One day I will write about the tragi-comedy that was my route to being able to start and run a startup as an immigrant. Meanwhile, I want to highlight two thin

One day I will write about the tragi-comedy that was my route to being able to start and run a startup as an immigrant. Meanwhile, I want to highlight two things: (1) My wife, who has a graduate degree from one of the best schools in the U.S. and has been living in the U.S. for a decade, is currently stuck in Canada indefinitely because on her 3rd visa stamping they decided that she may be a security risk and they need to investigate her because she took an information security class in grad school 8 years ago. I am not exaggerating when I say indefinitely. They will literally not provide an expected timeline by which she will get an answer. She has met at least 3 individuals who have been stuck in this kind of limbo for over a year. The cherry on the cake: this is the 2nd time this is happening to her. The first time, after 2 months, they decided she was o.k. If you are going to use basic keyword filtering on an applicant's resume to flag them, at the very least you should learn from the false positives! (2) For all the bad press that the H1B program gets, at least 50% of the people I know who got an H1B after going to grad school in the U.S. have actively tried to start a startup. Most gave up on it because of the high risk of being kicked out in the U.S. since there is no startup visa. Would you start a startup if every time you left the country you risked not being let back in indefinitely? Most of my rational friends think I am crazy for taking that kind of risk. Think about it - even anti-H1B advocates who think these H1Bs are stealing their jobs should be happy to let these guys get a visa to start a company so that they are not "stealing jobs"!