4 ms·

Having been through the hoops, I'd generally support this, but it's a tough sell in today's economy. Because there are emotions involved. There are already sim

Having been through the hoops, I'd generally support this, but it's a tough sell in today's economy. Because there are emotions involved. There are already similar visas (EB-5 and E-1). Especially the E-1 category is very close and could easily be amended to fit Paul's ideas (I used the E-1 as co-founder of my previous startup, EVE). One issue that needs to be addressed: you are not likely to get funding until you move here. But if the visa gives you a grace period (say 6 months) to move first before you get funding, then it will be abused.

ajju 18y ago
Care to elaborate on how you got through the hoops? Many (or most) of the people taking advantage of such a visa might be those already in the US on student or work visas.
- alain94040 18y ago
  Here are some details based on my personal experience (I have been under 6 different visa status over the last 15 years). There is a misconception that an investor visa requires cash investment (in the order of $500K to $1M). That's false. This number comes from the EB-5 green card route. The E visa is a temporary visa, but it is valid 5 years and renewable pretty much as long as you want. There is no minimum cash investment required in the statute. You do need to convince the US embassy of your home country that you have a good business plan. Actually, to be convincing, it better be more than a plan: early customer interest, letters of intent (LOI), etc. all constitute strong elements to include in your application. In line with PG's idea, letters from prominent VCs about their interest may work as well. For about $6,000, you can get a good, proactive immigration lawyer to prepare your case, assuming your business opportunity is real.
  - sriramk 18y ago
    Unfortunately, this doesn't work for non-treaty countries. India is one of them
  - ajju 18y ago
    Thanks for the update. As the above comenter says, apparently Iran is a treaty country but India is not. Nothing against Iran, I'm just referring to the recent anti-Iran rhetoric in the US, but it's definitely sad. Wish Indian bureaucrats were more effective at their jobs.
dfranke 18y ago
> you are not likely to get funding until you move here I think it's likely that if this visa existed, VCs would adapt to it by becoming more open to funding people who haven't immigrated yet.
- tptacek 18y ago
  VC's barely (meaning, almost not at all) adapt to citizens who haven't yet moved to Boston or San Jose yet.
  - dfranke 18y ago
    That's because US citizens seeking VC who haven't moved to Boston or San Jose usually have no good excuse not to; for VCs, it's an easy way to filter out undedicated founders. Foreigners who want to move there but can't get a visa have a much better excuse.
    - ajju 18y ago
      That assumes that VCs have a need to invest in people outside the valley or Boston. VCs would have to travel outside the country to meet potential founders (since they don't yet have a visa) There are enough founders in those two places that VCs don't have any pressing need to jump through such hoops.
- trapper 18y ago
  Can anyone think of a wonderful business (think truly great) that couldn't get funding until they were in the US? From what I have seen there is tons of money if your model is great. I think the counter is true: it's much easier to raise money for bleeding edge ideas in the US. But, ask yourself whether you want to be doing a bleeding edge business (e.g. based on twitter or facebook) or one thats more likely to make you wealthy (B2B).
  - pmjordan 18y ago
    Can anyone think of a wonderful business (think truly great) that couldn't get funding until they were in the US? How would you know? You only hear about the success stories and the spectacular failures, not the full spectrum in between. But, ask yourself whether you want to be doing a bleeding edge business (e.g. based on twitter or facebook) or one thats more likely to make you wealthy (B2B). Just because you'd prefer to do a B2B startup you want to deny others from trying to go straight to the top?
siong1987 18y ago
It is bad that E1 is only available for certain countries. My country is not in the list. Is there any other options?
hko 18y ago
> you are not likely to get funding until you move here Not so: people could do the initial work for startups on student and H1-B visas, which they could then convert if they got funded.
Kadin 18y ago
I was a bit disappointed that the author of the article didn't address the difference between what he was proposing and the existing investor visas. They seem pretty close, to the point where what he's seemingly asking for could be achieved by tweaking existing programs rather than creating entirely new visas. The intent and purpose of the investor visas are exactly what's being discussed: bringing talented people to the U.S. so they can start businesses that employ Americans and contribute to the economy. If those programs aren't doing what they're supposed to do, or if they have capital/investment requirements that aren't in line with what modern high-tech companies require (i.e. modern startups don't require as much as the minimum investments for the visas) then we should address that, but I don't think it needs to be done from a blank slate. (Information on immigration through investment <a href="http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=4ff96138f898d010VgnVCM10000048f3d6a1RCRD http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f..., assuming that link is stable.)

ajju 18y ago

Care to elaborate on how you got through the hoops? Many (or most) of the people taking advantage of such a visa might be those already in the US on student or work visas.

alain94040 18y ago
Here are some details based on my personal experience (I have been under 6 different visa status over the last 15 years). There is a misconception that an investor visa requires cash investment (in the order of $500K to $1M). That's false. This number comes from the EB-5 green card route. The E visa is a temporary visa, but it is valid 5 years and renewable pretty much as long as you want. There is no minimum cash investment required in the statute. You do need to convince the US embassy of your home country that you have a good business plan. Actually, to be convincing, it better be more than a plan: early customer interest, letters of intent (LOI), etc. all constitute strong elements to include in your application. In line with PG's idea, letters from prominent VCs about their interest may work as well. For about $6,000, you can get a good, proactive immigration lawyer to prepare your case, assuming your business opportunity is real.
- sriramk 18y ago
  Unfortunately, this doesn't work for non-treaty countries. India is one of them
- ajju 18y ago
  Thanks for the update. As the above comenter says, apparently Iran is a treaty country but India is not. Nothing against Iran, I'm just referring to the recent anti-Iran rhetoric in the US, but it's definitely sad. Wish Indian bureaucrats were more effective at their jobs.

dfranke 18y ago

> you are not likely to get funding until you move here I think it's likely that if this visa existed, VCs would adapt to it by becoming more open to funding people who haven't immigrated yet.

tptacek 18y ago
VC's barely (meaning, almost not at all) adapt to citizens who haven't yet moved to Boston or San Jose yet.
- dfranke 18y ago
  That's because US citizens seeking VC who haven't moved to Boston or San Jose usually have no good excuse not to; for VCs, it's an easy way to filter out undedicated founders. Foreigners who want to move there but can't get a visa have a much better excuse.
  - ajju 18y ago
    That assumes that VCs have a need to invest in people outside the valley or Boston. VCs would have to travel outside the country to meet potential founders (since they don't yet have a visa) There are enough founders in those two places that VCs don't have any pressing need to jump through such hoops.
trapper 18y ago
Can anyone think of a wonderful business (think truly great) that couldn't get funding until they were in the US? From what I have seen there is tons of money if your model is great. I think the counter is true: it's much easier to raise money for bleeding edge ideas in the US. But, ask yourself whether you want to be doing a bleeding edge business (e.g. based on twitter or facebook) or one thats more likely to make you wealthy (B2B).
- pmjordan 18y ago
  Can anyone think of a wonderful business (think truly great) that couldn't get funding until they were in the US? How would you know? You only hear about the success stories and the spectacular failures, not the full spectrum in between. But, ask yourself whether you want to be doing a bleeding edge business (e.g. based on twitter or facebook) or one thats more likely to make you wealthy (B2B). Just because you'd prefer to do a B2B startup you want to deny others from trying to go straight to the top?

siong1987 18y ago

It is bad that E1 is only available for certain countries. My country is not in the list. Is there any other options?

hko 18y ago

> you are not likely to get funding until you move here Not so: people could do the initial work for startups on student and H1-B visas, which they could then convert if they got funded.

Kadin 18y ago

I was a bit disappointed that the author of the article didn't address the difference between what he was proposing and the existing investor visas. They seem pretty close, to the point where what he's seemingly asking for could be achieved by tweaking existing programs rather than creating entirely new visas. The intent and purpose of the investor visas are exactly what's being discussed: bringing talented people to the U.S. so they can start businesses that employ Americans and contribute to the economy. If those programs aren't doing what they're supposed to do, or if they have capital/investment requirements that aren't in line with what modern high-tech companies require (i.e. modern startups don't require as much as the minimum investments for the visas) then we should address that, but I don't think it needs to be done from a blank slate. (Information on immigration through investment <a href="http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=4ff96138f898d010VgnVCM10000048f3d6a1RCRD http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f..., assuming that link is stable.)