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Ask HN: I feel my dream slipping away

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Re: Ask HN: I feel my dream slipping away

#11
I spent three years waiting for a Green Card while working at a boring job in a big company. It is very frustrating.

My only piece of advice would be to look for ways to hack the Green Card process. While it looks completely unhackable on the surface, there were a couple of times dring my application where we managed to find influential contacts who sped things up by as much as six months. If the immigration lawyer your company is using isn't doing everything possible to make your application go quickly, find a lawyer of your own to review the paperwork and see if anything more can be done.

Good luck!

Re: Ask HN: I feel my dream slipping away

#13
Focus as much time as you can on the start up over the next two years and try to get it profitable but most importantly keep the job.

If you hold on for two years, you will end up with a solid start up, a green card and in addition to your salary you'll have another revenue stream.

That's a very nice way to enter your thirties.

Hang in there!

Re: Ask HN: I feel my dream slipping away

#14
Marry an American, get citizenship, then go found your startup. And never, ever think you're too old.

Your situation sounds a lot like my dad's. He came here after college, finished his Ph.D in the U.S, then got screwed over in every industrial position he took. The immigration situation sucks in this country. You need a company to sponsor you, but the company realizes that you have zero leverage as a foreigner, and treats you accordingly. He was paid less than native-born citizens, missed out on all the scientific conferences given abroad because he couldn't leave the country easily for visa reasons, and found that promotions and accolades went to his American colleagues that knew how to work the system, rather than the people who did the best technical work.

He ended up getting his citizenship when he married my mother, a few years past 30. But in a sense it was too late for him by then: he was so bitter about the way he was treated in industry that it poisoned all his future ventures. It did mean that my sister and I grew up as native-born U.S. citizens, though, with all the cultural capital that comes with that.

My advice for now: forget about the startup. Instead, concentrate on learning as much about American culture as possible. Go out with coworkers after work. Start cultivating your own social life - invite friends to go do stuff with you. Date some American girls. Listen to pop music. Someone said throw away the TV set - I'd actually disagree with that, I think you should watch more TV, but don't just veg out. Instead, listen carefully to what shows the people around you are into, and then watch them so you have something to talk about with them.

This'll all be useful if you ever found a startup in the future, but more to the point, it's essential if you really plan on staying here permanently. My dad never fully assimilated into American culture, which meant that my sister and I had to pick up a lot of it as kids, sometimes very painfully. And then it caused conflict with my father, who remained very Chinese (and distrustful of Americans) until he died. If you stay here, you'll need to interact with Americans wherever you go, you'll need to rely upon them to build a business, and your kids will become American. Better to join them than fight them.

It's very easy for non-foreigners to forget just how much of an advantage cultural capital gives them. There's this huge iceberg of cultural skills that white middle-class Americans take for-granted, that are just unknown to foreigners, poor people, minorities, or children of foreigners. You hear these stories about immigrant entrepreneurs who hit it big in America - but if you talk to any of them, you usually find that they mastered the culture first, and then founded their companies. It's not a matter of "the smartest engineer wins"; it's a matter of "the smartest engineer who acts and talks like me and that I can feel comfortable doing business with wins".

Re: Ask HN: I feel my dream slipping away

#15

H1-B Transfer to your startup? http://www.askthevc.com/blog/archives/2008/04/does-having-a-... See one of the comments: "I have a lot of experience with this, having done it several times myself. Proving the company is 'real' to the USCIS can be tricky, because they don't consider companies with cash but no revenue to be viable. Luckily it never usually gets to that stage of analysis for a simple H1B (although green…

This can be done, but it's not a long-term solution and honestly I wouldn't recommend it.

H1B visas are granted for three years, and you can renew once. That gives you a total of six years after which you have to go home - no matter how well your startup is doing at that point. I've never heard of anyone doing the above and managing to keep their Green Card application going. I'm not sure it's actually possible.

In contrast a Green Card can be renewed indefinitely, so it's a rather valuable thing to wait for. Totally worth it in my opinion.

Re: Ask HN: I feel my dream slipping away

#16
post #4

Five minutes after winning the presidential election of 1904, Teddy Roosevelt vowed not to seek re-election in 1908. Six minutes after, he regretted what he had just said. He tried to return in 1912, but failed and regretted his hasty decision the rest of his life. Why do I mention this? Because whenever I feel like I'm in a difficult situation (not all that much different from yours), I promise myself not to pull a…

Fair advice. I was in a similar situation and blew the whole thing off. I could not regret it more. Be patient an you'll get your reward.

Re: Ask HN: I feel my dream slipping away

#17
post #4

Five minutes after winning the presidential election of 1904, Teddy Roosevelt vowed not to seek re-election in 1908. Six minutes after, he regretted what he had just said. He tried to return in 1912, but failed and regretted his hasty decision the rest of his life. Why do I mention this? Because whenever I feel like I'm in a difficult situation (not all that much different from yours), I promise myself not to pull a…

Agree with edw519 on many points, but those suggestions are not a long-term solution. Take his advice as "hope" medicine for your current situation. But I wouldn't say keep waiting for green card and keep running your startup in the part-time.

I'm in the same boat. And I completely understand how frustrating it is. So take this thread's advice to come out of frustration, but don't stop to find a real solution.

I'm also working to find a solution for this problem. Talked to few people who have done this before, reading some info on http://lawbench.com regarding similar cases, talked to lawyers and will be talking more lawyers for specific personal situation. Everyone's situation is different so general advice won't apply in such cases.

At the end, don't give up. Find a solution. Don't settle down for the part-time. I'm not going to settle for part-time either. Worst case, I'll have to take extreme steps once I know that I knew all possible solutions, and tried all of them, but there is just a solution that fits my situation. At that stage, Teddy Roosevelt's situation won't look similar to ours - and it will make sense to quit Green Card trap and take a leap.

Re: Ask HN: I feel my dream slipping away

#18
post #4

Five minutes after winning the presidential election of 1904, Teddy Roosevelt vowed not to seek re-election in 1908. Six minutes after, he regretted what he had just said. He tried to return in 1912, but failed and regretted his hasty decision the rest of his life. Why do I mention this? Because whenever I feel like I'm in a difficult situation (not all that much different from yours), I promise myself not to pull a…

edw, your practicality and wisdom always blows me away. You should write a book for engineers. I'm not sure what would go in it, but it would nevertheless be interesting.

Re: Ask HN: I feel my dream slipping away

#19

This is a great example of why the U.S. needs startup visas (without $1 million requirement) to keep and encourage entrepreneurship in the U.S. and generate jobs + tax revenue. It's a tough call what to do within the limits of our current environment and I wish you the best of luck in your current situation.

Or just do what New Zealand and Australia do, and allow people in required professions (programmers being one of them) a visa and a 2-years fast track to citizenship.

Re: Ask HN: I feel my dream slipping away

#20
Focus on improving your engineering skills; Switch to a much more interesting day job; Make your life more interesting; Developing your product in moonlight (Reference: read book Ignore Everyone).

Or just choose to give up the green card for something which matters more to you.

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