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The Founder Visa (again)

blog.samaltman.com

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Re: The Founder Visa (again)

#131

Post by jw2013 »

ahomescu1 wrote: post #89
nchuhoai wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm fairly certain you can just apply for a new F1 visa?

Like I said, I'm not sure. The F1 visa is for studying; I'm not sure what happens when you graduate and move on to OPT.

I am pretty sure even after you graduate and get an OPT, you are still on F1 visa. But the point is 29 months (if you are a STEM major) is enough for your startup to generate some revenue, and then you can apply for H1b (as long as you prove your startup has sufficient fund, your wage from your startup is prevailing wage, and you can be fired from your startup).

If a startup fails, it usually fails quickly. Yes, sometimes a company, like airbnb, went quiet for a very long time before it hit it off, but 29 months are likely enough.

Re: The Founder Visa (again)

#132

Post by boomzilla »

kenneth wrote: post #87
gamblor956 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to break it to you, but you clearly did not have a top-notch immigration attorney if they advised you that a O1 visa was the best visa for your circumstances. The O1 is intended for people who are the top of their fields; not just those that are good. It's for people like Yao Ming (sports) or Lupita_Nyong'o (arts) that we want to steal from other countries. There were other visas that were more appropriate for…

The EB visas are basically identical to the O visas, except for two differences: 1) the requirements are slightly more stringent, and 2) they are considered immigrant visas, as opposed to non-immigrant. ie., they are green cards. That said, I agree with you that the O1 was not a perfect fit for my situation, though I did end up receiving it, while being denied the EB-1. But I would challenge you to name another visa…

Don't go for EB-1, go for EB-2. It's a lot easier in terms of the documented requirements. Also, unless you are from China/India/Philippines there is no difference in wait time between the two.

Re: The Founder Visa (again)

#133

Post by bradleyjg »

kenneth wrote: post #75

As somebody who fought for a year to get an O1 visa (and an EB-1 green card, though that didn't quite work out), I can attest to the fact that the problem is not that it is an investor vs. a government official that is deciding whether one meets the criteria, but with the criteria themselves. I had a top-notch immigration attorney, and a solid case. I was the first employee of a company that now employs north of a hu…

> None received nobel prizes, but many had shown previous entrepreneurial success. The visa requirements give this no consideration.

3, 7 & 8 can be directly shown from prior entrepreneurial successes. 4 is also very possible for such a person (think hackathons, Startup Weekends, angel beauty pageants, etc.)

It's someone without a prior record of success that this visa is not appropriate for. For an entrepreneur with a successful exit already under his belt it works fine (though there are many other options for such a person as well.)

Re: The Founder Visa (again)

#134

Post by jw2013 »

ahomescu1 wrote: post #110
hibikir wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Normally you go from OPT to H1B, and from H1B to Green Card. How fast that process goes varies greatly

Yes, but the GP was proposing using OPT as a founder visa. In that case, you need to get your own startup to sponsor your H1B; that's pretty hard to do. I imagine you'd have to offer the market salary for "startup CEO" (whatever that is), post an ad for 30 days and then prove that you couldn't find an American to take that job (this is usually the process for regular H1B employees). EDIT: It seems you can get a H1B w…

Thanks for the comment. I am not proposing using OPT as a founder visa, all I am saying is using OPT is one viable alternative, maybe not as cool as a founder visa, but you can still pull it off in the condition I stated in my other response to you.

Re: The Founder Visa (again)

#135

Post by johnrob »

pc wrote: post #22
johnrob wrote: post #8

Here is a counter proposal: the government should approve this request, but stipulate that the immigrants relocate to somewhere other than silicon valley (so all of the created jobs don't end up in the once place where they aren't needed).

1) You can't just allocate the startups in arbitrary locations and get the same result -- being in SV changes the outcome. (I've tried to start companies elsewhere.) 2) People benefit from Google, Facebook, Airbnb, etc., even if they're not in SV. The immediate job creation is a tiny fraction of the wealth created by startups. It doesn't matter where Bell Labs was located; it just matters that they did what they did.…

Why does sama talk about job creation instead of wealth creation?

Re: The Founder Visa (again)

#136

Post by jw2013 »

timtamboy63 wrote: post #66
pc wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a) Most adventurous student entrepreneurs don't really MUST need a founder visa, they can use OPT. I think founders of Stripe did that. Founder of Stripe here. Not disagreeing with anything you've said, but I feel I should point out that OPT is far from ideal: it doesn't last very long, it requires the job is related to the field of study, full-time work is permitted only during vacations prior to completion of a d…

It's also a MASSIVE pain, and some schools (like mine) only allow OPT for internships (as opposed to CPT). As a result, I need to choose if I want to intern for my four years of college, or if I want to start a startup.

I agree with all of what you and Patrick said. Still most likely the student on OPT is in a much better position to start a startup than most people on H1b. Once you are hired by some company on H1b, you want to start your own startup? You need to prove your startup is viable (some funding constraint + providing prevailing wage for yourself I remember). But how you can have a viable startup that has not even been started? That kind of chicken-and-egg problem stuck tons of aspiring entrepreneurs on H1b.

Will really appreciate anyone here that can give some solution under current circumstances.

Re: The Founder Visa (again)

#137

Post by kamaal »

After reading all this I guess for guys like me(Indian, staying in Bangalore) hopes of coming to US to do start up is impossible any way. The only real way is to build a start up(Which many of us already are working on) here, secure some millions of $'s in funding. But then if you have millions of $'s in a country like India, you are already a king. You can buy things and live a life no ordinary Indian can possibly imagine in their wildest dreams. 1 million dollars is 6,00,00,000 rupees- You can buy enough real estate to secure a rent income to never have you ever work again ever!

What pains me most is majority of the Indians getting Visa's are really the manager's pets kind of guys who find their way to US through sycophancy, then go and do the same there. There is tons of talent here which can generate all the jobs and taxes US needs who will never ever get a Visa. Unfortunately those guys will never touch US shores. At least not with Visa's to start companies there.

The Bangalore ecosystem is rich and overflowing with start up talent. A mixture of this and US start up ecosystem would just be unimaginable amazing.

Re: The Founder Visa (again)

#138

Post by rachellaw »

sama wrote: post #83

People seem to be trying to deliberately misunderstand my point. 1) I don't think this should just be for YC. I'm just volunteering to beta test it. I think we are very likely to show success, which would hopefully open it much more broadly. But I'd be very happy to do it together with other investors from the beginning. I feel that in general investors (YC included) are not doing enough to push this issue. 2) I do t…

Re:2

The power balance between a startup and a VC is unequal compared to universities, big companies etc. The type of visa ascribed to each class is consequently different as well

For instance student visas under F-1 can have OPT extensions based on their course of study (i.e if you graduate with a CS degree, you don't need a visa to work in a CS field in USA) and this extension allows additional 6-months providence if in STEM studies

Companies are allowed only H1-B visas, in which if terminated for whatsoever reason, are only allowed 3 months grace to get another visa (NOT find another job). That means that they have to re-do all the paperwork and find a second sponsor willing to pay upfront as well. (that's why it's a big company thing, the company has to show a need for this worker that a US citizen doesn't provide)

People who give out Oscars don't give visas, you're mistaken on that. The class of visas you're alluding to (O-1 visas) are for special achievement in a recognized field particularly in sports, entertainment or academia. The individual sponsors their own visa, and makes a case of it through letters of recommendation and appeal. It's not enough to be a "founder of X company", there's a minimum about of press, articles published, conferences attended and awards/prizes INCLUDING awards from the applicant's home country (so they must have international level achievement)

What class of visas would investors be allowed to have sway over? The govt. could make a case that a startup visa is a loophole around HI-B1 because it doesn't nessescarily demonstrate a skillset not already owned by an American. In effect, for your case to work, YC would have to prove that entrepreneurship is not an American quality.

The other option is O-1 visas, but that assumes that your founders have existing press/awardship already given in their home country.

Re: The Founder Visa (again)

#139

Post by jackylee0424 »

As an O1 status holder, this does make sense, especially for PhD founders (PhDs are supposed to be the top of their own field). O1 approval is fast (premium processing is about two weeks). In my experience, document preparation is depending on two major factors: 1. applicant's records such as media coverage, publications/citations, reference letters, and awards. I fortunately accumulated some evidences for each of these when doing my PhD. I only have less than half of reference letters compared to my friends who got their EB1, so I think media and awards could be equally important. 2. experienced attorney who can put together a 2-inch-thick document in a short time (of course, it depends on the applicant to gather the materials).

Re: The Founder Visa (again)

#140

Post by ulfw »

sama wrote: post #83

People seem to be trying to deliberately misunderstand my point. 1) I don't think this should just be for YC. I'm just volunteering to beta test it. I think we are very likely to show success, which would hopefully open it much more broadly. But I'd be very happy to do it together with other investors from the beginning. I feel that in general investors (YC included) are not doing enough to push this issue. 2) I do t…

There's no 'beta testing' of laws. There's only lobbying to get laws enacted. Might wanna work on that ;)
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