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

Hacker News Discussion ↗

An immigration attorney fielded questions from tech workers, founders, students, and families on navigating U.S. visas and green cards amid a new, more restrictive administration. Key themes include practical routes for employment-based moves (H‑1B, O‑1, L‑1, TN, E‑3), marriage and family petitions, and how to extend status or buy time after job loss, alongside concerns about travel bans, Russian and Iranian applicants, asylum cases, and attempts to limit birthright citizenship. Participants also debated the economic impact of programs like H‑1B and the risks of policy shifts for Canadians, DACA recipients, TPS holders, and others already in the system.

Overall themes

  • Thread centers on practical U.S. immigration strategy (especially for tech) and how a new administration might change things.
  • Many questions are case-specific; the attorney repeatedly urges individual consultations due to complexity and fact‑dependence.

Work visas & green card paths

  • Common work routes: H‑1B, L‑1, O‑1, TN (for Canadians/Mexicans), E‑3 (Australians), E‑2 (investors), plus EB‑1/EB‑2/EB‑3 green cards and EB‑5 investment.
  • O‑1 is highlighted as an underused but realistic option for strong tech workers and founders; criteria are often easier in practice than they look on paper.
  • L‑1 is favored by many large companies due to no lottery and strong employer control, but is harder to get for non‑“blanket L” employers and ties the worker closely to that employer.
  • TN is quick and cheap, but not dual‑intent and can be affected by policy changes; some fear tighter adjudication or process changes.
  • E‑3 is non‑immigrant but can be a bridge to a green card if immigrant intent wasn’t present at entry.

Timelines & backlogs

  • Employment-based green card backlogs (EB‑1/2/3), especially for India and China, are driven by statute and demand, not easily changed by the executive.
  • Marriage-based green cards have been relatively fast under waived interviews, but may slow if interviews return.
  • Premium processing on EB‑1A is widely used despite anecdotal claims it increases RFEs; no solid data supports that.

New administration impacts

  • Expected early moves focus on enforcement: travel bans (possibly reviving/expanding prior country lists), asylum restrictions, and programs like Uniting for Ukraine potentially being curtailed.
  • Concern that TN and some consular processes may become stricter; Canadians particularly worried about losing easy renewals at the border.
  • Some fear new rules around trans passports and LGBTQ applicants; details still unclear.

Birthright citizenship debate

  • Executive order attempting to limit jus soli sparks extensive legal debate.
  • One side: text, history, and precedent (Wong Kim Ark) make change “extremely unlikely.”
  • Other side: points to 14th Amendment wording, Slaughter‑House dicta, and modern politics to argue a non‑frivolous chance of reinterpretation.
  • Multiple commenters stress practical absurdities of treating U.S.-born children of non‑citizens as outside U.S. “jurisdiction.”

Economics & ethics of H‑1B

  • Disagreement over whether H‑1B suppresses wages or fills real shortages.
  • Critics emphasize abuse by outsourcing firms, weak domestic hiring practices, and constrained worker mobility.
  • Defenders note higher U.S. salaries vs. Europe and argue the U.S. must tap global talent (5% of world population) to stay competitive.

Status maintenance & fallback strategies

  • Common advice: use spousal status changes (e.g., H‑1B to H‑4), reentry permits, Day 1 CPT (if genuinely academic), NIW/EB‑1A self‑petitions, and careful planning around layoffs and grace periods.
  • Many edge cases (DACA, TPS, asylum, prior Iran/Russia travel) face heightened uncertainty under new policies and consular delays.