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Ask HN: legally start a Bay Area startup without being American?

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Re: Ask HN: legally start a Bay Area startup without being American?

#11

Post by klein_waffle »

surfmike wrote: post #9
klein_waffle wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I don't know what you mean by "doing business" in SF. If you mean the LLC is technically founded in Canada and just happens to have an SF branch, maybe that would be fine. But, that seems legally dubious to me.

Why not just startup in Toronto? I'm actually a Bay Area boy who lives in Toronto; I came here to do his Master's at U. of Toronto. I've stayed ever since working for a startup, and my roommate is about to start a company with his fellow labmates as well. There is a great community of startups here, and lots of amazing talent from U. of Toronto and Waterloo.

Because I am from Montreal. Living in Vancouver is one thing, but going to Toronto means I'm a vendu. ;)

Re: Ask HN: legally start a Bay Area startup without being American?

#12

Post by ojbyrne »

petercooper wrote: post #4

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. As a Canadian you have some visa categories open to you that others do not. I don't know anything about those so cannot comment on them further. However, the US has the E-2 Treaty Investor visa for situations like this - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-2_visa and http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1273.html .. Canada is a treaty signatory. There's quite a lot to it, but es…

From my experience, this last paragraph is an accurate description. Any solution to the problem is going to require somewhere in the low to mid six digits to make it work.

Re: Ask HN: legally start a Bay Area startup without being American?

#13

Post by klein_waffle »

petercooper wrote: post #4

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. As a Canadian you have some visa categories open to you that others do not. I don't know anything about those so cannot comment on them further. However, the US has the E-2 Treaty Investor visa for situations like this - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-2_visa and http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1273.html .. Canada is a treaty signatory. There's quite a lot to it, but es…

As far as I know, the only benefits of being Canadian are the TN visas and a slightly faster route towards H1-B status. But both of those are for professionals working for some sponsoring company.

Re: Ask HN: legally start a Bay Area startup without being American?

#14

Post by mrtron »

surfmike wrote: post #9
klein_waffle wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I don't know what you mean by "doing business" in SF. If you mean the LLC is technically founded in Canada and just happens to have an SF branch, maybe that would be fine. But, that seems legally dubious to me.

Why not just startup in Toronto? I'm actually a Bay Area boy who lives in Toronto; I came here to do his Master's at U. of Toronto. I've stayed ever since working for a startup, and my roommate is about to start a company with his fellow labmates as well. There is a great community of startups here, and lots of amazing talent from U. of Toronto and Waterloo.

Also starting up in Toronto - give me a shout if you are interested in meeting up for coffee or something.

Re: Ask HN: legally start a Bay Area startup without being American?

#15

Post by kbhangui »

mrtron wrote: post #14
surfmike wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not just startup in Toronto? I'm actually a Bay Area boy who lives in Toronto; I came here to do his Master's at U. of Toronto. I've stayed ever since working for a startup, and my roommate is about to start a company with his fellow labmates as well. There is a great community of startups here, and lots of amazing talent from U. of Toronto and Waterloo.

Also starting up in Toronto - give me a shout if you are interested in meeting up for coffee or something.

Unsynced.com is also a startup in the Toronto/Waterloo area (we're 4 engineering students from U of Waterloo, but office is located in Toronto).

Re: Ask HN: legally start a Bay Area startup without being American?

#16

Post by alex_c »

comatose_kid wrote: post #10
surfmike wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not just startup in Toronto? I'm actually a Bay Area boy who lives in Toronto; I came here to do his Master's at U. of Toronto. I've stayed ever since working for a startup, and my roommate is about to start a company with his fellow labmates as well. There is a great community of startups here, and lots of amazing talent from U. of Toronto and Waterloo.

Care to point out a few examples - just genuinely curious. In 02 things seemed pretty dry - mostly finance or glorified IT gigs.

http://startupindex.ca/startups/
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