26 ms·

Ask HN: I feel my dream slipping away

108 points by whatnext 16y ago

They say advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't. Well, I'm not looking for hang-in-there-buddy-advice but rather employment ideas or immigration hacks from someone in my situation or who understands it. I'm an Engineer working at a big corp in California - a job I so hate but have been needing to hold on to for green card purposes (I'm a foreign citizen). I'm still at least 2 years away from getting it. Meanwhile, in my spare time, I've been hacking away on my boostrapped startup idea. I released a MVP two months ago and it has been gaining steady traction. I intend to hit ramen profitability by early next year. This is where it gets hard on me. In spite of spending many waking hours working on it, moonlighting often translates to slow progress. At the end of a full 10 hour day working for the man, creativity and productivity are not at their peak when I get to work in the evenings. I fear that when competition gets wind of the opportunity that exists in their blind spot, they will get to work and could outdo me quickly. One option is quitting my job cold turkey but that may mean going back to my home country. I've lived in the US for 8+ yrs now and want to stay here. I want to build my business here. I like it here. Is that so bad? Isn't America the land where you can realize your dream and help others realize theirs too? It gets very frustrating at times and I fear my dream is slipping away. I will turn 30 soon (no, that is not precipitating this :). I'd like to spend the next decade of my life building my own company, not waiting for a green card. I am making progress but at a snail's pace (at least I feel so). Plus from my last venture, I learned the lesson that working with a useless co-founder is worse than going it alone. This time, I am solo-ing until I can find a partner who is as passionate & hard working. I've been bearing this situation for two years now and feel like I'm stuck in this rut for the foreseeable future. Are any of you in similar shoes? How do you deal with it? Are there any immigration hacks that you are aware of? Have you figured out some way to spend a major chunk of your time working on your startup but staying in legal status and maintaing your perm residency petition? tl;dr: Working on startup venture. No green card. Stuck in this situation for 2+ yrs. Slow progress and sometimes feel dream slipping away. Suggestions? Gosh. I hope I don't come across as whiny. I'm not. [EDIT] I've been trying to reply to some of your comments but the post isn't going through. Would you know why? I'm a long time HN user but this is a throwaway account and I'm not sure if it's because this is a new user.

maxdemarzi 16y ago
H1-B Transfer to your startup? http://www.askthevc.com/blog/archives/2008/04/does-having-a-h.php http://www.askthevc.com/blog/archives/2008/04/does-having-a-... See one of the comments: "I have a lot of experience with this, having done it several times myself. Proving the company is 'real' to the USCIS can be tricky, because they don't consider companies with cash but no revenue to be viable. Luckily it never usually gets to that stage of analysis for a simple H1B (although green cards are a whole different matter). Just make sure you have an office address,letterhead, phone numbers, a bank account and good lawyers. The USCIS will often pick up on little details that show the business is being run out of someones backyard. The hardest part is in the early stages, prior to transferring the H1B visa, because technically the visa holder can have no involvement in the company i.e. cannot attend meetings or talk about the opportunity without violating their status. One approach I used successfully was to get my accountant to create an LLC. The LLC held my shares in the new startup. My immigration attorney then applied for a part-time concurrent H1B to work for that LLC as a board member a couple of hours a week, in parallel with myexisting H1B visa, allowing me to be involved from day one (you can start work the moment the visa is filed). When the startup was funded, they then filed a H1B transfer for me. "
- abstractbill 16y ago
  This can be done, but it's not a long-term solution and honestly I wouldn't recommend it. H1B visas are granted for three years, and you can renew once. That gives you a total of six years after which you have to go home - no matter how well your startup is doing at that point. I've never heard of anyone doing the above and managing to keep their Green Card application going. I'm not sure it's actually possible. In contrast a Green Card can be renewed indefinitely, so it's a rather valuable thing to wait for. Totally worth it in my opinion.
  - georgecmu 16y ago
    > H1B visas are granted for three years, and you can renew once. Not exactly. They can be renewed past the second term indefinitely, as long as an immigration application (I-140/I-485) has been filed with USCIS and is under review -- can be a long process.

108 points by whatnext 16y ago

maxdemarzi 16y ago

H1-B Transfer to your startup? http://www.askthevc.com/blog/archives/2008/04/does-having-a-h.php http://www.askthevc.com/blog/archives/2008/04/does-having-a-... See one of the comments: "I have a lot of experience with this, having done it several times myself. Proving the company is 'real' to the USCIS can be tricky, because they don't consider companies with cash but no revenue to be viable. Luckily it never usually gets to that stage of analysis for a simple H1B (although green cards are a whole different matter). Just make sure you have an office address,letterhead, phone numbers, a bank account and good lawyers. The USCIS will often pick up on little details that show the business is being run out of someones backyard. The hardest part is in the early stages, prior to transferring the H1B visa, because technically the visa holder can have no involvement in the company i.e. cannot attend meetings or talk about the opportunity without violating their status. One approach I used successfully was to get my accountant to create an LLC. The LLC held my shares in the new startup. My immigration attorney then applied for a part-time concurrent H1B to work for that LLC as a board member a couple of hours a week, in parallel with myexisting H1B visa, allowing me to be involved from day one (you can start work the moment the visa is filed). When the startup was funded, they then filed a H1B transfer for me. "

abstractbill 16y ago
This can be done, but it's not a long-term solution and honestly I wouldn't recommend it. H1B visas are granted for three years, and you can renew once. That gives you a total of six years after which you have to go home - no matter how well your startup is doing at that point. I've never heard of anyone doing the above and managing to keep their Green Card application going. I'm not sure it's actually possible. In contrast a Green Card can be renewed indefinitely, so it's a rather valuable thing to wait for. Totally worth it in my opinion.
- georgecmu 16y ago
  > H1B visas are granted for three years, and you can renew once. Not exactly. They can be renewed past the second term indefinitely, as long as an immigration application (I-140/I-485) has been filed with USCIS and is under review -- can be a long process.