Immigrant founder of indee.tv stuck in Vancouver due to visa hassle | Hacker News Reader

Immigrant founder of indee.tv stuck in Vancouver due to visa hassle

sharanreddy.com

19 pointskingsley_2022 comments

A post by an immigrant entrepreneur who's being denied re-entry to the US, in support of the founder's visa / startup visa.

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First I'm very sympathetic to Sharan's plight. This has to suck.

But it raises some real issues with the whole startup founder plan. Does a company with (what looks like) 4 people and a few seed investors count as a startup? This seems like a really low bar. I think pg's initial essay kind of glosses over the difficulty of defining a startup - or for that matter even a "startup investor".

I go both ways on this issue. I think letting smart, driven people into the US to work is awesome. But I'm not sold that being the founder of a "startup" is the right bar.

Right now, if I wanted to found a startup without taking some of the risks Sharan took (the LLC route), I'd have to get enough funding to pay myself ~70K/year as salary. Then, and if I had respectable funding, and some well known/ respectable people on the board, I can set up shop and have a US Citizen co-founder "hire" me as an H1B.

So the system as it stands forces immigrant founders to raise funding, even if you had a completely bootstrappable business plan. That's where the bar is set now, and it definitely dissuades people, and that's why I think many of us advocate lowering it. Substitute it with education, experience or endorsements maybe?

Stuck in Vancouver is hardly a terrible fate.

Run the company from there - the city is crawling with tv/film/media people who cost half as much as the do in Ca.

Indee.tv was incorporated in the bay area and has been operational for almost a year. He's being refused re-entry.

Like myself, Sharan's a first generation immigrant from India, and he doesn't actually have any connections/ roots in Vancouver. He just picked it because he was legally required to re-enter the country ("yes, to stay in the country, Alice, you must leave and re-enter" saith the INS), and Canada's a close "foreign" country.

Also Vancouver has a HUGE Indian community so I hope he was able to take advantage of that.

I realize I may be left with no options, but it's not as easy as just saying run the company from here. For one, I am not a Canadian citizen so I need to apply for all kinds of immigration permissions to move the company and work for it from here.

We have also been building momentum with filmmakers and festivals in the Bay Area and my team is based there. To not have access to any of that does create problems for a startup.

FYI a man of your qualifications will get fast-tracked through the Canadian immigration process with zero problems.

In theory - however in practice "fast-track" and "Canadian government" don't naturally go together.

Make friends with a local and have them contact their MP. My status process sped up pretty quickly with a politician's office on the case. They can probe to ask what's going on with a particular application,etc. (I also believe that my application was 'fast-tracked' because there was an upcoming election too).

It very much depends on a large number of factors that are not under your control. It's basically a lottery. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. I've had the local mayor, a case officer of the Ontario immigration department (from TO) and a whole bunch of others practically beg the office in Buffalo to finally do something and still time ran out (after 5 years we called it quits).

The really sad thing is that it cost a lot of hardworking Canadians their jobs, and the area where we lived jobs, especially well paying ones with employers that have a different view of employees than so many lemons that need to be squeezed are very hard to come by.

That sucks. Just a note to anyone attempting Canadian immigration (at least US->Canada immigration), the Buffalo office is supposedly the best way to 'fast-track' your application instead of sending it to Alberta... Even if all of the paperwork says that In-Canada applications must go through Alberta. But I am not an immigration lawyer so your mileage may vary.

I'm married to a Canadian citizen so that might have helped. Instead of just trying to immigrate 'cold.'

> I'm married to a Canadian citizen so that might have helped.

That makes a huge difference actually.

I realize that, but the process was going really slowly until my wife appealed to the local MP and things sped up pretty quickly... at least 'quickly' for immigration.

We know people that were married that took years to get their paperwork through and they were also US->Canada.

Good thing she did that, likely saved you years.

We were coming in under the 'entrepreneurial' banner, about 750K invested in to the Canadian economy, 12" of paperwork including 5 years of bank statements for 3 companies and god knows what else.

The weird thing is that as long as we were still in Europe we were assured things would go fast, but after moving everything ground to a halt. Only to speed up again after we threw in the towel, but by then we really didn't feel like going back. We still have 2 100 acre farms and a skeleton business there (about to be wound down). A total waste of time and money, but the time spent there was quite enjoyable (even though the winters are terribly harsh).

Northern Ontario is absolutely gorgeous.

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone, I will look in to Canadian immigration when it comes to it.

If it's too much of a hassle, I'm going to have to consider India.

Hah!

If only. Seriously, that's a thing you really can not promise and I've personally seen the other side of that.

Please, you have no idea how many people have been 'recruited' as entrepreneurs entering Canada only to be delayed just about forever.

The proper procedure is to get your paperwork BEFORE you enter Canada, anything else is a complete nightmare, no matter what you qualifications and/or your connections.

There is a very vibrant startup community here in Vancouver. Check out:

  http://launchpartyhq.com/
  http://bootup.ca/
  http://barcamp.org/BarCampVancouver
  http://www.newmediabc.com/
  http://www.techvibes.com/index/vancouver

Can we please avoid using hashtags in article titles? This isn't Twitter...

Point taken. Better?

Sharan's a friend, but it also touches a nerve because this could have very well have been me. While I think there's a lot of awareness about this topic, there isn't really enough about entrepreneurs who are living through this now (as opposed to people who have somehow successfully transitioned from immigrant to founder), mainly due to the scarcity of these stories.

Sometimes, stories like this remind me of that scene in pretty women where Edward says to Julia Roberts : "I never treated you like a prostitute.", and she replies "You just did."

Your story is both inspiring and disheartening at the same time.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

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