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

183 points proberts | 2 comments | 17 Oct 24 16:01 UTC | HN request time: 0.511s | source

I'll be here for the few hours and then again at around 1 pm PST for another few hours. As usual, there are countless possible topics and I'll be guided by whatever you're concerned with. Please remember that I can't provide legal advice on specific cases for obvious liability reasons because I won't have access to all the facts. Please stick to a factual discussion in your questions and comments and I'll try to do the same in my answers. Thanks!

Previous threads we've done: https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=proberts.

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vicpara ◴[17 Oct 24 17:56 UTC] No.41871951[source]▶
Once I get the O1 visa, what paths are available to aim for a green card?

If the company with which I applied for O1 goes bankrupt what happens to my visa status?

replies(1): >>41872421 #
proberts ◴[17 Oct 24 18:37 UTC] No.41872421[source]▶
To be clear, green card paths are not helped or hurt or impacted in any way by the underlying status so your green card options are the same whether you're in O-1 status or not. That being said, because of the nature of the O-1, many of those in O-1 status go the EB1A extraordinary ability path or the EB2 national interest waiver path. An O-1, except in limited circumstances, is tied to a specific employer so if your O-1 employer went out of business, your O-1 would go away - but it's very easy to transfer an O-1 from one employer to another.
replies(1): >>41872800 #
1. souvlakee ◴[17 Oct 24 19:10 UTC] No.41872800[source]▶
That's not easy. Many employers aren't aware of this type of visa.
replies(1): >>41873140 #
2. Suppafly ◴[17 Oct 24 19:53 UTC] No.41873140[source]▶
>That's not easy. Many employers aren't aware of this type of visa.

I think a lot of the response are presupposing that the commenters are in the tech industry. If a company is already setup to deal with visas it's probably not a big deal, assuming the economy is still going well and companies are hiring. In another field where companies don't or barely deal with visas at all, it's probably really difficult.