31–40 of 62 posts
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How do you plan on starting a company here if you cannot live here permanently?
You don't need to be in America or a US citizen to start a US company. The company is essentially just an entity to 'hold' the business assets so you can easily sell them to another American company.
2. Start U.S. company
3. Find U.S. investors, notify them you won't be staying in the country for more than a few months
4. ??????
5. Profit
Further, even if you don't live in the US, your sites can target US users just as any US site can. If you need to charge money, you'll need to figure out a billing system to accept $, but there are few compelling reasons to be in the US merely to serve users there (though depending on how you do it, the IRS may think otherwise).
All that said, if you look at and learn from American businesses and you have a good feel for your local market (or the Arabic market in general), you might even have a position most of us would envy! You can more easily "take" ideas that have been proven in the West and do an Arabic twist on them (I don't know about the Arabic world, but this tactic is common in non English speaking European countries).
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I am not talking about immigration... I am talking about entering America. All Arab Muslims who apply for U.S. visa, fill a specific forms which created for Muslim Arabs from age 18 to 45 yrs. You did not apply for a U.S. visa, so of course you have no idea about it. :)
What form are you referring to? I've poked around the US Embassy Cairo site and I don't see any out of the ordinary requirements. Also, I sincerely doubt there are any forms that only have to be filled out by practitioners of a specific religion.
EDIT: See ICE's website for an official source: http://www.ice.gov/pi/specialregistration/index.htm and http://www.ice.gov/pi/specialregistration/archive.htm. The domestic registration procedures are on an archived page because they applied to people in the US prior to the effective date of the port-of-entry procedures.
The one thing that I absolutely will say is better in the United States than other places is funding. The idea of Venture Capital (and the sheer amount of investors) is found more here than anywhere else. A good network of capable engineers is nice but honestly you can find that in a lot of places.
To this day, the idea of starting a startup, getting funding, being an entrepreneur, and possibly failing is very American. To this day, the simple idea of "failing is okay" is more concentrated here. But other than that, you can be successful anywhere, really. The odds might be harder but not necessarily so much harder that it would be deemed impossible. Just my two cents.
Feel free to contact me, btw. I'd love to help any way I can. Email's in profile.
1) You don't need an 'American friend' to pay for hosting, all you need is a creditcard.
2) You'll need to properly setup a company. Given your circumstances, I would look at the free zones in the UAE. There you'll find the most business friendly places of the whole (Arab) Middle East. No corruption and bureaucracy there. Second, given the focus you put on being a young Muslim Arab, I'm sure you'll find your way in the UAE, just a short flight from Egypt.
You can find more info on UAE free zones at
http://www.dubaiinternetcity.com/ (the Dubai Free Zone for IT companies)
http://www.rakftz.com/ (the (cheaper) Free Zone of Ras al Khaimah (another emirate of the UAE).
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Vacation, sure, but for a work visa it's quite tough!
I am talking about entering America, regardless the purpose! It's kind of impossible for a young Arab Muslim to enter America.. or obtain any kind of U.S. visa (tourism, business, study)
I can tell you that we had Iranian nationals studying there. (Yes, I know, not Arab). It's certainly not impossible; other posters are right that the biggest barriers are cost, US immigration services' incompetence, and slow response time to applications.
Why do you have to move to America to develop a product that provides value to people everywhere, including Americans? Do that, and I'm pretty sure those American investors will find you.
This is exactly the question... would I have a chance to get a funding opportunity?
There are plenty of rich Arab Muslims around. Chase them for investment - ask them why they aren't funding Arab Muslim companies and are instead investing in News Corporation (eg http://www.kingdom.com.sa/en/MC_PR_NewsDetails.asp?p=3&I...).
Not only are they rich, but many of them are well connected, too.
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Well, couldn't you find Egyptian investors to fund you?
loool... this is something uncommon here in Egypt. :) In fact, internet usage stills low yet.
Such an interesting discussion for me. I'm Hany, an Egyptian American, currently living in the states and involved with technology. The one thing that I absolutely will say is better in the United States than other places is funding. The idea of Venture Capital (and the sheer amount of investors) is found more here than anywhere else. A good network of capable engineers is nice but honestly you can find that in a lot…
For example.. if I want to charge my users, it's very hard to do that, because PayPal is NOT available for Egyptians. Also it's NOT easy to setup an international merchant account, to accept payments on the internet.
There are very critical challenges, which makes it much harder to make any success... not to mention that it's impossible indeed to get funding opportunity in Egypt, as you know... we don't have this culture here yet..