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How Tech Startup Founders Are Hacking Immigration
- Nanite 11y agoThe author could have do a bit better research, "research schools & universities" do not use H1B's they use J-1's for PhD's & Postdocs. Also a "rockstar visa" would be an O-1 visa.
- atria 11y ago..and they use H1Bs, and those H1Bs aren't counted against the cap.
- HistoryInAction 11y agoYep, Craig here with Global EIR. As the other commenter says, research universities use cap exempt H-1Bs for their full-time faculty and also lab technical staff. Now that all of these universities have entrepreneurship centers, certain options opened up for founders.
- ones_and_zeros 11y agoAs others have pointed out H-1B is very popular on college campuses as they are cap exempt and come in on the lower end of the "prevailing wage" scale (because they are typically young and inexperienced) An interesting/alarming trend is that education institutions are "hosting" private companies as a sort of satellite office, where the developer is an employee of the university (to get around the H-1B cap) but all work is directed and owned by the company. So Acme Co. pays the PCU $20/hr and PCU pays the H-1B $15/hr and pockets the $5. Ah the tangled webs we weave when at first we aim to deceive.
- timewarrior 11y agoThis article has an interesting point. I am from India. Built the biggest social network from India, sold a startup to Dropbox. Not sure if this is sufficient to get an EB-1 green card. With EB-2, I won't get Green card for another 5-8 years. My next option is to invest a million to get EB-5, which is a waste of time. Or move outside US :(
- sremani 11y ago1. L1 - EB1 is probably your best shot. 2. Do not disqualify EB-5, with a right connection or contact, it can be painless, since you get GC in 3 years. Also if you invest in what is economically distressed area 500,000 would suffice. (especially since you have start-ups with exits 500K may not be out of your reach).
- timewarrior 11y agoL1-EB1 is a good idea if I can do it through one of my startups. Working for a big corp outside US for a year, and then moving back and doing the Green card work would involve lot of uncertainties and a commitment of at least 2 years to this process. EB-5 is a good idea. That is the plan after giving EB-1 a shot. It's unfortunate to have to go through so many hoops just because of your country of birth. I owe a good part of my success to US and want to contribute back. However, the system is making it very very difficult.
- ones_and_zeros 11y agoYou'd most definitely qualify for an O-1. You basically need 1 of 8 criteria, and the most common for software engineers coming in on O-1 are 1) High salary 2) press coverage of your transaction with Dropbox 3) being a judge at a hackathon.
- HistoryInAction 11y agoConcur. Chris Wright down in LA is superb at O-1s, has worked with a lot of founders with positive conclusions. I recommend him highly.
- timewarrior 11y agoThanks. Got multiple recommendations for Chris Wright. Will reach out to him ASAP. Thanks once again :)
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- dirkdk 11y agoThe inertia of the US government on immigration in general and particular for startup founders is astonishing. Once a place like Vancouver or Berlin gets enough traction combined with money for investments, international founders will stop trying to get into SV
- neptunespear 11y agoAn optimistic comment about Vancouver on Hacker News that doesn't have anything to do with brain drain due to Chinese investors buying up real estate? Is it opposite day?
- nibs 11y agoCome to Toronto. Much more funding, much less foreign ownership.
- timewarrior 11y agoAgreed on Canada. I have seriously considered moving to Canada. Only barrier is that I need to give and English written test and I haven't used pen and paper in a while. If EB-1 doesn't work, Canada here I come.