From: iang@cs.berkeley.edu (Ian Goldberg)
Date: Fri, 5 Apr 1996 15:41:16 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: [NOISE] Employers need pseudonymous off-shore remailers
In-Reply-To: <v02120d4ead7e45b17945@[192.0.2.1]>
Message-ID: <4k1nfk$4rt@abraham.cs.berkeley.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


In article <v02120d4ead7e45b17945@[192.0.2.1]>,
Lucky Green <shamrock@netcom.com> wrote:
>Today, I tried to find out what it takes to hire someone who is in the US
>on a student visa (F-1) as a consultant or part-time employee. The person
>is an expert in his field. I don't know anyone available with a similar
>proven track record.
>
>I thought, no problem, there are INS exceptions for foreign experts. So I
>set on a quest to find out what it takes to get the INS to grant that
>person a work permit.
>
>The process is simple. All I have to do is ask the California Employment
>Development Department for a labor certificate, give that to the INS
>together with an application and the required fees, after which they'll
>issue the permit.
>
>Getting the certificate takes usually eight months, processing the
>application about four months. So the whole process takes about *a year*. I
>was stunned. Here I am willing to hire someone to work on a product that
>will generate taxes in the US, and the bureaucrats are asking me to wait a
>year. These people have lost any touch with reality.
>
>Not that *I* would do such a thing, but an off-shore pseudonymous remailer,
>with payment in ecash might go a long way...
>
>[Disclaimer: Speaking only for myself, not for my employer]
>
Having recently been involved in a similar situation :-), I found that
the following trick seems to work:  have someone you know start a consulting
company in another country (like Canada (yes, Canada is another country)).
It seems an F-1 student (like me (for now; I'm trying to switch to J-1))
is allowed to work for a foreign company (as if the US government could prevent
a foreign company from hiring a foreign citizen (well, it could try...
(these nested parens are getting out of hand...))).  So just contract work
out to a foreign consulting company, which subcontracts work out to
the F-1 student.

   - Ian