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Comment by dude_abides | Hacker News Reader

Can a non-citizen currently on H1B visa apply?

I think it is fair to say that YC doesn't care about your immigration status.

YC has a great community to discuss this kind of question: do not let your immigration status prevent you from applying.

Absolutely. Many people apply even without a H1B

A very valid question.How about those on H4?

As some might know the H1 for this year has been used up (unlike in the past 4-5 years), will YC still be ok accepting ideas/startups that cannot be on h1?

Some clarity on this front will be very helpful for immigrants :)

Unless I'm mistaken, H1B is not the visa that YC founders would use anyway. Even if you have an H1B visa, you would still have to re-apply for the appropriate visa.

Hey, thanks for the response.

I am not very sure there is another visa that might work well, unless the founders are from Canada/Australia (maybe even Europe not sure). Rest of the founders might still have to be on H1 if my research is right.

This is interesting for me also. I'm an Italian citizen and I would like to apply and relocate to the Bay Area. But I need to figure out the entire visa thing, and how to make it work for starting company.

Please look into the B category first (both b1 & B2), for the 3 months period. After YC, if you get funding, as a founder you should look at the E visa category. I believe E2 visa is the one for founders with secured funding that can realistically create 10 american jobs in the long run.

Thanks, I will dig into it.

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