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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

#251

Post by germanier »

slim wrote: post #226
OoTheNigerian wrote: post #116

Great intent. I'd like to know the reasoning behind choosing Canada as an alternative interview location because from experience, it easier to get a US visitor visa than that of Canada. Nigerians cannot even transit the Canadian airport without a visa which takes upward of 8 weeks to get AFTER approval vs days for the US. Requirements for Canada are more onerous. 2 suggestions. 1. A country of interview per continent…

Which makes me wonder what are the most open countries? Ie. Requiring the least visas.. Is there a country requiring no visa?

Svalbard is the only region that comes to mind (though it's hard to imagine a huge tech scene starting there). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Treaty

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

#252

Post by thaumasiotes »

kbenson wrote: post #193
joshuaheard wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China forces its citizens to have abortions if they have more than 2 children, and they censor the internet, so you can't access social media, like Facebook for instance. So, I would say they are ethically worse than the U.S.

So, is the problem that they are forcing abortions, or that they have a social policy about childbearing? If it's about the abortions, apparently there's two types of action taken[1]. If it's in an urban area, they apparently either charge a fee or don't assign a household register to the child (not sure what that means), but if it's rural they do apparently force abortions. If you're okay with the social policy, it…

> If it's in an urban area, they apparently either charge a fee or don't assign a household register to the child (not sure what that means)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou_system

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

#253

Post by komali2 »

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…

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 don't get it!

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

#254

Post by EduardoBautista »

billions wrote: post #197

Why not Tijuana?

I have lived in Tijuana and it's one of the worst cities in the country. If you _really_ have to choose a Mexican city, Guadalajara or Mexico City are orders of magnitude better options.

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

#255

Post by Pxtl »

clamprecht wrote: post #4

Wow. We often wonder how the Bay Area would be unseated as startup capital of the world. Maybe it'll be the US's immigration problem.

It would be delicious and terrible irony if Vancouver took over the role of startup capital, since it is the only place with a more unaffordable housing market than the SF bay.

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

#256

Post by EternalData »

pizzetta wrote: post #247
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…

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.

The United States is never going to decay to nothingness.

However, whether or not it becomes the top place for technologists to congregate and build things will become an open question.

That alone, while perhaps not dire to the nation as a whole, will be quite damaging. There, so far, has been an order of magnitude difference between the best technology ecosystem and the second best.

Japan is also looking to open up permanent residency rules, and it has suffered through a nearly two decades long spurt of deflation-driven economic stagnation, with incredible debt/GDP, some of it due to demographic concerns and an inverting age pyramid. Just pointing out that might not be the best counter-example.

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

#257

Post by aaron-lebo »

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…

Germany waged two world wars over 20 years and tens of millions of people died because of that.

Germany, even at its scientific height was racist and nationalist. Hitler didn't come to power in the 30s without generations of Germans being the foundation.

The US is very far from that.

I don't understand the massive overreaction. The United States in the 60s was a place where there were sundown towns that blacks dared not travel. In 2004 they were seriously considering a constitutional amendment against gay marriage. Now?

We can't lose sight of progress and we can't overreact to the sway of government. All progress has not been lost and the US is not in the dire state some act like it is.

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

#258

Post by potatolicious »

apsec112 wrote: post #213
tptacek wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't worry so much. You have a mortal lock on the pipeline of first-time tech founders, and your cycles are overwhelmingly populated by graduates of US and European universities. Yes, a fair number of talented people from disfavored west Asian countries won't be able to start up here. That's OK: because of the way venture capital works, and because of YC's role in it, they really won't be able to start at all, and y…

"because of YC's role in it, they really won't be able to start at all" Not sure what the reasoning is here. How is YC doing anything to block people from starting companies? You don't lose anything by getting rejected from YC, other than the few days spent applying.

The startup ecosystem is heavily based on gatekeeping and validation by existing players - YC is one of many (but one of the most influential) in this space.

To be a bit simplistic, I think Thomas' point is that the likelihood of tech startups outside of the traditional US-centric startup ecosystem succeeding is very low, due to lack of funding and the general consequences of being an Outsider to the Silicon Valley elite.

YC's role in it is, of course, being one of the most influential players that control which ideas get funded/attention, and which do not.

Even physically outside of the US, the startup ecosystem is still overwhelming reliant on US money. Which is to say even if there is an appetite for funding founders in these disfavored countries, regulations (or simple politics) may prevent it.

That said, I do disagree somewhat - US/European money is not the only source of venture capital dollars. I suspect at least some of the founders we're losing here will be able to start their companies with Chinese money. The loss of this talent pool will contribute - in a small way right now, but snowballing as time goes on - to the loss of US-centric economic hegemony.

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

#259

Post by ubernostrum »

homakov wrote: post #141
doh wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As others pointed out, Canada recently made mandatory their eTA program which is very similar to US ESTA, so the differences are non-existent anymore. Original text: The number is huge. For instance the whole EU doesn't need visa for Canada [0] but it does for US (although it's called a waiver program [1], which guarantees nothing). [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_Canada#Visa_exe... [1] https://trave…

That's news to me. I thought EU can enter US easily

The Visa Waiver Program (VWP) allows citizens of 38 countries to enter the US for up to 90 days without a visa.

The Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) is an online form which asks questions and determines whether someone is covered by the VWP. Using ESTA to determine this in advance is required when arriving in the US by air, but not when crossing a land border from Canada or Mexico.

The "doesn't guarantee anything" bit is true but misleading, since ESTA doesn't provide a visa and doesn't provide an absolute guarantee someone will be admitted under the VWP -- the determination of whether to allow someone to enter is always made at the border.

Couple things that are good to know:

1. VWP/ESTA is not terribly different from some other systems, like Australia's ETA, in using the "you don't need a visa, but you do need to check your eligibility online in advance" approach.

2. Not all EU citizens are eligible for the VWP. Citizens of Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania are not eligible for VWP. Which is something the EU has been consistently angry about, and recently the European Parliament rattled its sabers a bit about revoking visa-free travel to the EU for US citizens unless the US adds those five countries to the VWP.

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

#260

Post by Pxtl »

JamilD wrote: post #231
drpgq wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe, although taxes are a lot higher in Canada for anything beyond an average salary.

That's a common misconception. I paid more in US + California taxes than Canada + Ontario taxes at the same company, same salary, when I moved location.

Yeah, you'd be surprised by how many tax dollars you can save by not obliterating a 3rd world country once every few years :)
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