Does anyone have an invite?
> If you have ANY (literally ANY) sort of problem that you need solved, contact me. I mean seriously, literally any problem, even the one you think I can't help you with. The harder the better.
How do I work at a Silicon Valley startup that wants to hire me, if I'm an EU citizen with no degree and 5 years of work experience?
I think I'll refer only above 500 HN karma. And I'm honestly sorry, I really don't mean to be elitist or anything.
It'll be tough for sure. And depends on what the startup is prepared to do. Have you spoken to an immigration attorney? https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=proberts does AMAs on here regularly and it might be worth contacting his firm for advice (also take a look through his AMAs).
Things I've seen work:
- Work remote, visit SV regularly for work. To be frank, I think that can be the best of both worlds. But YMMV.
- If you work for an overseas subsidiary for over a year, you can try for L-1 to transfer to the US. Generally the "startup" needs to be big (big) for this to be practical. You don't outright need a degree, but 5-years experience is probably on the lower end. If SV is your dream, it might be a case of finding a bigco startup that is prepared to do this. A stepping stone might be working for one of them in the EU first (e.g. Dublin in particular has plenty of satellite offices for SV companies).
- There are other options like the O-1 and H1-B, but these are extremely competitive. Again, immigration lawyer would have a better idea.
In all cases I'd probably give Peter a try first.
Remote work with visits is a great option in the meantime. L-1 I'm not too comfortable with as I'd be entirely tied to that company. O-1 seems like the easiest path, I'll try to find a book deal to start out with.