Why would Y-Combinator deserve this special treatment by the US government? Since when does money == oversight?
The Founder Visa (again)
171–180 of 198 posts
Re: The Founder Visa (again)
#172I wonder how many of the negative commenters on this thread are either citizens or permanent residents. I don't see why a techie who is not yet a citizen or permanent resident of US, and wants to be one, would be so negative about this proposal. At worst this can lead to a few lucky immigrant founders who get free visas, but at best, this can do a lot of good to the country in terms of creating new jobs, and to the s…
Mercifully, foreigners don't elect our legislators.
Re: The Founder Visa (again)
#173I'd flip it. Rather than ask for 100 visas, ask for 100,000, then focus on the benefits. That's going to attract a lot more attention.
100,000 visas will be at least 200 Dropboxes. 100,000 visas will be at least 1 million jobs. 100,000 visa will be at least $500 billion in value. (figures completely made up, but the power of a big number is that statistics are on your side, and these can be estimated from past performance of immigrants. Bias will be there yes, but which way?)
Get a couple of tech entrepreneurs to 'guarantee' the 100,000 will deliver the goods with a $1 billion bet that at least five of that crowd will be part of a $1 billion company within 10 years.
And as others say - a visa is not enough, you need residency rights. Perhaps let the visa automatically flip to a green card after 2 years if the company that they found reached certain hurdles (value, revenue or vanity metrics).
But if you can't work or get residence in the USA, then come to New Zealand. We have a visa points system, have huge demand for ICT people and have great founder communities and companies. It's an incredible place to live, and when you cash out there are no capital gains taxes here.
Re: The Founder Visa (again)
#174Btw if anyone needs complex (and which isn't) representation, Rajat Kuver is a super cool dude with offices in Palo Alto and Cupertino. Also a law prof. (Super cool, like it says on the tin.)
Re: The Founder Visa (again)
#175It's crazy to me that countries like Chile are courting (read: begging) entrepreneurial talent and the US acts like we can throw a wall up around the country and pretend like that's still a good thing. NOT allowing a few thousand talented, motivated, educated, english-speaking entrepreneurs seems foolish.
Many of the millions of unemployed US citizens/voters would argue that there are a few thousand talented, motivated, educated, english-speaking entrepreneurs in their ranks from which YC can choose.
Sure, I'd add that the experience of living in a place like Singapore or Accra changes the projects an entrepreneur attempts.
Re: The Founder Visa (again)
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry, but H1b is so broken and horrible that many people won't even consider it. It puts you in a very bad and stressful situation to practically put your destiny in the hands of one employer/person for a couple of years. If H1B is the only realistic option for you, then just forget about USA and go to any European country with sane immigration system.
Are you sure about that? I got my H1B in 2012, it was almost completely painless. I was straight out of university, we applied in October '11, and I received my visa in January. It's fairly straightforward to move to a new employer on a H1B, it just has to be the same level of job. You can start working for your new employer on the date you file, and it takes 4-8 weeks to complete. I'm now close to an EB2 GC which, w…
the applications for cap limited H1B are in april, and you'll have it in october if you are one of the 60,000 lucky ones. If you get it in any other time of the year, is because you work for an university or no-profit. Here, H1b is broken refers to the cap-limit one. H1 from the university/no-profit is a joke, since the visas are not counted towards the cap, and I feel they damage the game for everyone else.
Btw I do envy your good luck.
Re: The Founder Visa (again)
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry, but H1b is so broken and horrible that many people won't even consider it. It puts you in a very bad and stressful situation to practically put your destiny in the hands of one employer/person for a couple of years. If H1B is the only realistic option for you, then just forget about USA and go to any European country with sane immigration system.
Are you sure about that? I got my H1B in 2012, it was almost completely painless. I was straight out of university, we applied in October '11, and I received my visa in January. It's fairly straightforward to move to a new employer on a H1B, it just has to be the same level of job. You can start working for your new employer on the date you file, and it takes 4-8 weeks to complete. I'm now close to an EB2 GC which, w…
Yes, the exact thing you described here as an easy ride is what I would call brokeness. You say you'll get your GC in 18 months, I wish you good luck on that, but that's completely arbitrary time frame. You can't know in advance how long does it take to get permanent residence. Almost everywhere in Europe you have a clearly defined timeframe. Then, your wife can't work there, not sure even if you have tax deductions on her. To me, that's unacceptable. My wife has more education than me, and she should be able to work in the same way as me. In Europe, Blue Card holders wives have no work restriction at all. Then, although in theory you can change a job when you want, can you do it when you must? If your employer fire you, can you have another job in 15 days before you are doported from the US, together with wife and children? Though some employers treat you ok, many know that situation and are ready to take advantage of that, just because the system allows them. That's not a risk I would personally want to make, but I can see how someone else would.
Re: The Founder Visa (again)
#178Since August 2011 "Entrepreneurs H1B" is available. I had posted this commented just last week and I am adding this comment again. Here is my story:
I've started on this path just recently and believe me I am facing difficulties at every step, even the the ones I thought were most obvious. But again who said life was easy.
In case you are interested there are ways you can do business in the US on H-1B visa. Is it easy? Hell no! But in case you are still interested keep reading, feel free to reach out to me as I am going through this process right now.
Articles about Entrepreneur H1B:
- http://www.murthy.com/2012/12/17/entrepreneur-h1b-petitions-...
- http://www.uscis.gov/news/public-releases-topic/business-imm...
-http://blog.uscis.gov/2011/08/encouraging-entrepreneurs-and-...
- http://www.uscis.gov/eir/visa-guide/entrepreneur-visa-guide
Further reading:
- http://blog.fosterquan.com/2012/12/09/the-sweet-smell-of-suc...
Success story of Vishal Shah from Traffio:
- http://www.nextbigwhat.com/how-to-startup-in-silicon-valley-...
Business Entity:
- http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x12qxuo_how-to-open-a-busin...
Re: The Founder Visa (again)
#179This is a terrible idea. VCs have proposed the same solution in Canada; the government canned the old investor visa and allowed founders to get a startup when they receive investment from some of our VCs. (There were many more investor visa than VCs can even process. We'll end up with less total job creation. You have to be careful what you lobby for, and how it will be implemented!) What was once a process over whic…
I have an experience with that. I was applying to the Canadian entrepreneurship program since 2010, so 4 years now. I was aware the processing time was long, so I was just waiting to be my turn to be processed. 3 weeks ago I've heard that the entrepreneurship program has been canceled in profit of the startup visa one. I mean that seems to be on whim and that's not really nice to wait 4 years for nothing but that's l…
Whoa - they just told you now? :O
I'm sorry you've had to wait this long.
This whole situation is insane. We could actually just let more people in; we need more for long-term demographic reasons and the current policy is just a xenophobic disaster.
Re: The Founder Visa (again)
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many of the millions of unemployed US citizens/voters would argue that there are a few thousand talented, motivated, educated, english-speaking entrepreneurs in their ranks from which YC can choose.
Sure, I'd add that the experience of living in a place like Singapore or Accra changes the projects an entrepreneur attempts.
I am sure that is true. I was just pointing out that the goals and priorities of the US federal government and YC aren't always perfectly aligned.