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Today My US Investor Visa Application Was Denied

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Re: Today My US Investor Visa Application Was Denied

#51

Post by wheels »

davidw wrote: post #50
wheels wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The guy applied for an investor's visa. He's not an investor. If your wife applied for an investor's visa and not an I'm-married-to-an-American visa and didn't get it and said, "But I really love my husband." that wouldn't mean that she'd been unfairly denied.

And what other people and I are saying is that the whole system is quite fucked up and needs a major overhaul. Maybe this guy shouldn't have got in on this particular visa, but it's still lame; I'd much rather people like that have the option to go, and then get encouraged to go home if things aren't working out, or some similar compromise that encourages smart, hard working people to go to the US.

Sure. I agree, which is why my original statement was essentially, "Yes, there are loads of examples of it being screwed up. This doesn't sound like one of them."

I definitely agree that the US immigration system is pretty broken, but assuming that the US system was fixed, and there were still different kinds of visas, it wouldn't magically be broken again because people got denied for applying for the wrong kind.

Re: Today My US Investor Visa Application Was Denied

#52

Post by yardie »

scarface548 wrote: post #36

As others have said , stay away from America . It's full of nationalist/protectionist rage these days and guess where its all directed at - yeah immigrants . I am assuming the reason you want to move is to collaborate with really smart people and feel the vibe , there are other countries with lot going on for them without all the nonsensical stuff. Come to India , seriously.

Have you ever heard of anyone applying for an Indian residency visa (IE not tourist)? I have heard everything from you can't get one to they don't even do them. I know they have visas for employees of big companies like Microsoft or Intel. But I have not heard of a single instance of a foreigner going to India as an entrepeneur.

Re: Today My US Investor Visa Application Was Denied

#53

Post by yardie »

alecco wrote: post #28

The funny thing is he is trying to be legit. For 5-10k he could've married some random woman in US to get in, same for his wife. It's not surprising power is shifting out of US and Europe.

The power to move to the US or to Western Europe has not shifted anywhere if the news and personal anecdotes are to be believed. A lot of developing countries don't have the infrastructure or the intelligence to create another Silicon Valley. If anything they are further cementing their power because of the credit crisis. I was on the phone with a colleague in Hyderabad and he told me the R&D companies are starving for capital. When everyone was flush with cash it was easy to open a branch in India, China, or Eastern Europe, but a lot of companies are running low and those foreign offices are the first to get cut.

I am aware that they are trying to build their own middle classes, these things take time and it's going to be a long wait before they can be completely self-reliant.

Re: Today My US Investor Visa Application Was Denied

#54

Post by shiro »

seshagiric wrote: post #40

May be a basic question but did you go through the visa norms before applying? The official site clearly mentions at least $500K as minimal investment (and employ at least 10 people etc) for consideration under the investor visa! ( http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f... )

Ok this may be a repeat, but what you are looking at is about immigrant visas, a.k.a. Green Cards. I believe what OP is talking is a nonimmigrant visa, probably E-2 treaty investor kind.

Those two visas are so different, thus typically when people are talking about visas they mean nonimmigrant ones, while the immigrant ones are refered as Green Cards. But if you look at the official documents, be careful not to be confused.

Re: Today My US Investor Visa Application Was Denied

#55

Post by csbartus »

Maro wrote: post #26

Given that most startups discussed here are Internet-related, enabling people to do things over the web, the fact that most VCs and entrepeneurs seem to think that you have to physically be in insanely expensive Silicon Valley is pure conformism ("You should be on a plane to Silicon Valley NOW!"). Of course, since they're the ones with money and networking, they turn this arbitrary dogma into a law of investing. It's…

We are still living the American Dream on the Internet too.

Given that I'll loose all my HN karma points I'll have to ask stop thinking in Internet Startup = US.

Stay with your family back home and run a successful business.

Or maybe I'm missing out completely why there is such a gold rush to the valley.

Re: Today My US Investor Visa Application Was Denied

#56

Post by hs »

i was denied usa visitor visa in 2007 -- the interviewer said i didn't put specific date, despite me having entered usa multiple time during the last 25 years

i guess she got a point. i never really miss usa much so i never really intended to go there, that's why i didn't buy ticket and put specific date

bad things hurt you ONLY if you allow it

i haven't re-applied any visa since then :D ... and no i don't want to go to usa either, even third-world countries are pretty good these days (i only need wifi, laptop, really minimalist stuff)

here i got servants for my family, life is pretty relaxed. actually i must say that my standard of living is higher here than when i lived in usa. the girls are nicer too, not as materialistic as the usa counterparts.

Re: Today My US Investor Visa Application Was Denied

#57

Post by dandelany »

wheels wrote: post #51
davidw wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what other people and I are saying is that the whole system is quite fucked up and needs a major overhaul. Maybe this guy shouldn't have got in on this particular visa, but it's still lame; I'd much rather people like that have the option to go, and then get encouraged to go home if things aren't working out, or some similar compromise that encourages smart, hard working people to go to the US.

Sure. I agree, which is why my original statement was essentially, "Yes, there are loads of examples of it being screwed up. This doesn't sound like one of them." I definitely agree that the US immigration system is pretty broken, but assuming that the US system was fixed, and there were still different kinds of visas, it wouldn't magically be broken again because people got denied for applying for the wrong kind.

I think you're missing the point: there's no "wrong kind." There's no way for a non-US Citizen with $65k in the bank to legally come start his or her business in this country, even though its (relatively) easy for people to slip across either border. It's not a matter of "oops, I accidentally applied for the investor visa, I should've picked up the startup-founder visa instead."

PG has written about this idea here: http://www.paulgraham.com/foundervisa.html

Re: Today My US Investor Visa Application Was Denied

#58

Post by scarface548 »

yardie wrote: post #52
scarface548 wrote: post #36

As others have said , stay away from America . It's full of nationalist/protectionist rage these days and guess where its all directed at - yeah immigrants . I am assuming the reason you want to move is to collaborate with really smart people and feel the vibe , there are other countries with lot going on for them without all the nonsensical stuff. Come to India , seriously.

Have you ever heard of anyone applying for an Indian residency visa (IE not tourist)? I have heard everything from you can't get one to they don't even do them. I know they have visas for employees of big companies like Microsoft or Intel. But I have not heard of a single instance of a foreigner going to India as an entrepeneur.

Yea , No one seems to do that,because everyone seems to be hell bent on being abused and mistreated by American Redtape without actually evaluating the real benefits .

Re: Today My US Investor Visa Application Was Denied

#59

Post by jerryji »

dryicerx wrote: post #30
vaksel wrote: post #6

what's stopping you from doing a web(I'm guessing) startup outside of United States?

This is my question as well. Your website seems to be very web-centric business (according to your user page), what is it that you cannot accomplish regarding this remotely?

Fist of all, I must thank all who have taken the time to read and/or comment on my post.

However, the fact that US (or more specifically, Silicon Valley) has given birth to more successful high tech companies per square mile than has anywhere else in the world is not incidental.

Being able to grow a startup in the fertile land of Silicon Valley means closer access to a wide array of different classes of investors, world-class peer entrepreneurs/technologists, and active and mature users, all of which are big advantages over startups elsewhere -- even with the high cost of living taken into consideration.

After all, it's like telling a minority student who was rejected by a top university for (disputablely) unfair reasons that she doesn't need to go to college to succeed, sure the statement could be true -- just unfortunately not statistically.

Re: Today My US Investor Visa Application Was Denied

#60

Post by seshagiric »

shiro wrote: post #54
seshagiric wrote: post #40

May be a basic question but did you go through the visa norms before applying? The official site clearly mentions at least $500K as minimal investment (and employ at least 10 people etc) for consideration under the investor visa! ( http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f... )

Ok this may be a repeat, but what you are looking at is about immigrant visas , a.k.a. Green Cards. I believe what OP is talking is a nonimmigrant visa , probably E-2 treaty investor kind. Those two visas are so different, thus typically when people are talking about visas they mean nonimmigrant ones, while the immigrant ones are refered as Green Cards. But if you look at the official documents, be careful not to be…

Two things about E-2: - substantial investment. Looking over the net it seems 'substantial' means at least $200k - 50% of ownership lies outside USA - Candidate leaves USA at the end of business

I am not sure a start up entrepreneur would be interested or can afford 2 & 3

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