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My Immigration Story

ilyasemin.com

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Re: My Immigration Story

#71

Post by wooyi »

rglullis wrote: post #70

Ok, for others who might be interested in immigrating, a few other things that I learned from my experience: - If you already are done with your studies, look for jobs at educational institutions. Universities, research laboratories, think tanks. They are exempt from the quota and can hire at any time of the year and outside of the quota. There a few downsides. First, most of the openings at these institutions will r…

+1 on the Canada hack. Canada now has an "Express Entry" process for skilled workers that grants permanent residence in months 6 months or less. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/express/express-entry...

However, applying for a Work Permit is still rather cumbersome (which is typically the first step after the job offer and before Express Entry) I just went through this process with an employee. While there is no arbitrary quota, the process does take between 3-6 months.

But overall the path to citizenship is much shorter than in the US.

And Canada has public healthcare. So, no need to worry about healthcare while you're self employed.

Re: My Immigration Story

#72

Post by sparkzilla »

aliakhtar wrote: post #49

Didn't Obama introduce a startup visa a few months ago? What happened to it?

The most recent article I saw on it [1] says that "within the year" Obama is likely to sign an executive order that allows for the founders of funded startups to get visas, dependent on the amount of funds raised. If you raise $200,000 from a qualified U.S. investor you will get a two-year entrepreneurship visa to come live in America. If you raise $750,000 or more from a qualified U.S. investor or group of investors, you will get a green card. As someone who would benefit from this action, it can't come soon enough.

[1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2015/04/08/how-ob...

Re: My Immigration Story

#73

Post by sprite »

As mentioned in the article another option is EB-5 investment visa. You need approximately $600k ($500k investment + budget another $100k for regional center fees, lawyer fees, etc). The process is still super slow though, the current average processing time for I-526 application is currently 14 months. I submitted mine in January and was told best case scenario is around 8 months for approval.

Re: My Immigration Story

#74

Post by djb_hackernews »

petea wrote: post #21

Immigration reform for skilled workers will almost certainly not happen as long as Democrats continue to lump in amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants in the same immigration reform bill. This might not be a popular opinion to spout, but I can't see it any other way. These illegals will almost certainly vote for Democrats. How do you expect Republicans to cooperate to welcome educated workers when you are expect…

I wouldn't give too much credit to the Republicans here. They aren't interested in immigration reform so much as they are interested in expanding the H1-B program limits as part of their corporate welfare agenda.

I agree with your last statement but I don't think there is any political group who is advocating for making the immigration process easier for educated workers.

Re: My Immigration Story

#75

Post by nish1500 »

As someone who is new to understand the process, it baffles me to see how incredibly hard it is to immigrate to the US, as an entrepreneur. Some of the biggest new tech companies are founded by immigrants. I often wonder how they got into the country in the first place.

The system rewards those under H1B. There is no provision for entrepreneurs. Being a college dropout entrepreneur, from a non-caucasian country, what chance do I have?

I am reading Peter Thiel's book Zero to One. He talks about hidden injustices in our society. This is what comes to mind.

Re: My Immigration Story

#76

Post by rglullis »

petea wrote: post #21

Immigration reform for skilled workers will almost certainly not happen as long as Democrats continue to lump in amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants in the same immigration reform bill. This might not be a popular opinion to spout, but I can't see it any other way. These illegals will almost certainly vote for Democrats. How do you expect Republicans to cooperate to welcome educated workers when you are expect…

Except for the fact that illegals don't vote, you are right. The problem is that is more politically profitable to keep "immigration as an issue" than to actually work in "The People's" best interests.

Democrats don't want to lose the image of being the welcoming mother, Republicans don't want to lose the image of being the strict but principled father. An immigration law that was based on qualification and possible economic boost by immigrant doesn't help any of them.

Basically this was why I left the US after almost 5 years.

Re: My Immigration Story

#77

Post by pshin45 »

What interesting timing - I'm organizing an Immigration-themed hackathon[1] this weekend in SF, and on Saturday morning we'll have a speaking panel called "Immigrant Founder Stories" where founders from 4 startups (big to small) will share about their struggles to gain permanent status in the US, and how it affected them as entrepreneurs.

- Laks Srini, Co-founder & CTO at Zenefits [2]

- Tri Tran, Co-founder & CEO at Munchery [3]

- Silver Keskküla, Co-founder at Teleport (ex-Skype) [4]

- Nikhil Aitharaju, Co-founder at Tint [5]

[1] http://www.up.co/communities/usa/san-francisco/startup-weeke... (Use promo code "hn" for 70% off)

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/24/technology/workers-in-sili...

[3] https://medium.com/@munchery/pitch-your-life-2f170eab933b

[4] https://medium.com/@keskkyla/good-luck-being-born-tomorrow-d...

[5] https://app.fwd.us/stories/259

Re: My Immigration Story

#78

Post by phamilton »

As a developer in the Bay Area, I find our lot to be pretty picky about where we work and what we work on. Acquihire "Golden Handcuffs" make us miserable. (What a terrible problem to have, right?) I admire Ilya's persistence in working for $8/hr because he had to. It lends a bit of perspective to hear his story. Thank you, Ilya!

Re: My Immigration Story

#79

Post by cylinder »

DigitalSea wrote: post #8

This was a great read and hits close to home for me. Not many people realise that getting a visa to live and work in the USA is extremely difficult, if not possible. I recently did some contracting work for a US based startup. I am based in Australia and the startup was in Seattle. I am in this weird area because I am self-taught and have no college/university degree and fall just under the 12 years required experien…

Nope, the US does not have a skills based migration system. It's entirely family based. Opposite of Australia, which is built around skilled migration and does not give preference to family members. It's ridiculous, we turn our backs on the highly skilled in order to admit someone because they are the parent or sibling of a US citizen. Why should we import parents with no guarantee they will do anything but need expensive Medicare and Social Security in old age?

Re: My Immigration Story

#80

Post by TY »

rglullis wrote: post #70

Ok, for others who might be interested in immigrating, a few other things that I learned from my experience: - If you already are done with your studies, look for jobs at educational institutions. Universities, research laboratories, think tanks. They are exempt from the quota and can hire at any time of the year and outside of the quota. There a few downsides. First, most of the openings at these institutions will r…

For Canada hack - you might actually like it better in Canada than in the US. I first moved to Canada after finishing my graduate studies in the US about 15 years ago with the plan to go back in a couple of years.

I liked Canada so much that I decided to stay here (Toronto, Ontario) and have been happy about my decision ever since.

Yes, taxes are a little bit higher, but the place feels saner and safer. Various levels of government are supportive of new businesses (lots of incentives, grants, R&D support programs), especially in technology sector.

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