Working for US aerospace companies as a german national

[rklaehn]

Hi all,

I just saw on the spacex flight software thread that spacex has changed the legal boilerplate for their job offerings. It used to be "US citizen or permanent resident only". Now they have this:

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State

Can anybody translate this legalese for me? What's a protected individual? Could I apply for a job at spacex as a german national, or is there no point because I would not be allowed to work there anyway?

cheers,

Rüdiger

[Jorge]

Hi all,

I just saw on the spacex flight software thread that spacex has changed the legal boilerplate for their job offerings. It used to be "US citizen or permanent resident only". Now they have this:

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State

Can anybody translate this legalese for me? What's a protected individual? Could I apply for a job at spacex as a german national, or is there no point because I would not be allowed to work there anyway?

cheers,

Rüdiger

Searchable US code is here:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text

8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3) reads:

(3) “Protected individual” defined
As used in paragraph (1), the term “protected individual” means an individual who—
(A) is a citizen or national of the United States, or
(B) is an alien who is lawfully admitted for permanent residence, is granted the status of an alien lawfully admitted for temporary residence under section 1160 (a) or 1255a (a)(1) of this title, is admitted as a refugee under section 1157 of this title, or is granted asylum under section 1158 of this title; but does not include
(i) an alien who fails to apply for naturalization within six months of the date the alien first becomes eligible (by virtue of period of lawful permanent residence) to apply for naturalization or, if later, within six months after November 6, 1986, and
(ii) an alien who has applied on a timely basis, but has not been naturalized as a citizen within 2 years after the date of the application, unless the alien can establish that the alien is actively pursuing naturalization, except that time consumed in the Service’s processing the application shall not be counted toward the 2-year period.

As I read this, it's just a heavily-caveated way of saying "legal immigrant". A German national in Germany would not fall under this clause, but a German national with legal US immigration status (and all the caveats) would.

[mmeijeri]

There was a time the USG wasn't worried about employing German rocket scientists... 

[rklaehn]

As I read this, it's just a heavily-caveated way of saying "legal immigrant". A German national in Germany would not fall under this clause, but a German national with legal US immigration status (and all the caveats) would.

Thanks.

So as a german national working as a software engineer for a german aerospace company, I guess there is no point in applying.

The only way to get legal immigration status would be to apply for a non-aerospace job, work there for a few years to gain permanent residency, and then apply to an aerospace company (at which point they would probably not hire you anymore since you would no longer have recent aerospace experience).