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YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

blog.ycombinator.com

331–340 of 851 posts

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Texan it boggled my mind to hear people complain about immigration. Walk into UT, A&M, UH engineering departments, half the students are Chinese or Russian or Indian. In the grad programs it's even more. That means their best talent is here , paying US taxes, contributing to US companies, making the US more powerful, all the while contributing almost nothing to their home countries. How is that a bad thing! I do…

You might want to take a step outside the academic setting every once in a while. Chat with a cop, ambulance driver, or immigration officer from a sanctuary city if you really want to "get" it. It's the illegal immigrants that suck the system dry, not the smart, diligent, legitimate ones working in academia and top companies.

Well the recent passed executive rules are about "legal immigrants" not the un-documented immigrants. That yet to come, "officially".

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having spent a few years in KW, I have a feeling it might be difficult to convince people to move there.

How long ago? I've been here 12 years (first school, now work), and it's changed a lot, almost all for the better. There's a decent arts/music scene, a dozen good restaurants, affordable housing, lots of new construction, light rail coming online next year.

Not much to do in Waterloo. It's good if you're introverted and just want to game/do projects/self-improvement after work, though. Which isn't that bad thinking about it.

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#333

It's oddly ominous reading about America's rise on the back of textile patents taken from England and Europe, then poaching of German physics talent and scientific talent from across the world. Germany was, by far, the pre-eminent power in theoretical physics at the turn of the 20th century, with Einstein, Heisenberg, Planck & Born about to be at the peak of their powers. Then the country decided to turn on intellect…

So the US poached Einstein from Germany?

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Who is having trouble getting a Visa exactly? Just curious, trying to separate fact from hysteria Anyone, even US citizens, who does not want ICE/CBP snooping on his/her IT equipment, cellphones or social media accounts. Certainly I (born German/Croatian, living in Germany) might be able to land myself a nice shiny job in the US IT industry but no way I'm ever crossing your border as long as such outrageous privacy…

Are these practices unusual?

Randomly grabbing people at border entry and dumping their whole device contents? Or demanding their Facebook passwords? Yes, this is unusual.

But, I have to admit, Germany is planning something similar in even more sinister form: our government plans to buy forensic imagers for all immigration officers... to mirror and scan phones of applying refugees, to determine if they really come from where they claim. Of course, you won't get much resistance from refugees, much less from the general public... but who knows, in two years this "test balloon" can easily be extended to every immigrant.

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#335
post #76
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the US's new shiny fascist regime keeps progressing at this pace...the best thing countries like China could do right now is heavily fund things such as foreign PhD students. Wait, so you're saying everyone is leaving fascist USA, but China will be the beneficiary of that?

Perhaps, if funding to research is cut in the US via Trump policies (or even remains small as is currently the case) and China jumps on this opportunity to snatch the world's best talent, the question for brilliant young students will be China, a fascist regime where you are funded, or the US, a slightly less fascist regime where you are not funded and face hate crime, discrimination, and constant threats to your abi…

This is fear-mongering. The Trump administration has said nothing to indicate it will seek to cut research funding, and much to suggest that it seeks to increase it (e.g. a Mars program).

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#336

It's oddly ominous reading about America's rise on the back of textile patents taken from England and Europe, then poaching of German physics talent and scientific talent from across the world. Germany was, by far, the pre-eminent power in theoretical physics at the turn of the 20th century, with Einstein, Heisenberg, Planck & Born about to be at the peak of their powers. Then the country decided to turn on intellect…

As a Texan it boggled my mind to hear people complain about immigration. Walk into UT, A&M, UH engineering departments, half the students are Chinese or Russian or Indian. In the grad programs it's even more. That means their best talent is here , paying US taxes, contributing to US companies, making the US more powerful, all the while contributing almost nothing to their home countries. How is that a bad thing! I do…

Well it is a bad thing if you are an American student and have to compete with cheaper foreign students (Universities recruit foreign students because they pay more money). There are winners and losers in immigration.

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might want to take a step outside the academic setting every once in a while. Chat with a cop, ambulance driver, or immigration officer from a sanctuary city if you really want to "get" it. It's the illegal immigrants that suck the system dry, not the smart, diligent, legitimate ones working in academia and top companies.

It's the illegal immigrants that suck the system dry, not the smart, diligent, legitimate ones working in academia and top companies. That sounds like a grossly inaccurate generalization to me. A lot of "illegal immigrants" are an absolutely essential part of the economy, performing jobs like picking oranges in the Florida heat/humidity, doing roofing work, washing dishes, etc. Interview farmers in the south and ask…

> And a system that can be "sucked dry" has a design flaw which should be rectified anyway.

This is politics not engineering. Flaws are part of the design. Every flaw is designed to appease one group or another. Restricting access on any arbitrary basis would lead to calls of racism, xenophobia, class warfare, etc.

> Interview farmers in the south and ask them how many American born workers are willing to even take many farm jobs.

Working hard is not the issue. Working in the heat is not the issue. Plenty of American citizens do that. The issue is of pay. Southern farmers can not afford to pay above minimum wage which is why they sometimes resort to hiring illegal immigrants or prisoners.

Why can't they pay more than minimum? Because they're competing against border states, like California, who have: illegal immigrants working below minimum wage, large economies with well developed public infrastructure, and the greater take of federal and state subsidies.

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#338

It's oddly ominous reading about America's rise on the back of textile patents taken from England and Europe, then poaching of German physics talent and scientific talent from across the world. Germany was, by far, the pre-eminent power in theoretical physics at the turn of the 20th century, with Einstein, Heisenberg, Planck & Born about to be at the peak of their powers. Then the country decided to turn on intellect…

Source for this textile patent claim? I want to read more on it :)

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#339
post #64
post #51

That's cool. Good for folks in that situation. What about people with families or dependents that can't afford to uproot their life and relocate to SV? Don't get me wrong, this is great, but it would be even better if it expanded to include additional circumstances.

Very interesting considering the post even discusses participating remotely. Politically incorrect theory: enabling people with families just isn't as sexy as helping immigrant founders.

Other theory: having a family is a choice. Being of X nationality is not.

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#340
post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USA is a vast place, actually composed of a diverse collection of communities. Thanks to Federalism, there is still some diversity within the states, and even local communities can be quite different. Consider 4 cities: Fergeson MO, Santa Monica CA, Chicago IL, Las Vegas NV. CA is currently considering universal healthcare, like HI has. It has also stated firm resistance to Trump's policies. NV has no state incom…

We're actually in Bend, Oregon right now and pretty happy. I'm ... pretty nervous about how things might go, though.

Consider that Trump actually can't do much. The Executive branch has the most visible power is at border crossings, particularly at airports. It's the fundamental power of group leadership (ownership?): "Who's in, and who's out." Trump is intoxicated on the prospect of wielding that power.

"How things might go". Hmm. There are three ways things could go rotten. Some all or none could happen: a) Muslim registration, internment, expulsion, b) "Trump resistance" is redefined as "treason" and the NSA and FBI given full reign to detect, disrupt, and prosecute individuals based on digital evidence (or no evidence), c) new war, or multiple wars, started purely because it's one of Trump's biggest powers as Commander-in-Chief (although it shouldn't be, since Congress is supposed to be the only part of government that can declare war).

What disgusts (and frankly, surprises) me is the number of Americans who would shrug (or cheer) at all of these outcomes.

Sorry, I was going to argue that you're better off staying, and fighting, but anyone of good conscience has got to start thinking of themselves as Jews in Germany in 1936. Your conscience won't let you shut up, and your talk will get you in trouble. New Zealand is nice.

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