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Do you know any startups that take H-1B candidates? I looked into it because I very much wanted to hire a particular candidate, but the fees, time, and legal ex

Do you know any startups that take H-1B candidates? I looked into it because I very much wanted to hire a particular candidate, but the fees, time, and legal expertise required are nearly insurmountable to a young company, in my opinion.

jacoblyles 16y ago
A friend of mine owns a startup (2 people) and he is going through the H-1B process to hire a European programmer. If you'd like to get in contact with him, drop me an email and I will see if he is willing to answer questions about it.
guelo 16y ago
We did it at an early funded startup, I don't completely remember but I think it cost us around $20k including the lawyer we hired to take care of it. The guy was a superstar though, he was more than worth it to us. I also saw it happen at a startup that initially relied heavily on outsourcing, after a couple years they started bringing some of the best Indian guys in-house.
- vitobcn 16y ago
  If I remember correctly from a couple years back, H1-B Homeland security fees are around $3k and if you hire a lawyer for the process you'll have to add at least another $1k. It's not cheap, but it is certainly not that expensive, as those fees will usually be less than 1 month's salary of the hired developer. In my opinion, timing constraints and uncertainty end up being a bigger deterrent: you can only apply on April, the visa start the following October and it takes a while to know whether the applicant was selected.
  - ojbyrne 16y ago
    As far as I know, only applying in April is incorrect. In past years the quotas ran out almost immediately when they started in April, so that was essentially the case. This year the quota hasn't run out yet.
  - metachris 16y ago
    I'm in the US on a H-1B visa and we applied beginning of October. In November it was granted and I came here beginning of December. It required a lot of documentation, but else the process was fast and pretty painless.
- snissn 16y ago
  As far as I know the $20K figure is 4-5x high what it should be. Does anybody with a lot of experience with Visas have a better price quote?
  - tptacek 16y ago
    The price you seem to think it should be is in the range of what we've seen, with lawyers.
  - alain94040 16y ago
    I have seen closer to $6K, no more than $8K.
- tptacek 16y ago
  You are getting wildly overcharged.
nigelk 16y ago
I'm on an H1B with a startup after being on an E-3 for a few years with a much larger company. We have other E-3 employees as well. http://www.puppetlabs.com/company/jobs/ http://www.puppetlabs.com/company/jobs/ Ultimately you need to make a judgement call when hiring. Is the position important enough to justify the cost of the visa application and processing? I'd argue that at an early stage for a startup, just about every position is that important. The right person matters a lot. The bigger problem might be the time it takes to get all these applications done. The USCIS doesn't exactly operate at startup pace... :)
weel 16y ago
I interviewed for jobs in California last week, and I got job offers from three startups (two in San Francisco, one in the Valley), one of which was pre-series-A. Each of these reassured me that they knew a good immigration lawyer and offered to pay for them (in one case as part of a lump sump relocation bonus.) I ultimately decided to go work for Facebook instead, but I can confirm that there are certainly startups making job offers in the full understanding that they're going to have to arrange H1Bs.

jacoblyles 16y ago

A friend of mine owns a startup (2 people) and he is going through the H-1B process to hire a European programmer. If you'd like to get in contact with him, drop me an email and I will see if he is willing to answer questions about it.

guelo 16y ago

We did it at an early funded startup, I don't completely remember but I think it cost us around $20k including the lawyer we hired to take care of it. The guy was a superstar though, he was more than worth it to us. I also saw it happen at a startup that initially relied heavily on outsourcing, after a couple years they started bringing some of the best Indian guys in-house.

vitobcn 16y ago
If I remember correctly from a couple years back, H1-B Homeland security fees are around $3k and if you hire a lawyer for the process you'll have to add at least another $1k. It's not cheap, but it is certainly not that expensive, as those fees will usually be less than 1 month's salary of the hired developer. In my opinion, timing constraints and uncertainty end up being a bigger deterrent: you can only apply on April, the visa start the following October and it takes a while to know whether the applicant was selected.
- ojbyrne 16y ago
  As far as I know, only applying in April is incorrect. In past years the quotas ran out almost immediately when they started in April, so that was essentially the case. This year the quota hasn't run out yet.
- metachris 16y ago
  I'm in the US on a H-1B visa and we applied beginning of October. In November it was granted and I came here beginning of December. It required a lot of documentation, but else the process was fast and pretty painless.
snissn 16y ago
As far as I know the $20K figure is 4-5x high what it should be. Does anybody with a lot of experience with Visas have a better price quote?
- tptacek 16y ago
  The price you seem to think it should be is in the range of what we've seen, with lawyers.
- alain94040 16y ago
  I have seen closer to $6K, no more than $8K.
tptacek 16y ago
You are getting wildly overcharged.

nigelk 16y ago

I'm on an H1B with a startup after being on an E-3 for a few years with a much larger company. We have other E-3 employees as well. http://www.puppetlabs.com/company/jobs/ http://www.puppetlabs.com/company/jobs/ Ultimately you need to make a judgement call when hiring. Is the position important enough to justify the cost of the visa application and processing? I'd argue that at an early stage for a startup, just about every position is that important. The right person matters a lot. The bigger problem might be the time it takes to get all these applications done. The USCIS doesn't exactly operate at startup pace... :)

weel 16y ago

I interviewed for jobs in California last week, and I got job offers from three startups (two in San Francisco, one in the Valley), one of which was pre-series-A. Each of these reassured me that they knew a good immigration lawyer and offered to pay for them (in one case as part of a lump sump relocation bonus.) I ultimately decided to go work for Facebook instead, but I can confirm that there are certainly startups making job offers in the full understanding that they're going to have to arrange H1Bs.