I think you misunderstood that he helped me overstay my student visa etc.

I was in a Ph.D. program at a top CS school and there are ways to transition your visa when building a startup. It was that I was not sure if the transition or the startup would work out - that startup did not - but years later another one did.

I would probably not have taken the plunge out of academia and not achieved much else had it not been for him. And I am deeply grateful for that.