Hacker News: USMCAThrowAway

New comment by USMCAThrowAway in "I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA"

USMCAThrowAway — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 20:32:32 +0000

I disagree for the reasons the first reply mentioned. Backlogging every country by 10+ years is effectively shutting down the US immigration system. The backlog will never be cleared.

New comment by USMCAThrowAway in "I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA"

USMCAThrowAway — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 05:38:57 +0000

Exactly. Unauthorized work is also forgiven.

New comment by USMCAThrowAway in "I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA"

USMCAThrowAway — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 05:37:24 +0000

> What’s happening here is that these people were here on tourist visas or completely illegally. Then at some point they married a U.S. citizen and filed a PERM application.

There's no PERM process in family based adjustment of status. You're confusing FB AOS with EB AOS.

New comment by USMCAThrowAway in "I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA"

USMCAThrowAway — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 00:57:49 +0000

It should be done in tandem with GC recapture or possibly a single one off Bill to clear backlogged applicants.

New comment by USMCAThrowAway in "I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA"

USMCAThrowAway — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 00:49:49 +0000

Thank you.

New comment by USMCAThrowAway in "I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA"

USMCAThrowAway — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 22:41:29 +0000

Not Peter but would like to spur discussion on positive changes that could be made.

- Paper-free overhaul of the entire immigration system.

- Green Card recapture [0].

- Country of Birth caps abolished for Green Cards. Impossible to justify this as it doesn't serve the intended purpose since AC21 was passed.

- EAD/AP premium processing - so many livelihoods ruined and immigration journeys derailed because people can't get work authorization or cannot travel.

- TD holders granted working rights incident of status same as L2S.

Now for the not-so-popular suggestions...

- Diversity Lottery - there's bipartisan support to cancel the program and it's really hard to justify bringing almost 55k with a min of high school education into the country.

- Removal of F2B, F3, F4 family based categories to move inline with other developed nations immigration systems such as Canada [1].

[0] - https://www.fwd.us/news/green-card-recapture

[1] - https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/se...

New comment by USMCAThrowAway in "I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA"

USMCAThrowAway — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 22:02:02 +0000

Those targeted in this article are spouses of US citizens that had entered the US on ESTA and allowed that status to lapse whilst awaiting their AOS.

That was tolerated previously.

It does appear that these arrests have stopped since the NYT article was written.

New comment by USMCAThrowAway in "I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA"

USMCAThrowAway — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 20:30:35 +0000

I've asked this question in a few places but never gotten an answer.

A TN visa/status holder that applies for a EB Green Card by filing form I-485 is considered to have shown immigrant intent and will no longer be granted TN status in the future.

Is this bar permanent or would an applicant who failed to obtain a Green Card or surrendered it in the future be able to seek TN visa/status provided they could prove strong links to Mexico/Canada?