

Immigrant founder of indee.tv stuck in Vancouver due to visa hassle - kingsley_20
http://sharanreddy.com/2009/09/founders-visa-please/
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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mikeryan
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.

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kingsley_20
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?

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ujibuip
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.

~~~
sharan
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.

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

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

~~~
pyre
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).

~~~
jacquesm
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.

~~~
pyre
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.'

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

That makes a huge difference actually.

~~~
pyre
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.

~~~
jacquesm
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.

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

~~~
kingsley_20
Point taken. Better?

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kingsley_20
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.

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maxklein
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."

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

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

