How Tech Startup Founders Are Hacking Immigration | Hacker News Reader

How Tech Startup Founders Are Hacking Immigration

bloomberg.com

30 pointssalmonet19 comments

This article has an interesting point. I am from India. Built the biggest social network from India, sold a startup to Dropbox. Not sure if this is sufficient to get an EB-1 green card. With EB-2, I won't get Green card for another 5-8 years.

My next option is to invest a million to get EB-5, which is a waste of time. Or move outside US :(

1. L1 - EB1 is probably your best shot.

2. Do not disqualify EB-5, with a right connection or contact, it can be painless, since you get GC in 3 years. Also if you invest in what is economically distressed area 500,000 would suffice. (especially since you have start-ups with exits 500K may not be out of your reach).

L1-EB1 is a good idea if I can do it through one of my startups. Working for a big corp outside US for a year, and then moving back and doing the Green card work would involve lot of uncertainties and a commitment of at least 2 years to this process.

EB-5 is a good idea. That is the plan after giving EB-1 a shot.

It's unfortunate to have to go through so many hoops just because of your country of birth. I owe a good part of my success to US and want to contribute back. However, the system is making it very very difficult.

You'd most definitely qualify for an O-1. You basically need 1 of 8 criteria, and the most common for software engineers coming in on O-1 are 1) High salary 2) press coverage of your transaction with Dropbox 3) being a judge at a hackathon.

Concur. Chris Wright down in LA is superb at O-1s, has worked with a lot of founders with positive conclusions. I recommend him highly.

Thanks. Got multiple recommendations for Chris Wright. Will reach out to him ASAP. Thanks once again :)

He's on Global EIR's legal advisory board, so I'm happy to connect you. I'm at Craig at globaleir org

Thanks Craig. Just dropped you an email.

Agreed that O-1 is a good option for starting a company, for which H1 is really unsuitable. However you won't believe the kind of paperwork and stress that goes on with doing the USCIS paperwork, Visa application, answering stupid questions at the border. After dealing with this for almost 6 years now, if I can't find a way to get Green Card sooner, I would rather move out. Really appreciate the time you took for your thoughtful response :)

Saw some previous posts of yours as well as this one. Please email me (in my profile), will recommend the right immigration lawyer. I think you have a good shot at O1/EB1 (INAL)

Thanks Karan. Appreciate you reaching out on LinkedIn.

The inertia of the US government on immigration in general and particular for startup founders is astonishing. Once a place like Vancouver or Berlin gets enough traction combined with money for investments, international founders will stop trying to get into SV

An optimistic comment about Vancouver on Hacker News that doesn't have anything to do with brain drain due to Chinese investors buying up real estate? Is it opposite day?

Come to Toronto. Much more funding, much less foreign ownership.

Agreed on Canada. I have seriously considered moving to Canada. Only barrier is that I need to give and English written test and I haven't used pen and paper in a while. If EB-1 doesn't work, Canada here I come.

The author could have do a bit better research, "research schools & universities" do not use H1B's they use J-1's for PhD's & Postdocs. Also a "rockstar visa" would be an O-1 visa.

..and they use H1Bs, and those H1Bs aren't counted against the cap.

Yep, Craig here with Global EIR. As the other commenter says, research universities use cap exempt H-1Bs for their full-time faculty and also lab technical staff.

Now that all of these universities have entrepreneurship centers, certain options opened up for founders.

As others have pointed out H-1B is very popular on college campuses as they are cap exempt and come in on the lower end of the "prevailing wage" scale (because they are typically young and inexperienced)

An interesting/alarming trend is that education institutions are "hosting" private companies as a sort of satellite office, where the developer is an employee of the university (to get around the H-1B cap) but all work is directed and owned by the company. So Acme Co. pays the PCU $20/hr and PCU pays the H-1B $15/hr and pockets the $5.

Ah the tangled webs we weave when at first we aim to deceive.

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