EC Future of Work – Page 11 – Product Management Confabulation

November 3, 2021

Dear Sophie: Options for founder moving on from E-2 visa

Sophie Alcorn Contributor

Sophie Alcorn is the founder of Alcorn Immigration Law in Silicon Valley and 2019 Global Law Experts Awards’ “Law Firm of the Year in California for Entrepreneur Immigration Services.” She connects people with the businesses and opportunities that expand their lives.

More posts by this contributor

Here’s another edition of “Dear Sophie,” the advice column that answers immigration-related questions about working at technology companies.

“Your questions are vital to the spread of knowledge that allows people all over the world to rise above borders and pursue their dreams,” says Sophie Alcorn, a Silicon Valley immigration attorney. “Whether you’re in people ops, a founder or seeking a job in Silicon Valley, I would love to answer your questions in my next column.”

TechCrunch+ members receive access to weekly “Dear Sophie” columns; use promo code ALCORN to purchase a one- or two-year subscription for 50% off.

Dear Sophie,

I am a founder of a startup on an E-2 visa. I am in the process of raising funds, which will eventually reduce my ownership of the company and prevent me from meeting the E-2 requirements. What can I consider next that would also allow my spouse to continue working?

— Fintech Founder

Dear Fintech,

Great question! As you know, the E-2 visa for treaty investors, essential employees and spouses requires that at least half of the U.S. business is owned by people or companies from your country of citizenship. (There are more requirements, but those are the basics!).

I recently shared updates about some immigration changes on my podcast that affect some of the options that may be open to you, such as the International Entrepreneur Parole program and green cards. For additional options that meet your goals and any timing issues you have, I recommend that you consult an immigration attorney.

Image Credits: Joanna Buniak / Sophie Alcorn (opens in a new window)

Visa alternatives

Most founders would initially consider applying for an O-1A for extraordinary ability or an H-1B for specialty occupations, but usually dependent O-3 and H-4 spouses are not immediately eligible to obtain work authorization.

Many startup founders, particularly those who have secured funding from investors, qualify for the O-1A, which is one of the quickest work visas to obtain and has some of the most stringent requirements. However, spouses are not eligible to apply for a work permit merely based on O-3 status.

Alternatively, if your equity is diluting, you might actually be better poised for an H-1B. This option can be made more predictable through an alternative to the H-1B random lottery in the spring if you pursue a cap-exempt H-1B with a nonprofit or other qualified organization and possible concurrent employment. How does it work? Having one cap-exempt H-1B means you don’t have to go through the H-1B lottery process. Next, your startup could concurrently sponsor you for an H-1B, avoiding the lottery process as well. However, your spouse would not be eligible to apply for an H-4 work permit until you reach certain milestones in the green card process.

If you’re currently in the U.S. in E-2 status, you might consider filing for a Change of Status with USCIS. Premium processing is available for both the O-1A and H-1B petitions. With premium processing, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) guarantees it will expedite its decision within 15 business days. A decision means either approval, a request for more evidence or a denial. Seeking a change of status is not the same as applying through a consulate abroad for a single- or multiple-entry visa in your passport.

International Entrepreneur Parole

If you established your company within the past 18 months, raised at least $264,147 in funding from a U.S. investor or investors (or $105,659 in government awards or grants) and maintain at least 10% equity in your startup, then you might qualify for International Entrepreneur Parole (IEP). IEP allows you and your family to stay in the U.S. for up to 30 months — and your spouse is eligible to obtain a work permit.

I’m celebrating a victory — I recently helped advocate to make IEP better for founders, and as a result, one of the IEP program’s largest challenges was recently removed. Although IEP allows for an initial stay in the U.S. of up to 30 months, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers, who have the final say on whether you and your family are granted IEP and for how long when you physically enter the country, were only authorizing entry in 12-month increments.

That was putting a burden on families, because it meant you and your family would have to exit and reenter the U.S. again in 12 months. That also meant that an IEP spouse’s work permit was only valid for a few months given the backlog in processing applications and the fact that the work permit is only valid for as long as the IEP stay is valid.

I’m happy to report that this situation has changed for the better! I’m part of a group that is offering feedback to the government on how to make the IEP program more efficient and effective. We recently received confirmation that CBP now has the capacity to approve an initial stay in the U.S. for the full 30 months (not just 12 months at a time).

For more details on how to get IEP, take a look at this previous Dear Sophie column on that topic, or for context, you can listen to my podcast episodes on the “Parole Entry Process.”

Green card options

Except for perhaps the green card through marriage, green cards take much longer to obtain than a work visa. Most employment-based green cards, such as the EB-1A green card for individuals with extraordinary ability and the EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) green card for individuals with exceptional ability, take a couple of years or potentially longer if you were born in India or China and you don’t have a priority date yet.

If you were born in China or India, you face waiting several years for a green card number to become available under the EB-2 NIW category. Processing for the EB-1A is the quickest of the two, particularly since this category is current for all countries according to the November Visa Bulletin.

The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV Program) offers another green card option, but it could take up to two years to get a green card if you’re selected in the annual DV Program lottery. The registration period for the fiscal year 2023 lottery is currently open through November 9, 2021, at 12:00 p.m. EST.

Each year, the U.S. Department of State, which oversees the DV program, reserves 50,000 green cards for individuals born in countries that have low rates of immigration to the United States. The State Department publishes instructions each year, which includes the countries whose natives are eligible to register for the annual diversity lottery. Here is the latest version.

Be aware that as of October 1, 2021, all green card candidates must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before their immigration medical examination.

One benefit of pursuing a green card is your spouse’s work authorization. If you’re currently in the U.S. and able to get to the stage of filing an I-485, the adjustment of status application, you and your spouse can also each file a work permit application, which would allow your spouse to work for an employer or be self-employed in the U.S. Many founders on E-2, for example from Europe, choose to self-petition an EB-2 NIW green card and concurrently file adjustment of status applications for the whole family.

Wishing you the best on whatever path you choose to take!

— Sophie

Have a question for Sophie? Ask it here. We reserve the right to edit your submission for clarity and/or space.

The information provided in “Dear Sophie” is general information and not legal advice. For more information on the limitations of “Dear Sophie,” please view our full disclaimer. You can contact Sophie directly at Alcorn Immigration Law.

Sophie’s podcast, Immigration Law for Tech Startups, is available on all major platforms. If you’d like to be a guest, she’s accepting applications!

October 27, 2021

Dear Sophie: Any advice for living my dreams in Silicon Valley?

Sophie Alcorn Contributor

More posts by this contributor

Here’s another edition of “Dear Sophie,” the advice column that answers immigration-related questions about working at technology companies.

TechCrunch+ members receive access to weekly “Dear Sophie” columns; use promo code ALCORN to purchase a one- or two-year subscription for 50% off.

Dear Sophie,

After trying to find an H-1B job to immigrate to the United States for several years, I took a senior software engineer position with a company in Canada.

My dream is to immigrate to Silicon Valley to start my own venture. Any advice?

— Eager Entrepreneur

Dear Eager,

Thanks for sharing your experience. In honor of National Immigrants Day, I paid homage in my podcast to the immigrants who come to the United States to pursue their dreams and help shape so many of the things I appreciate about our country. Research consistently shows that immigrants — particularly immigrant entrepreneurs like you, through your fortitude, grit and determination — create ventures that lead to innovation, job creation and economic growth in the United States.

According to a 2020 report by the New American Economy, 44% of Fortune 500 companies, which includes both public and private entities, were founded by immigrants or their children. Together, those companies generated $6.2 trillion in revenue in the fiscal year 2020, which is greater than the GDP of many countries, including Japan, Germany and the U.K.

Although U.S. immigration policy does not make it easy for people to come to the United States to live the life of their dreams, it’s still possible. As you may know, most U.S. work visas and statuses require an employer, which could be your own startup.

As always, I recommend that you consult an immigration attorney who can help you structure a personalized immigration strategy based on your specific goals surrounding your vision and ideal timeline. Below are some options to consider with your immigration counsel.

Image Credits: Joanna Buniak / Sophie Alcorn (opens in a new window)

L-1 visa for intracompany transferees

The L-1 visa is for individuals who are transferring to the U.S. from a company abroad. If you continue to work for your current employer in Canada for at least one year and your employer is willing to sponsor you, your employer could transfer you to its office or operation in the United States, or you can set up an office for your employer either on an L-1A visa for intracompany managers and executives or an L-1B visa for intracompany specialized knowledge workers.

October 23, 2021

Employees are designing the workplace of the future

Anamarie Huerta Franc Contributor

Anamarie Huerta Franc is managing director of SAP Labs in the U.S., responsible for leading cross-company collaboration, location strategy, communications and employee engagement for development employees across the country.

Why do we go to the office?

This is not a rhetorical question. Do we go to be around other people and work collaboratively? Do we go because it’s a dedicated location that allows us to focus on our work in a unique way? Do we go because we believe it’s necessary to be “seen”? Do we go because we’re just supposed to, because it’s what we’ve always done?

At SAP, it’s important not only that we find answers to these questions, but that our employees play a role in answering them — and in building the hybrid workplace of the future.

Just this summer, we rolled out a brand-new, hybrid work pilot program at our offices in Palo Alto. For months, we’ve been testing different floor plans and setups, a variety of work schedules, the most productive uses of space and the ideal structure and composition of meetings. We’ve also been providing manager and leadership training, enablement and more that’s suited for this new world.

So, what have we learned? And how can you apply some of the lessons to your business?

Getting to work: What our employees had to say

Early employee feedback — from before and during the early stages of the pilot program — showed that demand existed for a high-utilization, high-energy workspace. We just had to find a way to build it so that people could use it not just when they needed to, but when they wanted to. So, what factors would make people want to come into the office?

Our research found four main factors:

Peer-to-peer learning — Our employees are passionate about building out their network, and many cited peer-to-peer learning as an opportunity to quickly advance their careers and learn how SAP builds and innovates on its products.

While the majority of our onboarding, training and learning opportunities are still held virtually, we are now exploring hybrid options to give employees the opportunity to meet with each other in-person if they prefer.

Collaboration — If COVID permits, many people crave in-person interaction, according to our research. Video calls may be functional, but nothing matches the ability to sit across the table and brainstorm, learn and grow together.

Collaboration has been a major driving force for the employees participating in the hybrid work pilot program. We see a wide variety of our employees whiteboarding and sharing screens to solve complex problems together. The key is ensuring that they’re in a space equipped with high-quality video and audio equipment so that team members who are physically present and remote can be equally engaged.

Community building — All-hands meetings, Q&A sessions and other team-building events just hit differently when you’re all in the same physical space. Many employees we surveyed mentioned semiregular get-togethers as clear benefits of being in the office.

We’ve only just started experimenting with hosting employee events in our physical offices again, and they look much different than they did before — smaller, outdoors and with COVID precautions in place. Before our first event, we asked ourselves: Will employees want to come? The answer was, overwhelmingly, yes.

We opened a sign-up for an employee meeting and within minutes, registration was full, with double the amount on a waiting list. The energy the day of the meeting was palpable, and the feedback from employees was very positive — they were thrilled to be together again.

Intention — Many people told us that they simply miss their office routine. For some, having the ability to get dressed in the morning, drive to work and sit at a desk with team members offers an unmatched productivity and focus boost.

Not all employees come to the office for teamwork and community. Some simply prefer to separate their personal and professional spaces and are looking for individual quiet areas where they find themselves most productive. Open collaboration spaces are essential in the office, but so too are quiet zones and phone booths.

One way we’ve tried to put these attributes into action is via scrum neighborhoods in our physical offices. The environments are designed with 15 to 20 available desks, set in beautiful and creatively liberating office spaces built to empower collaboration and teamwork. We’ve even built a mobile app to help achieve high utilization of the space. Teams can use the app to coordinate when they come to the office together, and book spaces and phone rooms.

Simultaneously, we’ve worked with our leaders to better enable them to manage in our new reality, avoiding bias and molding the traditional manager-employee relationship into a more human and empathetic one.

Early lessons from the pilot program

This is only the beginning. Though the pilot program itself is well underway, we will not stop studying and testing the best ways to promote and optimize hybrid work for our employees going into the future.

We found that 80% of our employees want a mix of home and office work in the future. We also discovered that 80% intend to live in relatively close proximity to an office.

Still, many are uncomfortable returning at this particular moment. For those who have come into the office during the pilot program, though, many have specifically cited the peace and tranquility of an office working environment, the productivity of in-person meetings and amenities (like free coffee, snacks and lunch) as notable benefits. In addition, our leaders and managers feel better prepared to lead and manage in this environment, based on the communities of practice we have fostered with them.

With “normal” likely never to fully return, we must remain committed to continuous experimentation and introspection to determine what works and what doesn’t. Because the hybrid work model can’t just be successful in theory; it has to be successful in practice.

For instance, we’ve realized that many employees grew accustomed to being able to dramatically shift their working hours in the last year — whether working early in the morning or late at night to accommodate home and family life — and that eliminating a commute and an office has been a great adjustment for some on our team. Conversely, there are some previously in-person initiatives that still need to be rethought in order to improve overall execution and reach — and to make the employee experience more inclusive, regardless of location.

The questions we must ask ourselves are clear. Now, we just have to find our way to the answers.

What’s next? Using the “why” to find the “how”

At the same time, 2020 managed to hit pause and fast-forward on our work realities, a contradiction many of us are still learning to manage and operate within. We hope the lessons of our hybrid work pilot program can help inform the future of the office and productivity in this context, along with enabling our employees and leaders to navigate these changes. Moving into 2022, our pilot program findings will help inform our global flex work policies, giving regions around the world a baseline to determine what works best for them.

There is no better time to think through the answers than right now. So join us. Turn your “why” into a “how” and empower your employees to build the workplace of the future.

October 20, 2021

Dear Sophie: Any suggestions for recruiting international tech talent?

Sophie Alcorn Contributor

More posts by this contributor

Here’s another edition of “Dear Sophie,” the advice column that answers immigration-related questions about working at technology companies.

TechCrunch+ members receive access to weekly “Dear Sophie” columns; use promo code ALCORN to purchase a one- or two-year subscription for 50% off.

Dear Sophie,

My co-founders and I have an early-stage startup. We’re having a really tough time recruiting engineering talent, but we’re open to hiring internationally.

Any suggestions on strategies and how to help our company stand out?

— Flourishing Founder

Dear Flourishing,

Thanks for reaching out! I recently invited Beth Scheer, head of talent at Homebrew Ventures, for a chat on my podcast. Scheer serves as an adviser to startup founders and executive teams on all things under the talent umbrella. She sees her job as “teaching founders to fish.” She shared her insights on recruiting talent, the importance of diversity and inclusion, and compensation:

“One of the things I say in my first meeting with, let’s say two co-founders,” Scheer said, “is until you raise your [Series] A, you will spend about 40% of your time on recruiting. And they’ll look at me and say, ‘Oh, that’s not so bad, that’s 20% each.’ And I say, ‘No, no, no, that’s 40% each person.’ And that’s when they realize how hard it is, and that’s always been the case no matter what type of [hiring] market. People underestimate how hard it is. And right now, in this market, it’s a lot harder.”

As you’ve discovered, competition, particularly for engineering talent, is extremely intense right now, with job candidates firmly in the driver’s seat. According to an analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy, there were more than 1.2 million unique active job vacancy postings in computer occupations in the United States as of September 6, 2021, up 15% from six months earlier.

Image Credits: Joanna Buniak / Sophie Alcorn (opens in a new window)

Moreover, Scheer said the startups she works with are finding that nearly every candidate they make an offer to already has at least three other offers. That means you have to be strategic and deliberate on everything from clearly articulating your value proposition and mission statement to the makeup of your team to the benefits and compensation packages you offer.

As early as possible, early-stage companies need to be intentional about diversity, inclusion and equity whether the company has two male founders or two female founders.

October 20, 2021

4 ways to make DEI a key component of customer service and culture

Joyce Lee Contributor

As Alorica’s chief culture officer, Joyce Lee oversees the development and execution of programs, activities and events that keep 100,000+ employees engaged and inspired.

Truly effective customer service is rooted in empathy, because it’s people who reach other people, and customers crave that kind of authenticity in their interactions with brands.

A customer service representative sets the tone for how a customer will perceive and engage with the company going forward. The more diverse your people are, the more they can relate to a diverse customer base.

Companies that not only embrace — but champion — grassroots diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are typically well positioned to deliver outstanding customer and employee experiences at every level and touch point. In order to do so, businesses must first focus on creating and preserving a happy, safe and healthy company culture that stems from nurturing a diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce.

Companies that deliver the best customer experiences tap into empathy powered by the human element.

When working to fine-tune company culture, start from the bottom up. Don’t first dictate what the company’s culture will be and then create programs or initiatives around it. Instead, connect with employees from diverse backgrounds with varied perspectives and priorities to learn what they think and what differences they want to make in the workplace and in their communities.

From there, create the support, forums and opportunities for them to put forward solutions. But remember, program leaders should be careful to not assume or try to educate the masses, as social matters are localized by community.

Outlined below are four key ways to help diversity, equity and inclusion take root as core elements of your company’s culture:

Start with an inclusive onboarding process

Regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, appearance or ability, customer service teams must be provided with the training and tools needed for their own success. Not every representative’s onboarding experience should look or feel the same. Accordingly, you should design programs that take into account individual learning styles, physical accommodations and cultural considerations.

Navigate each training experience so they are flexible and nimble to widen the talent pool as well as minimize stressors associated with onboarding. For example, deploy microlearning tactics where millennial and Gen Z employees can learn in short and visual video clips rather than through traditional manuals or lecture formats. Or provide screen readers for employees who are visually impaired and noise-cancelling headphones for those with hearing challenges.

Also set clear intentions on the front end to welcome and absorb employee feedback throughout their tenure. This could include regularly scheduled check-ins with each customer service rep at every phase — day 1, 30, 60, 90, etc. — alongside a “confidence meter” to gauge how they’re feeling about their progress.

October 15, 2021

How our startup boosted productivity with ‘get s*** done’ day

Ivan Baidin Contributor

Ivan Baidin is head of Travelpayouts, a global integrated affiliate program focused exclusively on travel offers.

During the pandemic, we realized that we were swamped with work and overloaded with information. So we came up with an idea to fix that.

At Travelpayouts, we plan a strategy for a year, then each team plans iterations for every quarter, and within a quarter, we plan for two weeks ahead. By doing it this way, every day propels the company towards its goals.

However, unexpected challenges and tasks show up in all areas on a daily basis. For example, managers are sometimes overloaded with meetings that affect their productivity. So it is not surprising that some tasks just fall short of deadlines and accumulate over time.

To improve our productivity, we introduced a Getting Shit Done Day (GSDD): Our employees define clear-cut goals and receive specific, usually non-trivial, tasks with little to no communication involved (we encourage our employees to avoid social media on this day, but we are not looking over their shoulder). The goal of GSDD is to increase the amount of time we spend in deep work by minimizing distractions for one day every other week.

After two months of testing the GSDD in our marketing and business development departments, we’ve seen some results. First, long-term projects, which took weeks before, began to wrap up earlier. Second, we were able to explore a few topics that we never got around to: For example, monetizing our own traffic through affiliate programs, effective outreach methods, and email marketing best practices.

Thanks to the GSDD, we have also delved into tasks that were otherwise sidelined:

October 13, 2021

Dear Sophie: Marriage-based green card versus EB-1C green card?

Here’s another edition of “Dear Sophie,” the advice column that answers immigration-related questions about working at technology companies.

Extra Crunch members receive access to weekly “Dear Sophie” columns; use promo code ALCORN to purchase a one- or two-year subscription for 50% off.

Dear Sophie,

My fiancé and I got engaged early this year. We’re planning a wedding for later in the year when my family can travel to the U.S. from Estonia, where I’m originally from. I’ve been living and working in the U.S. for almost two years on an L-1A visa.

My company is sponsoring me for an EB-1C green card, but the process has been slow. I’m thinking about getting a green card through my spouse when we’re married.

Is there anything in particular that I should keep in mind? Also, would it be a problem if I keep my maiden name after my fiancé and I get married?

— Fantastic Fiancée

Dear Fantastic,

Congratulations on your engagement!

My law partner, Anita Koumriqian, and I recently chatted about how our first clients as new immigration lawyers were in the process of obtaining marriage-based green cards, and the joy that supporting couples brings us! On our podcast, we also talked about the K-1 Fiancé(e) Visa. Take a listen!

I can understand why you may be considering alternative green card options since one of the requirements of the EB-1C green card for multinational transferee executives and managers is you must have been employed with your multinational company outside of the U.S. for at least one of the last three years and there’s no premium processing yet. Since this particular category is company-specific, it can make changing companies challenging.

As always, I recommend consulting an immigration attorney who can discuss your options based on your particular situation and goals, as well as help you through the marriage-based green card process and accompany you and your husband to the green card interview if you decide to take that route.

Image Credits: Joanna Buniak / Sophie Alcorn (opens in a new window)

Can I keep my maiden name?

Yes, you can keep your maiden name! This should have no impact on your prospects for a green card through marriage. The key to a marriage-based green card is demonstrating that you married for love, not a green card — a “bona fide” marriage in legal terms. You will have to demonstrate that your marriage is in good faith and that you’re braiding your lives together.

The immigration officer evaluating your case will look for evidence such as photos from your wedding, a lease agreement or a mortgage loan signed by both of you, your 401(k) plans that list each other as the beneficiary, a joint bank account that’s frequently used to pay for household expenses, automobile or homeowners insurance policies listing both of your names, photographs and other possible evidence of your good faith marriage.

October 12, 2021

How my company is winning the war for engineering talent

Konstantin Richter Contributor

Konstantin Richter is the founder and CEO of Blockdaemon, an independent blockchain infrastructure platform.

The engineering talent war is real. It has been for some time — but with a pandemic that pushed businesses in all industries to focus on e-commerce and virtual products and services, demand for skilled engineers skyrocketed.

In June, more than 365,000 tech jobs in the U.S. were vacant, with software developers, IT support specialists, systems engineers and architects among the most coveted workers by employers.

Yet, we are hiring 10 to 15 engineers a month, far above the industry average. What’s our secret?

First, it’s important to acknowledge that engineers — and most knowledge workers — have choice and bargaining power in today’s job market. An employer needs to not only respect that but take it as an opportunity to create a more attractive workplace — and remain agile long after the hiring tides change.

You can’t overlook the elephant in the room — money talks. Today, you can’t just offer the standard “competitive salary” — you must do better.

Overall, we have learned that It is much harder to hire top-tier talent than it is to generate revenue. This is one of our guiding principles, and we remind our team of that all the time. It’s incumbent upon everyone in the company to focus their energies on helping us find — and retain — great people. With this commitment in place, we know the rest will take care of itself.

Granted, we are fortunate that cryptocurrency and blockchain have a certain cachet and come with unique engineering needs that will keep the most ambitious engineers challenged and rewarded in their day-to-day work. However, we still had to make concerted efforts to appeal to today’s in-demand engineers. Here are a few ways we are winning the war for engineering talent.

Have a strong cash position

You can’t overlook the elephant in the room — money talks. Today, you can’t just offer the standard “competitive salary” — you must do better. We make sure our offers stand out and are hard to turn down. This approach is driven by our strong cash position (yes, we recognize our good fortune).

Ultimately, innovation is our lifeblood, so everything we do is measured with quality and speed before considering cost.

Review salaries at least every six months

We don’t review salaries annually; the industry is too fast-paced and competitive for that antiquated approach. At least every six months, we review salary bands across the organization relative to employee performance and market trends and adjust employee compensation on a more flexible, ad-hoc basis.

This helps build a meritocratic and less bureaucratic culture and ensures our team reaps the benefits commensurate with their work product.

September 22, 2021

Dear Sophie: What’s the difference between IEP and the latest proposed startup visa?

Sophie Alcorn Contributor

More posts by this contributor

Here’s another edition of “Dear Sophie,” the advice column that answers immigration-related questions about working at technology companies.

Extra Crunch members receive access to weekly “Dear Sophie” columns; use promo code ALCORN to purchase a one- or two-year subscription for 50% off.

Dear Sophie,

What’s the difference between International Entrepreneur Parole and the latest proposed startup visa?

Do you think the startup visa will become a reality? If so, when?

— Financial Founder

Dear Financial,

Thank you for your questions! As you likely know, U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) recently introduced the Let Immigrants Kickstart Employment (LIKE) Act, which creates both a startup visa and a startup green card.

Jeff Farrah, general counsel of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), recently discussed the LIKE Act with me on my podcast. The NVCA is working on building support for the LIKE Act on Capitol Hill. However, Congress is currently focusing on the budget reconciliation and infrastructure bills, which means the LIKE Act is taking a back seat to those bills for now — and the timing of the LIKE Act remains uncertain.

How to support the LIKE Act

Farrah says there are things that we can do to support the LIKE Act to become a law and create an official startup visa in the United States. If you live or work in Lofgren’s district, which covers much of Silicon Valley, write her a letter thanking her for introducing the LIKE Act and share your story.

If you live or work in the U.S. outside of Lofgren’s district, write a letter to your congressional representatives, share your story, and let them know why a startup visa and path to a green card for founders is important. (Remember, do not claim to be a U.S. citizen if you aren’t since that could get you permanently barred from the United States!)

You can also ask your friends — immigrants and U.S. citizens alike — to write letters to their representatives in Congress. And if you have friends living abroad who want to come to the U.S. to start their venture, they could write to the congressional representative of the district where they are hoping to create their business and jobs in the U.S.

Now, let’s examine the differences between the proposed LIKE Act and our current new program for startup founders.

Image Credits: Joanna Buniak / Sophie Alcorn (opens in a new window)

International Entrepreneur Parole versus LIKE Act

Like a non-immigrant visa, the International Entrepreneur Parole (IEP) allows its holder to stay temporarily in the United States. However, IEP is not a visa, so the process in which it is given and extended is different from visas.

September 8, 2021

Dear Sophie: When can I apply for my US work permit?

Sophie Alcorn Contributor

More posts by this contributor

Here’s another edition of “Dear Sophie,” the advice column that answers immigration-related questions about working at technology companies.

Extra Crunch members receive access to weekly “Dear Sophie” columns; use promo code ALCORN to purchase a one- or two-year subscription for 50% off.

Dear Sophie,

My husband just accepted a job in Silicon Valley. His new employer will be sponsoring him for an E-3 visa.

I would like to continue working after we move to the United States. I understand I can get a work permit with the E-3 visa for spouses.

How soon can I apply for my U.S. work permit?

— Adaptive Aussie

Dear Adaptive,

Thanks for your question and congrats on the new employment opportunities for both you and your husband! Listen to my podcast episode on work permits, or Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) as they are officially known, to find out who qualifies for one, when you can apply for one, what you can do with one and how long it takes to get one.

You can apply for a work permit once you arrive in the United States in E-3 status (a professional work visa for Australians in the U.S.). It’s not possible to apply for a work permit at the consulate in Sydney when you apply for your E-3 visas. To do that, you will need to submit Form I-765 (Application for Employment Authorization) and supporting documents to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). If USCIS approves your application, you will not be able to start working until you receive the physical, plastic EAD card, which proves to prospective employers that you are authorized to work in the United States.

Image Credits: Joanna Buniak / Sophie Alcorn (opens in a new window)

How long will it take?

USCIS is currently backlogged and is taking about 11 months to process EAD applications. Since any mistakes or omissions in an EAD application can create further delays, I recommend hiring an immigration attorney to submit the application on your behalf. An immigration attorney can also discuss other options that could enable you to start working sooner.