after the pandemic.

hinoki · 2 years ago

It’s by country of birth. So that applicant with the long wait could be from Canada if they were born in India.

Because people with high paying jobs have political power as a class and it is in our interest to make importing foreign competition difficult.

People with low paying jobs do not have political power and are unable to set up legal protection for themselves.

maxFlow · 2 years ago

Hi Peter. Thanks for your AMAs, always a source of great value.

A couple of questions from me:

1. Which would you say are the top spececializations within tech that employers are most willing to sponsor visas for nowadays?

2. Would you say the willingness to sponsor tech professionals has lessened somewhat as of late? Given the economic climate, opportunities to hire remote globally, etc.

3. Are there any impactful immigration reforms we should keep a watchful eye for, vis a vis the 2024 US presidential election?

Thanks & all the best.

1. From my narrow/limited perspective, AI/ML engineers and technical product managers. 2. Again from my narrow/limited perspective, no, even with remote employment (because oftentimes those remote workers need to spend significant time in the U.S. and require work authorization). 3. I don't see any likely major changes. The action will come from executive orders and changes in the application/interpretation of law.

bubbleRefuge · 2 years ago

A company in California wants to push me out the door unfairly and I'm a remote employee in another state and want to fight it or get some just compensation, should I consult an attorney in California or my state. ? (edit: sorry just noticed this is regarding immigration law only )

Fin_Code · 2 years ago

Employment agreements are at will. Its highly unlikely you can fight this. You need agreement with your employer to continue.

snotrockets · 2 years ago

This isn't necessarily true: "at will" means a legitimate termination has no notice period. Employers are not allowed to fire employees for any reason, or to have an abusive employment environment.

OP: any employment lawyer could also advise you on jurisdiction.

paxys · 2 years ago

The laws of your state of residence will apply to you regardless of where the company is based.

wrp · 2 years ago