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

blog.ycombinator.com

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

#371

Post by jimmyk »

trcollinson wrote: post #365
jimmyk wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>These will all be true regardless of the immigrants status and background. Are you seriously suggesting that immigrants of all backgrounds are equally likely to be beneficial to this country?

I did not make that statement at all. The part you quoted references an implication that if you ask cops, ambulance drivers, and immigration officers about immigrants they will talk about immigrants in the light of what they see. I'll be very clear. Immigrants and non-immigrants are not equally beneficial to the country. No one is equally beneficial to the country.

The statement you responded to implies that cops and so on will speak negatively about illegal immigrants but will not speak negatively about (certain types of) legal immigrants.

That doesn't mean none of those types of legal immigrants cause problems for those people, it means they don't cause enough problems to draw the ire of those people.

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

#372

Post by sremani »

vineetch wrote: post #345
sremani wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

H1B is currently randomized lottery, benefiting sweatshops cluttering the pipeline, Current administration is not eliminating it but at least from their talk its about restoring their original intent, to bring in extra-ordinary talent. Which might actually be good news for SV, depending on how it is implemented?

Google, Microsoft, Netflix & Facebook benefit directly from H1B visas and are most certainly not "sweatshops". Even when you consider companies that pay less than the top tech companies, no one would consider them sweatshops. So hyperbole aside, and keeping in mind that H1B also brings academic talent to universities, the hate towards the H1B program seems more rooted in a hate of immigration than a worry of the prog…

I will be upfront, this argument is bogus.

#1. Academia and non-profits do get H1-Bs that are cap exempt

#2. There are people who got jobs in FB et al. who did not win lotteries and went home.

#3. A significant portion of the 85K are people working for "sweatshops", there are enough charts out there

So, yes, its actually a good thing to return to the original intent of extra-ordinary talent.

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

#373

Post by guelo »

immigraway wrote: post #335
wfo wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Trump's early budget proposal includes huge cuts to research budgets at NOAA, NASA, EPA, US Geological Survey, Interior Department and the Department of Energy.

There's a reason scientists are freaking out and are planning a march on washington https://www.marchforscience.com/

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

#374

Post by trcollinson »

throw_away_777 wrote: post #350
trcollinson wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make an interesting appeal. I am not sure what you are trying to prove by saying that the poster will "get" it if they just talk to cops, ambulance drivers, and immigration officers. I would assume that you are trying to say they will find that immigrants commit crime (the original poster is speaking to a cop), they get hurt more often (the original poster is speaking to an ambulance driver), and they, now I am r…

US citizens pay taxes, contribute to US companies and make the US more powerful. US citizens also contribute a higher percentage of their income to local communities than immigrants do. It is a myth that their is an infinite supply of jobs, and that supply/demand somehow doesn't apply to immigration. You aren't really making an argument either.

Economically speaking everyone pays taxes. Also economically speaking no one pays taxes equally. I would love to see actual statics that show that immigrants do not contribute to local economies at a rate similar to others in a community at a similar pay bracket.

As for supply and demand. I believe the supply and demand of the job market as a whole is exactly what is causing immigration. I believe those market forces will continue to pull in immigration, legally or not. Market forces have a hard time understanding law.

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

#375

Post by pizzetta »

nostrademons wrote: post #271
pizzetta wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don' think the situation is as dire as people think. Europe exported many technical people during the war years and one would be hard pressed to say they are backwards because they lost talent. Japan as well is not very friendly to labor migrants and they are at the forefront of science in technology despite their small population size relative to other geographies.

It did, however, dramatically help the U.S. We got the atom bomb, moon landings, computer, and many other inventions out of European immigrants who fled the Nazis. The U.S. had a strong science program before the war, but its superpower status afterwards was just as much because we got all the brightest minds in Europe as because we bombed everyone else into rubble. I could see Australia, New Zealand, or Canada simil…

It's interesting you bring up warmongering when it looks like some in the opposition party are concerned about the US receding from interventionism and seeking more effort from the other NATO countries. That the US is becoming more isolationist --which would seem to contradict the US becoming more interventionist.

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

#376

Post by arihant »

nonane wrote: post #230
arihant wrote: post #218

If ease of attracting international founders is a concern, my recommendation would be Dubai. Unbelievable facilities which are turn key in their own business hub, a tax free environment to incorporate in, if it goes there. Foreigners can own property, which just makes sense for a future hub. One of the easiest tourist visas to obtain for vast majority of nationalities, with cheap flights. Near EU, other Asian countri…

What about the internet there? Isn't it censored and relatively slow and expensive? VPNs are legally banned (1). Last I checked, FaceTime + WhatsApp audio were completely blocked in Dubai. Skype was blocked when on mobile data (but available on PC-to-PC). 1 - http://gulfnews.com/news/uae/crime/using-vpns-what-uae-resid...

Those restrictions do not apply in the business district, AFAIK. There is a lot of encapsulation that Dubai provides international businesses from their local restrictions.

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

#377

Post by tn13 »

degenerate wrote: post #286
komali2 wrote: post #253

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.

> It's the illegal immigrants that suck the system dry, not the smart, diligent, legitimate ones working in academia and top companies.

Vast majority of illegal immigrants perhaps just keep their head low and work hard. Also, they barely get anything from welfare and work below minimum wages. It is probably the criminal aspect that is sucking the system and good solution for that is to decriminalise drugs and help American companies sell drugs for a profit instead relying on Mexican cartels.

I have never understood why Mexican citizens cant get a 30 day to 1 years temporary below-minimum wage job permit

> not the smart, diligent, legitimate ones working in academia and top companies.

I know founders who had employed 10+ American being rejected visa and sometimes entry for no good reason. I have seen cops, CBP officials and other government departments harassing these individuals all the time.

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

#378

Post by joeguilmette »

A friend of mine runs a large, well known webdev agency in India and is attending a conference in Arizona in April. His friend was planning to come as well - he owns a US based business, has a US bank account, pays US taxes, has purchased airfare, hotel, and conference tickets.

He was denied a US visa because "attending a conference is not a good enough reason".

My friend with the agency who has a visa is concerned he won't get thru immigration. He was planning on expanding to the US, but is has shelved those plans.

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

#379

Post by kibwen »

immigraway wrote: post #328
EternalData wrote: post #237

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…

Current changes proposed to US immigration policy would cost the country a small number of high-skilled individuals from the Middle East (a few thousand) and a large supply of agricultural workers from Latin America (~10 million). It's a small impact on the overall competitiveness of the US, hardly equivalent to the Nazi brain-drain.

I (U.S. citizen) personally know highly-skilled software engineers who emigrated to the U.S. from Anglosphere countries to work at U.S. companies, who have since resigned and gone back to their home countries explicitly because of Trump's election. These aren't Middle-Easterners or illegal immigrants, these are white people for whom a $200k salary wasn't enough to convince them to endure a rising tide of nationalism. Skilled foreign workers are already selecting themselves out of our economy, regardless of country of origin. Not equivalent to the Nazi brain drain, though in an amusing twist I also know one American software engineer who has moved to Germany to ride out Trump.

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

#380

Post by vinay427 »

ng12 wrote: post #351
mindcrime wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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 This is what kind of gets me though. Supporting illegal immigration is supporting indentured servitude. I've especially noticed it in NYC, it boils down to "I'll support your right to stay here as long as I can still find a $6 burri…

That's not entirely fair. If the immigrant feels that they have a better life as a low-wage worker in the US (keep in mind many are escaping violent or oppressive surroundings) then I won't be the judge of that by imposing artificial limits on livelihood. We can at least acknowledge that we are improving the lives of those immigrants for whom this is the case.
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