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Unshackled is the name of a book and its accompanying online community. On here, you’ll find articles on everything from building your profile for an O-1A visa to starting a company on your H-1B. Want to get such resources directly in your Inbox? Join 7000 immigrants who hear from us every Wednesday.
Here's some big news on the Unshackled launch event happening on July 22nd in Silicon Valley: the venue of the launch will be the Plug & Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale, CA. We visited the venue and it is beautiful! Imagine a banquet-style seating with tables and chairs along with a main stage where the event will take place. This way, you get to intimately connect with others at your table, while also soaking in the expansiveness of the venue.
Our tier 1 early passes are closed now. We've opened tier 2 passes for $109 available until June 24th. Hope to see you at the launch!
Before we jump into the newsletter, I want to welcome 120 new subscribers to our newsletter since last week. Welcome, folks! And thanks to you if you forwarded this to a dear friend. 🙏
You're receiving this email as part of the Unshackled weekly newsletter. Immigration is a complex world. So every Wednesday, I try to simplify that by sharing top stories, curated resources, & fun tweets from the internet that matter to you. I also sprinkle it with updates on my upcoming book, Unshackled, at the end. If you find value reading it, forward this to a lucky friend. If this was forwarded to you, get your own here! Read all the past editions here. 💃
This week's TL;DR
- Starting a company on an H-1B: all you need to know
- Visa Bulletin for July 2023
- Free Webinar on K-1 fiance visa (June 14, 10:00 AM PST)
📌 UNfold: Top stories
Visa Bulletin for July 2023So, the July visa bulletin came out! And… there’s very little change for EB-1 and EB-2. The cut-off dates for India remain the same for EB-1 (Feb 1, 2022) and EB-2 (Jan 1, 2011) categories. The same is true for China. Further, EB-1 remains current for all the other countries. But as expected last month, the EB-3 (Jan 01, 2009) for Indians has seen a crazy retrogression of 3.5 years.USCIS Implements Premium Processing for Change of Status to F, M, & J VisasGood news! USCIS has rolled out premium processing for immigrants who want to switch to F, M, or J status. This means faster processing times for your Form I-539 application if you choose to pay a premium fee of $1750.Tech giants lobbying U.S. govt for more H-1B workersAmazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft are urging the U.S. government to increase the number of H-1B workers allowed in the country. But, the same companies also laid off tens of thousands of employees recently, leading to concerns that they might be using the H-1B as a backdoor to bring in cheaper workers.
🎁 UNlock: Relevant resources
Starting a company on H-1B: What you need to knowStarting this week, I'll be publishing excerpts from my book, Unshackled, around key topics. To begin with, here's an article on the steps you need to know to start a company on your H-1B.5 ways to start your company on a visaWhile the U.S. does not have a startup visa, it shouldn't stop you from pursuing your entrepreneurial dreams. In this post, I share 5 ways you can still start a business, including the O-1 visa, IEP program, H-1B, H-4 EAD, and L-1 visa![Free Webinar] K-1 Fiance Visa: Everything You Need to Know (June 14, 10:00 AM PST)Are you or your partner thinking about the K-1 fiance visa? Join this free webinar to get all the deets!💡 None of the information shared in this newsletter is meant to be legal advice. If you're looking for legal advice, speak to a lawyer, or hit reply and let me know so I can connect you with one.
🪄 UNveil: This week’s sponsor
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👉 Want to sponsor an upcoming newsletter? Just hit reply to start a conversation.
📕 What's the latest on Unshackled?
Hiring alert!Yes, that's right. I'm hiring for two roles right now: a full-time content writer and a full-time community manager, both based out of India.
- Full-time Community Manager: You will be in charge of maintaining and building the Unshackled online community. We've got a growing community of ~150 immigrants which I hope to scale to 1000+ over the next year. You'll work with me closely on everything from conducting weekly events to building a resource hub to onboarding partners.
- Full-time Content Writer: You will be in charge of owning the weekly newsletter, website articles, as well as working with me on social media! If you have a flair for writing and want to dive deep into the world of immigration to help tens of thousands of people, this is for you.
I'm specifically looking to hire folks from India since we can't compete with market rates in the U.S. right now, and both roles can be remote.If you're interested or know someone who is, hit reply and pitch your profile to me. What's your background? How are you qualified? And, why are you interested? :)...Hey, by the way, if you haven't yet, be the 924th person to pre-order the book below. 👇
And, if you enjoyed reading this email, forward it to one friend. It helps more than you know. Plus, now you get rewarded for it!Until next week, stay awesome.Yours truly,Soundarya 💚