11 ms·

My Immigration Story

166 points by isalmon 11y ago

htaway2577235 11y ago
Was the $8/hour Boston job under the work/travel visa?
- isalmon 11y ago
  It was under J-1 'Internship' visa [http://j1visa.state.gov/programs/intern/ http://j1visa.state.gov/programs/intern/]
htaway2577235 11y ago
It is technically possible for H-1Bs to start their own companies, but the barriers to this are very high, and it's still a very rare option. There was a memo released a couple years back that changed the rules: http://www.murthy.com/2012/12/17/entrepreneur-h1b-petitions-a-new-option-for-start-up-companies/ http://www.murthy.com/2012/12/17/entrepreneur-h1b-petitions-...
- sologoub 11y ago
  Interesting, but still rather convoluted and will definitely require costly legal representation. US could definitely use some sort of medium-length work visa for startups (as opposed to small businesses/traditional companies). The distinction between startup (or a company in a desirable industry/sector the country wishes to have more of) versus just any business is important to both stimulate growth and also be a selling point to nay-sayers.
- isalmon 11y ago
  Yeah, I saw that. I wish it would have been several years earlier :) Definitely worth looking into, although I would recommend hiring a lawyer.
nobullet 11y ago
Congratulations with DV lottery! :)
- isalmon 11y ago
  Thanks. I really got lucky.
  - redmaverick 11y ago
    nice story! How did you get your first few clients/customers. Did you get investor funding for Datanyze?
    - isalmon 11y ago
      It was bootstrapped to a pretty significant (>$1m) revenue and then we raised some money. I'll write about it one day - another crazy story.
      - vargalas 11y ago
        I'm looking forward to reading it. Your visa story is well-written.
bayesianhorse 11y ago
Most immigration laws are "stupid" in a lot of ways. It's even stupider when you think about the fact, that specialized and highly skilled jobs are actually harder to work in for immigrants. Yes, theoretically, the U.S. immigration law (and many other countries', too) favors highly skilled jobs. In practice however, it is far easier for low skilled workers to just overstay a visa. In 2012, the U.S. paid $18 billion to try and enforce immigration laws. Still, there are anywhere between 7 and 30 million illegal immigrants in the country, despite all the effort. Billions for law enforcement, not a penny for social services...
- fijal 11y ago
  agreed that most immigration laws are stupid and annoying, but yet US is particularly bad. They're thorough, picky and the requirements are really high. It's also quite expensive
sneak 11y ago
All of this because of the fictional concept of where you were born playing a part in the person you presently are. This idea of being property of a state (other people) who is responsible for you and to whom you are indebted is madness. Open the borders and stop this idiocy.
- ommunist 11y ago
  @sneak - you have probably been born into another illusion, the idea that you are free and independent. Now tell me -- where does the money come from?
  - bayesianhorse 11y ago
    Philosophers and Economists have battled on that question for centuries now...
    - ommunist 11y ago
      Haha, yup. I am just reading Metzinger's "The Ego Tunnel" which contains the latest research on the subject.
- bayesianhorse 11y ago
  I guess immigration laws are not in place because of that "fictional concept", but rather because those inside the country are so afraid that immigrants would take away from whatever they believe to be entitled to. I also believe there will come a time, when all industrialized nations will open their borders, at least for honest immigrants. Preferably all those nations at the same time. Already, enforcement of immigration regulation is impossible in many countries. And the extent to which that regulation seems to be working might as well stem from the fact that most people, no matter how poor or desperate actually don't want to leave their home country.
DigitalSea 11y ago
This was a great read and hits close to home for me. Not many people realise that getting a visa to live and work in the USA is extremely difficult, if not possible. I recently did some contracting work for a US based startup. I am based in Australia and the startup was in Seattle. I am in this weird area because I am self-taught and have no college/university degree and fall just under the 12 years required experience to substitute for a degree. The rule is 3 years of proven work experience for every year of a standard 4 year degree. So no visas applied to me I could apply for. I eventually just took a remote contracting position with the company and flew over for the maximum 3 month stay and travelled around. During my time there I encountered a lot of taxi/Uber drivers who immigrated from various countries and nothing personally against them, but I have a unique skillset that this startup was looking for and was struggling to find themselves and yet it is impossible for me to travel and work in the USA? Once again no offence or ill-will, but how is it possible for someone to move to the USA to drive a cab, but a developer can't actually get a job in the US? Kind of perplexing. Supposedly the US values highly skilled jobs, but it seems they only class professions like a lawyer, doctor or some other profession that requires an extended period of study as highly skilled. For software development maybe considered highly skilled, but not so much front-end development/Javascript. Comparatively, Canada make it easy to obtain a work/stay visa for an initial period of 2 years and I believe you can keep extending it. You don't need any academic qualifications or jump through any massive hurdles. Why is the US like this, especially with a close ally country like Australia? It's the same story in the UK, if not, you get even more scrutiny trying to get into the UK for work. But as the author writes, the skilled immigration problem seems to be affect people from everywhere.
- throwaway9324 11y ago
  When it comes to visas everyone wants to be special. Unfortunately the international recognized way of being special is having a bachelors degree. If that wasn't a requirement it would probably be even harder skilled workers to get visas. It sounds like if you work a couple of more years you can apply for an E-2 visa and hopefully avoid the H1-B lottery. That is not a bad position to be in. Considering the outlook for someone wanting to immigrate to the US to drive a cab I wouldn't be very bothered by that either.
zura 11y ago
If you're not after investors money in SV and plan to just bootstrap your business, what are the advantages of moving to US?
- sillygoose 11y ago
  None. It's a burgeoning police state. Stay out of harm's way.
- jakozaur 11y ago
  Advantages: Huge density of talent, capital, entrepreneurship, potential clients. E.g. there are regular meetups about every niche technology, where you can validate idea/find initial clients. Even if you bootstrap, you indirectly benefit from your clients having VC money. Disadvantages: Cost are huge, competition on talent is ultra intense. E.g. if you move from Spain, you need to spend incredible energy and time to get through visa pain. Is it worth it? Depends on your case. IMO bootstrapping, not so much. VC heavy business, likely yes.
- outworlder 11y ago
  Networking. I've seen lots of competition to US startups never getting anywhere, while the US ones were pitching their stuff day and night, be it at conferences or the nearby Starbucks.
mcgin 11y ago
Great read, I spent years trying to sort out a US visa but gave up in the end, kudos for your determination!
- isalmon 11y ago
  Thanks. Where did you end up?
bruceb 11y ago
Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton favor amnesty that encourages illegal immigration while million of people are waiting to come to the US and high skilled immigrants jump through hoops.
abhiv 11y ago
Great story. Very impressed by your persistence and creativity, and congratulations on your success. I think the concept of employers applying for a green card for employees is fundamentally broken. It pits the interests of the employer directly against the employee, since it's in the employer's interest to drag out the process for as long as possible, and reduces job mobility (which brings down wages for everyone) because the green card process needs to be restarted if employees switch jobs midway, before the I-485 step. A system where any legally employed foreign worker can file for a green card for themselves seems much more sane. Anecdotally, it seems to me that wages for H-1B visa holders are only lower when the employer files for a visa for an employee who is outside of the country. In my experience as a student who went the F-1 -> H-1B route, salaries are the same whether or not you have an H-1B. The much wider set of employers that you can interview with when you are already in the country probably makes it infeasible for employers to pay their H-1B employees who were already in the US under a different visa less than employees who don't need a visa.
- isalmon 11y ago
  I think you got lucky. Most people that I knew who were on H-1b were getting much less than green card holders of US citizens. I don't have a substantial amount of data on this of course.
petea 11y ago
Immigration reform for skilled workers will almost certainly not happen as long as Democrats continue to lump in amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants in the same immigration reform bill. This might not be a popular opinion to spout, but I can't see it any other way. These illegals will almost certainly vote for Democrats. How do you expect Republicans to cooperate to welcome educated workers when you are expecting Republicans to commit political suicide? US as a whole will hugely benefit from making the immigration process easier for educated workers like many other countries have done (Canada, UK, Germany, Australia etc), but this doesn't seem possible under current political climate.
- bruceb 11y ago
  This is an "elite" vs common person fight. Bush 2 and Jeb Bush are for amnesty. That being said from a purely political decision supporting amnesty is generally a loser for Republicans. Their business donors want it but vote wise it seems dumb.
- maxerickson 11y ago
  Is there much evidence that non citizens are participating in US elections? I'm sure there are a few people doing it illegally, I mean evidence of 1,000 or 10,000 or 100,000 or millions or whatever it might be.
  - gyardley 11y ago
    No, but he's referring to the eventual consequences of an amnesty for illegal immigrants, which would convert them to legal green card holders. After five years of permanent residency, you can naturalize and vote. He probably should've written 'these former illegals' to be clearer.
    - maxerickson 11y ago
      Given the partisan drum thumping around the issue, I wouldn't want to guess what someone meant. (example: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/12/obama-amnesty-creates-loophole-for-illegal-immigra/?page=1 http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/12/obama-amnest... )
rakedbmigrate 11y ago
Nice write-up! What will your advice to someone with similar aspiration from a third world country?
- vjankov 11y ago
  Not OP but I've been on an F1 for 7 years and I'm currently applying for an H1B, but I don't think I was selected in this round. Anyways, the easiest way would to be enroll in a US university. Most grad programs in STEM will give you significant financial aid if not completely paid tuition. Another way is just applying for a job with a big international corporation and eventually they'll bring you on board. Yet another way is J1 internship which you can use to do an internship here and see if you can find a full time job (much like OP did). And finally you can always just keep applying for the Green Card lottery every year because you never know, you might get lucky. And the smaller the country you're coming from, the higher the chances of getting selected. Good luck!
  - rakedbmigrate 11y ago
    I'm a college dropout and I did a startup which is failed miserably. I used to work with various US based early stage startup as a freelance developer. Unfortunately none of them haven't shown any green signs. Should I finish my degree here or should I start applying to Universities in US? I was also planning to apply for internship in valley startups. > you can always just keep applying for the Green Card lottery Unfortunately, my country is not eligible for Greencard lottery.
    - tim333 11y ago
      I don't know that much about it but I would guess a good strategy would be get a decent, presumably bachelors, degree where you are and then apply for a masters in the US.
segmondy 11y ago
Amazing story, it's not even the immigration process that caught my eyes, but how you knew exactly what you wanted, kept at it, once you had the chance, you made the move, and 3 years later, you pay more in taxes than you can ever earn working for someone else while employing 30+ others. Bravo!
liperuf 11y ago
i'm very impressed by your persistence. congratulations. nowadays, do you encourage or employ people in same situation as you were?
- isalmon 11y ago
  Yes we have a couple of H-1b employees and we are starting to process their green cards now. We also look for people who are willing to take any internship opportunities just like I did back in the days.
  - liperuf 11y ago
    nice to hear that!
neverminder 11y ago
This is why I ended up in London - to me it's the next best thing. Being an EU citizen I have equal rights here and employers can't lowball my salary, because they have no such leverage like they do in US with H1-B visa. There's nothing immigration-related looming over my head and working hours are better than in US (from what I hear), so I have plenty of time for starting my own gig on the side initially when I'm ready for it. The irony is that you can get to US if you have a million to invest (if that hasn't changed yet), but if you have already made it this far, going to US kind of defeats the purpose - "If I can make it there, I'm gonna make it anywhere".
- kokey 11y ago
  While it's relatively easy for people with an EU passport to move to the UK, the work permit system is just as bad as the H1-B visa system. It's capped at around 20000 applicants per year. For those with good English and tech skills without an EU passport, Dublin is a fairly good option. The work permit system is reasonable and the demand for skills is quite strong. There are also a lot of US companies with operations in Dublin, which opens the possibility for an L1 visa to get to the US. I think UK companies should also consider setting up offices in Dublin, so they can get access to talent they can transfer to the UK using the intra company transfer visa, similar to companies in the US having offices in Canada.
  - necrodawg 11y ago
    There are quite a few international companies with satellite offices in Dublin for this reason, even if they have offices elsewhere in Europe. :)
- rb2k_ 11y ago
  > employers can't lowball my salary, because they have no such leverage like they do in US with H1-B visa They have to pay you at least the average wage for your position, experience and area. At least from the other H1B folks I know, all of them get above average salary. There is a lot of indian body shops doing consulting (infosys, ...) that are super shady, but if you work at a 'regular' US company, you should be fine from what I've seen.
toadi 11y ago
End of the the 90's dreamed of moving to US and even got a possibility. By the time I was ready to it the first dot com bubble bursted. To be quite honest I only knew US from the movies. Following news and recent developments I'm quite hesitant to move over there. Cops shooting people, riots, NSA tracking,... My romantic view when I just started working in the dot com boom of US that bubble bursted. This doesn't mean I don't like the US. There are many good things also. In any country there are good and bad things. But I think there are other places maybe as good as the US which are worth exploring.
- drcross 11y ago
  I used to be the same but after spending 8 months there the food is better in Europe, your quality of life is generally higher, lower working hours and the government system is one that I wouldn't want to support.
ommunist 11y ago
I admire the consistency of Ilya's efforts. The US despite claiming the policy of sucking out best Russian brains in reality fails to provide the backing policy for that, and Ilya's story shows very good example. When it comes to software development, I believe the US as a framework, does not really want devs to come and wants to keep them remotely.
Dewie3 11y ago
> I know that hundreds, maybe thousands of people like me are willing to start their companies here in the US, employ people, pay taxes, drive the economy, It seems they care more and more about megacorp job creators than others.
akramhussein 11y ago
Oh man. You really didn't give up, kudos to that. It is such a painful process. I've had a mixed bag of experiences too and just decided to focus on what I have in London and maybe it would work out later but wouldn't get my hopes up. Yahoo cancelled my last round interview because there wasn't enough time to submit for H1-B if I passed :/ For comparison, in the 80's when my father got a job at the FDA, it was signed, sealed, delivered and my family moved in just a few months in the mid of the year, well before all this became so complex. Kicker is I got a Greencard before we moved back, but unfortunately I was too young to realise what this meant or do anything about it...and it expired.
aduitsis 11y ago
Kudos to Ilya, I love it when it ends successfully. It is kind of ironic though that eventually he got the Green Card via the DV lottery. Had he been fired without that, it would have been a very difficult stretch to get a job within 30 days.
aliakhtar 11y ago
Didn't Obama introduce a startup visa a few months ago? What happened to it?
- sparkzilla 11y ago
  The most recent article I saw on it [1] says that "within the year" Obama is likely to sign an executive order that allows for the founders of funded startups to get visas, dependent on the amount of funds raised. If you raise $200,000 from a qualified U.S. investor you will get a two-year entrepreneurship visa to come live in America. If you raise $750,000 or more from a qualified U.S. investor or group of investors, you will get a green card. As someone who would benefit from this action, it can't come soon enough. [1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2015/04/08/how-obama-could-spark-an-international-migration-of-startups/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2015/04/08/how-ob...
  - isalmon 11y ago
    I don't think raising money should be an indicator here though. For example, we bootstrapped the company till about $1M in ARR, and I know a lot of great startup that were 100% bootstrapped.
    - sparkzilla 11y ago
      In that case you should be able to get an E-2 treaty investor visa fairly easily.
anti-shill 11y ago
we need a moratorium on legal immigration--it helps suppress wage growth and drive up housing costs
- khuey 11y ago
  What drives up housing costs is a lack of houses.
userulluipeste 11y ago
Interesting read. I have a somewhat provocative question currently roaming trough my mind - you said that you "really appreciate the opportunity this country gave" to you (which is nice, BTW, but that's from a patient frame), considering now all what you've paid and what you're giving (i.e. from an actor frame), do they deserve you?
- isalmon 11y ago
  Absolutely. This country gave me more than I gave it back (yet).
outworlder 11y ago
> I talked to several lawyers and all of them told me that I’d get into trouble if I incorporate a company in the US Wow, I never knew that. I would never have expected it to matter, since you can incorporate a company in the US while not being in the US, no problem.
- sancha_ 11y ago
  Without a US citizenship?
  - sireat 11y ago
    US is actually quite a bit of a tax heaven for non US citizens. It is easy to incorporate in US and there are various advantages to sheltering your non US generated assets in US. Simple example, think of all those shell corps owning apartments in Manhattan. I am not sure if FATCA bites back US on this front.
Oras 11y ago
I enjoyed every line of your story, to be honest I was surprised when I read "my wife" with all this tough work you could still have your own life.
- isalmon 11y ago
  It would not have been possible without her :)
sireat 11y ago
Fantastic read, but the punchline is almost like that anecdote about how to make million dollars (you know the one about buying apple for 5 cents polishing it and selling it for 10 cents until the rich uncle dies). The fastest way to green card in US is genius visa, but you need the credentials to pull it off. It has a ridiculously high acceptance rate I think about 90 %.
sonabinu 11y ago
Skill based immigration and subsequent green card is a story in patience and perseverance. This is a great write-up!
- shas3 11y ago
  Patience and perseverance is a perverse way of stating it. There are numerous serious problems: 1. Spouse is prohibited from seeking employment unless he gets his own work visa 2. 8 year wait for green card for skilled workers born in India 3. Gaming of the system by Indian outsourcing companies 4. The system (tying visa to employer and procedural inflexibility in transferring it) is such that it indirectly makes the visa-holder indentured to the company 5. Near-blind lottery system that favors outsourcing companies which apply for work-visas in the thousands (at which point, the lottery is a statistical bet for the company). 6. Near-blind lottery system that is heavily tilted against specialized (with a higher degree, for example) skilled employees who are critical to companies: if such a person loses in the lottery, the employer and the employee stand to lose a lot unlike outsourcing companies which operate on a sort of 'wholesale' basis.
peter303 11y ago
Perhaps US should change that if one does not have a job and started a household by age 30, then they lose their US citizenship. This could motivate some lazy millennials. I recall something similar in ancient Rome.
tosseraccount 11y ago
US Middle Class real median household income DOWN : https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/MEHOINUSA672N https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/MEHOINUSA672N Cost of employees as percentage of sales down : http://www.philosophicaleconomics.com/2015/05/profit-margins-in-a-winner-take-all-economy/ http://www.philosophicaleconomics.com/2015/05/profit-margins... Specifically : http://i2.wp.com/www.philosophicaleconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ae3a.jpg?resize=640%2C362 http://i2.wp.com/www.philosophicaleconomics.com/wp-content/u... labor bargaining power has weakened substantially amid globalization US citizens not as enthusiastic about more immigration as are the US elite: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100593528 http://www.cnbc.com/id/100593528 as recently as 2012, 69 percent of those surveyed agree that "we should restrict and control people coming to live in our country more than we do now." The MSM often only presents one side of the story. There is NO evidence of US labor shortage. In fact, with stagnant to down real labor prices, the only logical conclusion is that there is a glut. Corporate and Academic control of more and more guest worker visas is not really a great idea.
kushti 11y ago
It seems the author spent a lot of time messing with a horrible bureaucracy. Is it an article against the corrupted system written in so elegant manner?
- isalmon 11y ago
  I would not call it corrupted. I would probably call it ineffective.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
rglullis 11y ago
Ok, for others who might be interested in immigrating, a few other things that I learned from my experience: - If you already are done with your studies, look for jobs at educational institutions. Universities, research laboratories, think tanks. They are exempt from the quota and can hire at any time of the year and outside of the quota. There a few downsides. First, most of the openings at these institutions will require some kind of grad school. Second, these institutions are not known for paying the same salaries as big name companies in Silicon Valley. Third, you can not transfer the visa to another company, so if you get an offer from another company that does not share the quota-exempt status, you are back in the position of waiting until April and hoping the new employer doesn't fuck up the application and that there aren't 10 gazillion other applicants from IBM, Google, Infosys, Tata and the like. - One hack: consider first moving to Canada. Their immigration laws are much saner in the US and are more merit- and qualification-based than the US. With a simple job offer you can get a resident visa in Canada. After 2 years as a resident you can apply for citizenship. And Canadian citizens can work in the US, under the TN visa. With this you avoid all the crap about the H1B lottery and have a stronger position to work in the US after ~3 years. If I ever plan to be in the US again in the next 3-5 years, I would actually move to Montreal first.
- wooyi 11y ago
  +1 on the Canada hack. Canada now has an "Express Entry" process for skilled workers that grants permanent residence in months 6 months or less. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/express/express-entry.asp http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/express/express-entry... However, applying for a Work Permit is still rather cumbersome (which is typically the first step after the job offer and before Express Entry) I just went through this process with an employee. While there is no arbitrary quota, the process does take between 3-6 months. But overall the path to citizenship is much shorter than in the US. And Canada has public healthcare. So, no need to worry about healthcare while you're self employed.
  - cdhdc 11y ago
    It will take 6 months before you're covered by a provinces health plan.
sprite 11y ago
As mentioned in the article another option is EB-5 investment visa. You need approximately $600k ($500k investment + budget another $100k for regional center fees, lawyer fees, etc). The process is still super slow though, the current average processing time for I-526 application is currently 14 months. I submitted mine in January and was told best case scenario is around 8 months for approval.
nish1500 11y ago
As someone who is new to understand the process, it baffles me to see how incredibly hard it is to immigrate to the US, as an entrepreneur. Some of the biggest new tech companies are founded by immigrants. I often wonder how they got into the country in the first place. The system rewards those under H1B. There is no provision for entrepreneurs. Being a college dropout entrepreneur, from a non-caucasian country, what chance do I have? I am reading Peter Thiel's book Zero to One. He talks about hidden injustices in our society. This is what comes to mind.
pshin45 11y ago
What interesting timing - I'm organizing an Immigration-themed hackathon[1] this weekend in SF, and on Saturday morning we'll have a speaking panel called "Immigrant Founder Stories" where founders from 4 startups (big to small) will share about their struggles to gain permanent status in the US, and how it affected them as entrepreneurs. - Laks Srini, Co-founder & CTO at Zenefits [2] - Tri Tran, Co-founder & CEO at Munchery [3] - Silver Keskküla, Co-founder at Teleport (ex-Skype) [4] - Nikhil Aitharaju, Co-founder at Tint [5] [1] http://www.up.co/communities/usa/san-francisco/startup-weekend/5961 http://www.up.co/communities/usa/san-francisco/startup-weeke... (Use promo code "hn" for 70% off) [2] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/24/technology/workers-in-silicon-valley-weigh-in-on-obamas-immigration-order.html http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/24/technology/workers-in-sili... [3] https://medium.com/@munchery/pitch-your-life-2f170eab933b https://medium.com/@munchery/pitch-your-life-2f170eab933b [4] https://medium.com/@keskkyla/good-luck-being-born-tomorrow-dedcfee3728 https://medium.com/@keskkyla/good-luck-being-born-tomorrow-d... [5] https://app.fwd.us/stories/259 https://app.fwd.us/stories/259
phamilton 11y ago
As a developer in the Bay Area, I find our lot to be pretty picky about where we work and what we work on. Acquihire "Golden Handcuffs" make us miserable. (What a terrible problem to have, right?) I admire Ilya's persistence in working for $8/hr because he had to. It lends a bit of perspective to hear his story. Thank you, Ilya!
bane 11y ago
Through my wife (a Korean immigrant), I've learned about how hard immigration to the U.S. is. We have our own insane story and the short of it is that immigration is an absolute mess. Considering how many smart and hard working people I've met who came here for college, and considering the outsized success the ones who managed to immigrate here have had, it seems kind of insane that we don't do more to keep them here. The lost tax revenue I can think of from personal connections alone is in the millions of dollars per year -- imagine how much economic activity that is!
YourOwn 11y ago
Hi, I am part of a team of three immigrants in the US building an app to help people settle in a new country (initially, the US). Like Mint.com, Credit Karma, or TurboTax for immigrants, YourOwn.com provides an interactive, gamified tool, with customized action plans and to-do lists, budgets, reminders, community support, and step-by-step guides that help immigrants quickly and easily establish a home of their own in a new country. Our first site will help people move to the US, then we will add other countries. Have a look at http://yourown.com http://yourown.com - we will soon launch, by invitation only. Thanks!
npachisia 11y ago
Ilya, great story that many of us can relate with. Stories like these (very similar to our personal stories) were the inspiration behind Unshackled. Our goal is to help entrepreneurs / startup teams who are held back from building great companies simply because of their visa. While we couldn’t help you (coz we didnt exist), Unshackled aims to make an impact for many other brilliant people like you. #innovate
peachysanchez 11y ago
DigitalSea : I agree. It's really hard to live and work somewhere other than your own country. To add to all the hardships that come with the situation, I didn;t know the language. I had to use Skype to learn Ukrainian. I had to start from scratch. I enrolled in http://preply.com/en/ukrainian-by-skype http://preply.com/en/ukrainian-by-skype to get me started. The instructor was pretty good but of course, I couldn't learn the whole thing in a month. Although I am still struggling with the language, I realize this comes with the job.

166 points by isalmon 11y ago

htaway2577235 11y ago

Was the $8/hour Boston job under the work/travel visa?

isalmon 11y ago
It was under J-1 'Internship' visa [http://j1visa.state.gov/programs/intern/ http://j1visa.state.gov/programs/intern/]

htaway2577235 11y ago

It is technically possible for H-1Bs to start their own companies, but the barriers to this are very high, and it's still a very rare option. There was a memo released a couple years back that changed the rules: http://www.murthy.com/2012/12/17/entrepreneur-h1b-petitions-a-new-option-for-start-up-companies/ http://www.murthy.com/2012/12/17/entrepreneur-h1b-petitions-...

sologoub 11y ago
Interesting, but still rather convoluted and will definitely require costly legal representation. US could definitely use some sort of medium-length work visa for startups (as opposed to small businesses/traditional companies). The distinction between startup (or a company in a desirable industry/sector the country wishes to have more of) versus just any business is important to both stimulate growth and also be a selling point to nay-sayers.
isalmon 11y ago
Yeah, I saw that. I wish it would have been several years earlier :) Definitely worth looking into, although I would recommend hiring a lawyer.

nobullet 11y ago

Congratulations with DV lottery! :)

isalmon 11y ago
Thanks. I really got lucky.
- redmaverick 11y ago
  nice story! How did you get your first few clients/customers. Did you get investor funding for Datanyze?
  - isalmon 11y ago
    It was bootstrapped to a pretty significant (>$1m) revenue and then we raised some money. I'll write about it one day - another crazy story.
    - vargalas 11y ago
      I'm looking forward to reading it. Your visa story is well-written.

bayesianhorse 11y ago

Most immigration laws are "stupid" in a lot of ways. It's even stupider when you think about the fact, that specialized and highly skilled jobs are actually harder to work in for immigrants. Yes, theoretically, the U.S. immigration law (and many other countries', too) favors highly skilled jobs. In practice however, it is far easier for low skilled workers to just overstay a visa. In 2012, the U.S. paid $18 billion to try and enforce immigration laws. Still, there are anywhere between 7 and 30 million illegal immigrants in the country, despite all the effort. Billions for law enforcement, not a penny for social services...

fijal 11y ago
agreed that most immigration laws are stupid and annoying, but yet US is particularly bad. They're thorough, picky and the requirements are really high. It's also quite expensive

sneak 11y ago

All of this because of the fictional concept of where you were born playing a part in the person you presently are. This idea of being property of a state (other people) who is responsible for you and to whom you are indebted is madness. Open the borders and stop this idiocy.

ommunist 11y ago
@sneak - you have probably been born into another illusion, the idea that you are free and independent. Now tell me -- where does the money come from?
- bayesianhorse 11y ago
  Philosophers and Economists have battled on that question for centuries now...
  - ommunist 11y ago
    Haha, yup. I am just reading Metzinger's "The Ego Tunnel" which contains the latest research on the subject.
bayesianhorse 11y ago
I guess immigration laws are not in place because of that "fictional concept", but rather because those inside the country are so afraid that immigrants would take away from whatever they believe to be entitled to. I also believe there will come a time, when all industrialized nations will open their borders, at least for honest immigrants. Preferably all those nations at the same time. Already, enforcement of immigration regulation is impossible in many countries. And the extent to which that regulation seems to be working might as well stem from the fact that most people, no matter how poor or desperate actually don't want to leave their home country.

DigitalSea 11y ago

This was a great read and hits close to home for me. Not many people realise that getting a visa to live and work in the USA is extremely difficult, if not possible. I recently did some contracting work for a US based startup. I am based in Australia and the startup was in Seattle. I am in this weird area because I am self-taught and have no college/university degree and fall just under the 12 years required experience to substitute for a degree. The rule is 3 years of proven work experience for every year of a standard 4 year degree. So no visas applied to me I could apply for. I eventually just took a remote contracting position with the company and flew over for the maximum 3 month stay and travelled around. During my time there I encountered a lot of taxi/Uber drivers who immigrated from various countries and nothing personally against them, but I have a unique skillset that this startup was looking for and was struggling to find themselves and yet it is impossible for me to travel and work in the USA? Once again no offence or ill-will, but how is it possible for someone to move to the USA to drive a cab, but a developer can't actually get a job in the US? Kind of perplexing. Supposedly the US values highly skilled jobs, but it seems they only class professions like a lawyer, doctor or some other profession that requires an extended period of study as highly skilled. For software development maybe considered highly skilled, but not so much front-end development/Javascript. Comparatively, Canada make it easy to obtain a work/stay visa for an initial period of 2 years and I believe you can keep extending it. You don't need any academic qualifications or jump through any massive hurdles. Why is the US like this, especially with a close ally country like Australia? It's the same story in the UK, if not, you get even more scrutiny trying to get into the UK for work. But as the author writes, the skilled immigration problem seems to be affect people from everywhere.

throwaway9324 11y ago
When it comes to visas everyone wants to be special. Unfortunately the international recognized way of being special is having a bachelors degree. If that wasn't a requirement it would probably be even harder skilled workers to get visas. It sounds like if you work a couple of more years you can apply for an E-2 visa and hopefully avoid the H1-B lottery. That is not a bad position to be in. Considering the outlook for someone wanting to immigrate to the US to drive a cab I wouldn't be very bothered by that either.

zura 11y ago

If you're not after investors money in SV and plan to just bootstrap your business, what are the advantages of moving to US?

sillygoose 11y ago
None. It's a burgeoning police state. Stay out of harm's way.
jakozaur 11y ago
Advantages: Huge density of talent, capital, entrepreneurship, potential clients. E.g. there are regular meetups about every niche technology, where you can validate idea/find initial clients. Even if you bootstrap, you indirectly benefit from your clients having VC money. Disadvantages: Cost are huge, competition on talent is ultra intense. E.g. if you move from Spain, you need to spend incredible energy and time to get through visa pain. Is it worth it? Depends on your case. IMO bootstrapping, not so much. VC heavy business, likely yes.
outworlder 11y ago
Networking. I've seen lots of competition to US startups never getting anywhere, while the US ones were pitching their stuff day and night, be it at conferences or the nearby Starbucks.

mcgin 11y ago

Great read, I spent years trying to sort out a US visa but gave up in the end, kudos for your determination!

isalmon 11y ago
Thanks. Where did you end up?

bruceb 11y ago

Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton favor amnesty that encourages illegal immigration while million of people are waiting to come to the US and high skilled immigrants jump through hoops.

abhiv 11y ago

Great story. Very impressed by your persistence and creativity, and congratulations on your success. I think the concept of employers applying for a green card for employees is fundamentally broken. It pits the interests of the employer directly against the employee, since it's in the employer's interest to drag out the process for as long as possible, and reduces job mobility (which brings down wages for everyone) because the green card process needs to be restarted if employees switch jobs midway, before the I-485 step. A system where any legally employed foreign worker can file for a green card for themselves seems much more sane. Anecdotally, it seems to me that wages for H-1B visa holders are only lower when the employer files for a visa for an employee who is outside of the country. In my experience as a student who went the F-1 -> H-1B route, salaries are the same whether or not you have an H-1B. The much wider set of employers that you can interview with when you are already in the country probably makes it infeasible for employers to pay their H-1B employees who were already in the US under a different visa less than employees who don't need a visa.

isalmon 11y ago
I think you got lucky. Most people that I knew who were on H-1b were getting much less than green card holders of US citizens. I don't have a substantial amount of data on this of course.

petea 11y ago

Immigration reform for skilled workers will almost certainly not happen as long as Democrats continue to lump in amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants in the same immigration reform bill. This might not be a popular opinion to spout, but I can't see it any other way. These illegals will almost certainly vote for Democrats. How do you expect Republicans to cooperate to welcome educated workers when you are expecting Republicans to commit political suicide? US as a whole will hugely benefit from making the immigration process easier for educated workers like many other countries have done (Canada, UK, Germany, Australia etc), but this doesn't seem possible under current political climate.

bruceb 11y ago
This is an "elite" vs common person fight. Bush 2 and Jeb Bush are for amnesty. That being said from a purely political decision supporting amnesty is generally a loser for Republicans. Their business donors want it but vote wise it seems dumb.
maxerickson 11y ago
Is there much evidence that non citizens are participating in US elections? I'm sure there are a few people doing it illegally, I mean evidence of 1,000 or 10,000 or 100,000 or millions or whatever it might be.
- gyardley 11y ago
  No, but he's referring to the eventual consequences of an amnesty for illegal immigrants, which would convert them to legal green card holders. After five years of permanent residency, you can naturalize and vote. He probably should've written 'these former illegals' to be clearer.
  - maxerickson 11y ago
    Given the partisan drum thumping around the issue, I wouldn't want to guess what someone meant. (example: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/12/obama-amnesty-creates-loophole-for-illegal-immigra/?page=1 http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/12/obama-amnest... )

rakedbmigrate 11y ago

Nice write-up! What will your advice to someone with similar aspiration from a third world country?

vjankov 11y ago
Not OP but I've been on an F1 for 7 years and I'm currently applying for an H1B, but I don't think I was selected in this round. Anyways, the easiest way would to be enroll in a US university. Most grad programs in STEM will give you significant financial aid if not completely paid tuition. Another way is just applying for a job with a big international corporation and eventually they'll bring you on board. Yet another way is J1 internship which you can use to do an internship here and see if you can find a full time job (much like OP did). And finally you can always just keep applying for the Green Card lottery every year because you never know, you might get lucky. And the smaller the country you're coming from, the higher the chances of getting selected. Good luck!
- rakedbmigrate 11y ago
  I'm a college dropout and I did a startup which is failed miserably. I used to work with various US based early stage startup as a freelance developer. Unfortunately none of them haven't shown any green signs. Should I finish my degree here or should I start applying to Universities in US? I was also planning to apply for internship in valley startups. > you can always just keep applying for the Green Card lottery Unfortunately, my country is not eligible for Greencard lottery.
  - tim333 11y ago
    I don't know that much about it but I would guess a good strategy would be get a decent, presumably bachelors, degree where you are and then apply for a masters in the US.

segmondy 11y ago

Amazing story, it's not even the immigration process that caught my eyes, but how you knew exactly what you wanted, kept at it, once you had the chance, you made the move, and 3 years later, you pay more in taxes than you can ever earn working for someone else while employing 30+ others. Bravo!

liperuf 11y ago

i'm very impressed by your persistence. congratulations. nowadays, do you encourage or employ people in same situation as you were?

isalmon 11y ago
Yes we have a couple of H-1b employees and we are starting to process their green cards now. We also look for people who are willing to take any internship opportunities just like I did back in the days.
- liperuf 11y ago
  nice to hear that!

neverminder 11y ago

This is why I ended up in London - to me it's the next best thing. Being an EU citizen I have equal rights here and employers can't lowball my salary, because they have no such leverage like they do in US with H1-B visa. There's nothing immigration-related looming over my head and working hours are better than in US (from what I hear), so I have plenty of time for starting my own gig on the side initially when I'm ready for it. The irony is that you can get to US if you have a million to invest (if that hasn't changed yet), but if you have already made it this far, going to US kind of defeats the purpose - "If I can make it there, I'm gonna make it anywhere".

kokey 11y ago
While it's relatively easy for people with an EU passport to move to the UK, the work permit system is just as bad as the H1-B visa system. It's capped at around 20000 applicants per year. For those with good English and tech skills without an EU passport, Dublin is a fairly good option. The work permit system is reasonable and the demand for skills is quite strong. There are also a lot of US companies with operations in Dublin, which opens the possibility for an L1 visa to get to the US. I think UK companies should also consider setting up offices in Dublin, so they can get access to talent they can transfer to the UK using the intra company transfer visa, similar to companies in the US having offices in Canada.
- necrodawg 11y ago
  There are quite a few international companies with satellite offices in Dublin for this reason, even if they have offices elsewhere in Europe. :)
rb2k_ 11y ago
> employers can't lowball my salary, because they have no such leverage like they do in US with H1-B visa They have to pay you at least the average wage for your position, experience and area. At least from the other H1B folks I know, all of them get above average salary. There is a lot of indian body shops doing consulting (infosys, ...) that are super shady, but if you work at a 'regular' US company, you should be fine from what I've seen.

toadi 11y ago

End of the the 90's dreamed of moving to US and even got a possibility. By the time I was ready to it the first dot com bubble bursted. To be quite honest I only knew US from the movies. Following news and recent developments I'm quite hesitant to move over there. Cops shooting people, riots, NSA tracking,... My romantic view when I just started working in the dot com boom of US that bubble bursted. This doesn't mean I don't like the US. There are many good things also. In any country there are good and bad things. But I think there are other places maybe as good as the US which are worth exploring.

drcross 11y ago
I used to be the same but after spending 8 months there the food is better in Europe, your quality of life is generally higher, lower working hours and the government system is one that I wouldn't want to support.

ommunist 11y ago

I admire the consistency of Ilya's efforts. The US despite claiming the policy of sucking out best Russian brains in reality fails to provide the backing policy for that, and Ilya's story shows very good example. When it comes to software development, I believe the US as a framework, does not really want devs to come and wants to keep them remotely.

Dewie3 11y ago

> I know that hundreds, maybe thousands of people like me are willing to start their companies here in the US, employ people, pay taxes, drive the economy, It seems they care more and more about megacorp job creators than others.

akramhussein 11y ago

Oh man. You really didn't give up, kudos to that. It is such a painful process. I've had a mixed bag of experiences too and just decided to focus on what I have in London and maybe it would work out later but wouldn't get my hopes up. Yahoo cancelled my last round interview because there wasn't enough time to submit for H1-B if I passed :/ For comparison, in the 80's when my father got a job at the FDA, it was signed, sealed, delivered and my family moved in just a few months in the mid of the year, well before all this became so complex. Kicker is I got a Greencard before we moved back, but unfortunately I was too young to realise what this meant or do anything about it...and it expired.

aduitsis 11y ago

Kudos to Ilya, I love it when it ends successfully. It is kind of ironic though that eventually he got the Green Card via the DV lottery. Had he been fired without that, it would have been a very difficult stretch to get a job within 30 days.

aliakhtar 11y ago

Didn't Obama introduce a startup visa a few months ago? What happened to it?

sparkzilla 11y ago
The most recent article I saw on it [1] says that "within the year" Obama is likely to sign an executive order that allows for the founders of funded startups to get visas, dependent on the amount of funds raised. If you raise $200,000 from a qualified U.S. investor you will get a two-year entrepreneurship visa to come live in America. If you raise $750,000 or more from a qualified U.S. investor or group of investors, you will get a green card. As someone who would benefit from this action, it can't come soon enough. [1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2015/04/08/how-obama-could-spark-an-international-migration-of-startups/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2015/04/08/how-ob...
- isalmon 11y ago
  I don't think raising money should be an indicator here though. For example, we bootstrapped the company till about $1M in ARR, and I know a lot of great startup that were 100% bootstrapped.
  - sparkzilla 11y ago
    In that case you should be able to get an E-2 treaty investor visa fairly easily.

anti-shill 11y ago

we need a moratorium on legal immigration--it helps suppress wage growth and drive up housing costs

khuey 11y ago
What drives up housing costs is a lack of houses.

userulluipeste 11y ago

Interesting read. I have a somewhat provocative question currently roaming trough my mind - you said that you "really appreciate the opportunity this country gave" to you (which is nice, BTW, but that's from a patient frame), considering now all what you've paid and what you're giving (i.e. from an actor frame), do they deserve you?

isalmon 11y ago
Absolutely. This country gave me more than I gave it back (yet).

outworlder 11y ago

> I talked to several lawyers and all of them told me that I’d get into trouble if I incorporate a company in the US Wow, I never knew that. I would never have expected it to matter, since you can incorporate a company in the US while not being in the US, no problem.

sancha_ 11y ago
Without a US citizenship?
- sireat 11y ago
  US is actually quite a bit of a tax heaven for non US citizens. It is easy to incorporate in US and there are various advantages to sheltering your non US generated assets in US. Simple example, think of all those shell corps owning apartments in Manhattan. I am not sure if FATCA bites back US on this front.

Oras 11y ago

I enjoyed every line of your story, to be honest I was surprised when I read "my wife" with all this tough work you could still have your own life.

isalmon 11y ago
It would not have been possible without her :)

sireat 11y ago

Fantastic read, but the punchline is almost like that anecdote about how to make million dollars (you know the one about buying apple for 5 cents polishing it and selling it for 10 cents until the rich uncle dies). The fastest way to green card in US is genius visa, but you need the credentials to pull it off. It has a ridiculously high acceptance rate I think about 90 %.

sonabinu 11y ago

Skill based immigration and subsequent green card is a story in patience and perseverance. This is a great write-up!

shas3 11y ago
Patience and perseverance is a perverse way of stating it. There are numerous serious problems: 1. Spouse is prohibited from seeking employment unless he gets his own work visa 2. 8 year wait for green card for skilled workers born in India 3. Gaming of the system by Indian outsourcing companies 4. The system (tying visa to employer and procedural inflexibility in transferring it) is such that it indirectly makes the visa-holder indentured to the company 5. Near-blind lottery system that favors outsourcing companies which apply for work-visas in the thousands (at which point, the lottery is a statistical bet for the company). 6. Near-blind lottery system that is heavily tilted against specialized (with a higher degree, for example) skilled employees who are critical to companies: if such a person loses in the lottery, the employer and the employee stand to lose a lot unlike outsourcing companies which operate on a sort of 'wholesale' basis.

peter303 11y ago

Perhaps US should change that if one does not have a job and started a household by age 30, then they lose their US citizenship. This could motivate some lazy millennials. I recall something similar in ancient Rome.

tosseraccount 11y ago

US Middle Class real median household income DOWN : https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/MEHOINUSA672N https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/MEHOINUSA672N Cost of employees as percentage of sales down : http://www.philosophicaleconomics.com/2015/05/profit-margins-in-a-winner-take-all-economy/ http://www.philosophicaleconomics.com/2015/05/profit-margins... Specifically : http://i2.wp.com/www.philosophicaleconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ae3a.jpg?resize=640%2C362 http://i2.wp.com/www.philosophicaleconomics.com/wp-content/u... labor bargaining power has weakened substantially amid globalization US citizens not as enthusiastic about more immigration as are the US elite: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100593528 http://www.cnbc.com/id/100593528 as recently as 2012, 69 percent of those surveyed agree that "we should restrict and control people coming to live in our country more than we do now." The MSM often only presents one side of the story. There is NO evidence of US labor shortage. In fact, with stagnant to down real labor prices, the only logical conclusion is that there is a glut. Corporate and Academic control of more and more guest worker visas is not really a great idea.

kushti 11y ago

It seems the author spent a lot of time messing with a horrible bureaucracy. Is it an article against the corrupted system written in so elegant manner?

isalmon 11y ago
I would not call it corrupted. I would probably call it ineffective.
deleted 11y ago
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rglullis 11y ago

Ok, for others who might be interested in immigrating, a few other things that I learned from my experience: - If you already are done with your studies, look for jobs at educational institutions. Universities, research laboratories, think tanks. They are exempt from the quota and can hire at any time of the year and outside of the quota. There a few downsides. First, most of the openings at these institutions will require some kind of grad school. Second, these institutions are not known for paying the same salaries as big name companies in Silicon Valley. Third, you can not transfer the visa to another company, so if you get an offer from another company that does not share the quota-exempt status, you are back in the position of waiting until April and hoping the new employer doesn't fuck up the application and that there aren't 10 gazillion other applicants from IBM, Google, Infosys, Tata and the like. - One hack: consider first moving to Canada. Their immigration laws are much saner in the US and are more merit- and qualification-based than the US. With a simple job offer you can get a resident visa in Canada. After 2 years as a resident you can apply for citizenship. And Canadian citizens can work in the US, under the TN visa. With this you avoid all the crap about the H1B lottery and have a stronger position to work in the US after ~3 years. If I ever plan to be in the US again in the next 3-5 years, I would actually move to Montreal first.

wooyi 11y ago
+1 on the Canada hack. Canada now has an "Express Entry" process for skilled workers that grants permanent residence in months 6 months or less. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/express/express-entry.asp http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/express/express-entry... However, applying for a Work Permit is still rather cumbersome (which is typically the first step after the job offer and before Express Entry) I just went through this process with an employee. While there is no arbitrary quota, the process does take between 3-6 months. But overall the path to citizenship is much shorter than in the US. And Canada has public healthcare. So, no need to worry about healthcare while you're self employed.
- cdhdc 11y ago
  It will take 6 months before you're covered by a provinces health plan.

sprite 11y ago

As mentioned in the article another option is EB-5 investment visa. You need approximately $600k ($500k investment + budget another $100k for regional center fees, lawyer fees, etc). The process is still super slow though, the current average processing time for I-526 application is currently 14 months. I submitted mine in January and was told best case scenario is around 8 months for approval.

nish1500 11y ago

As someone who is new to understand the process, it baffles me to see how incredibly hard it is to immigrate to the US, as an entrepreneur. Some of the biggest new tech companies are founded by immigrants. I often wonder how they got into the country in the first place. The system rewards those under H1B. There is no provision for entrepreneurs. Being a college dropout entrepreneur, from a non-caucasian country, what chance do I have? I am reading Peter Thiel's book Zero to One. He talks about hidden injustices in our society. This is what comes to mind.

pshin45 11y ago

What interesting timing - I'm organizing an Immigration-themed hackathon[1] this weekend in SF, and on Saturday morning we'll have a speaking panel called "Immigrant Founder Stories" where founders from 4 startups (big to small) will share about their struggles to gain permanent status in the US, and how it affected them as entrepreneurs. - Laks Srini, Co-founder & CTO at Zenefits [2] - Tri Tran, Co-founder & CEO at Munchery [3] - Silver Keskküla, Co-founder at Teleport (ex-Skype) [4] - Nikhil Aitharaju, Co-founder at Tint [5] [1] http://www.up.co/communities/usa/san-francisco/startup-weekend/5961 http://www.up.co/communities/usa/san-francisco/startup-weeke... (Use promo code "hn" for 70% off) [2] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/24/technology/workers-in-silicon-valley-weigh-in-on-obamas-immigration-order.html http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/24/technology/workers-in-sili... [3] https://medium.com/@munchery/pitch-your-life-2f170eab933b https://medium.com/@munchery/pitch-your-life-2f170eab933b [4] https://medium.com/@keskkyla/good-luck-being-born-tomorrow-dedcfee3728 https://medium.com/@keskkyla/good-luck-being-born-tomorrow-d... [5] https://app.fwd.us/stories/259 https://app.fwd.us/stories/259

phamilton 11y ago

As a developer in the Bay Area, I find our lot to be pretty picky about where we work and what we work on. Acquihire "Golden Handcuffs" make us miserable. (What a terrible problem to have, right?) I admire Ilya's persistence in working for $8/hr because he had to. It lends a bit of perspective to hear his story. Thank you, Ilya!

bane 11y ago

Through my wife (a Korean immigrant), I've learned about how hard immigration to the U.S. is. We have our own insane story and the short of it is that immigration is an absolute mess. Considering how many smart and hard working people I've met who came here for college, and considering the outsized success the ones who managed to immigrate here have had, it seems kind of insane that we don't do more to keep them here. The lost tax revenue I can think of from personal connections alone is in the millions of dollars per year -- imagine how much economic activity that is!

YourOwn 11y ago

Hi, I am part of a team of three immigrants in the US building an app to help people settle in a new country (initially, the US). Like Mint.com, Credit Karma, or TurboTax for immigrants, YourOwn.com provides an interactive, gamified tool, with customized action plans and to-do lists, budgets, reminders, community support, and step-by-step guides that help immigrants quickly and easily establish a home of their own in a new country. Our first site will help people move to the US, then we will add other countries. Have a look at http://yourown.com http://yourown.com - we will soon launch, by invitation only. Thanks!

npachisia 11y ago

Ilya, great story that many of us can relate with. Stories like these (very similar to our personal stories) were the inspiration behind Unshackled. Our goal is to help entrepreneurs / startup teams who are held back from building great companies simply because of their visa. While we couldn’t help you (coz we didnt exist), Unshackled aims to make an impact for many other brilliant people like you. #innovate

peachysanchez 11y ago

DigitalSea : I agree. It's really hard to live and work somewhere other than your own country. To add to all the hardships that come with the situation, I didn;t know the language. I had to use Skype to learn Ukrainian. I had to start from scratch. I enrolled in http://preply.com/en/ukrainian-by-skype http://preply.com/en/ukrainian-by-skype to get me started. The instructor was pretty good but of course, I couldn't learn the whole thing in a month. Although I am still struggling with the language, I realize this comes with the job.