
Immigrants invest in U.S. businesses in exchange for visas - iamelgringo
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/09/AR2010010901056.html?wprss=rss_business
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patio11
This is exactly what I have in mind when I say that instead of a Startup Visa
program I'd like to see a Visas For Sale program. It keeps everything on the
up and up and reduces administration costs.

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lutorm
Um, would you mind explaining how this program would fill the need for a
startup visa? I don't know how many people applying to the startup school have
$500k -$1M to fork over before even starting to work on their startup, but I
doubt it'll be a resounding success...

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patio11
The Startup Visa proposals seem to be "Let's anoint a group of VCs or angels
with the ability to decide who gets to come to the US", which I think opens
the possibility for _ahem_ corruption and gives a governmental or semi-
governmental group the authority to pick winners in the market. If you just
sold visas, it would just be another capital-raising barrier to hop over. No
nonsense about "Must create 10 jobs" or "Must win the favor of a particular
bureaucrat", just "Convince someone -- _anyone_ \-- that you're a good enough
risk to put #{PRICE_OF_VISA} on the line."

You could also let the market price the visas for you if you want, via an
auction mechanic or something similar.

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tokenadult
My usual question: what country in the world offers a better visa policy than
the United States?

A) In what country of the world could an American college graduate in a high-
tech major field get off the plane and immediately start working with the
prospect of long-term employment and permanent residence?

B) In what country of the world could a college graduate from India or China
in a high-tech major field get off the plane and immediately start working
with the prospect of long-term employment and permanent residence?

C) In what country of the world could a college graduate from an arbitrary
country with an arbitrary college major get off the plane and immediately
start working with the prospect of long-term employment and permanent
residence?

D) In what country of the world could a person from an arbitrary country with
no schooling beyond compulsory instruction get off the plane and immediately
start working with the prospect of long-term employment and permanent
residence?

E) More generally, which countries in the world enjoy net immigration rather
than net emigration?

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psranga
Btw, A through D are false even with respect to the US.

It is very rare for American companies to hire foreigners not already present
in the US. They usually hire young people who've come to the US to study for a
BS/MS/PhD. It's a myth that people can "get off the plane immediately start
working".

It's exceedingly difficult for a foreigner to get hired to work in the US
unless he's already in the US (IMHO, mostly because of the costs/hassles in
doing an in-person interview, and the cornucopia of talent in the US).

Having said this, I still think the US has one of the best visa policies in
the world.

To answer your question: so far as I know, India's work visa program is easier
than USA's. But that means nothing because there's very little demand to go
work in India. :)

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tokenadult
_A through D are false even with respect to the US_

Your statement is correct. My questions were asking for general information,
and were not meant to imply anything about policy in the United States.

 _Having said this, I still think the US has one of the best visa policies in
the world._

That's what I wanted to get a reality check about by asking my questions in
the grandparent comment. I appreciate seeing your point of view.

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faragon
I'm a somewhat european computer scientist, and I would love to work for 2 or
3 years in the U.S. just for fun and getting a better english, but with such
immigration laws I prefer to stay in Europe.

By the way, you highly skilled americans are welcome to work and live here ;-)

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rmanocha
I don't know about highly skilled americans, but Europe's immigration policies
seem to be no better for highly skilled asians.

P.S. - I'm an Indian.

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jacquesm
Exactly. And I'm ashamed of it more than I can express in a forum but there
seem to be enough xenophobes here to ensure that's going to be the status quo
for quite a while.

Even within the EU there is plenty of that, witness the friction between
western Europeans and immigrants from Poland or Romania.

We have a long way to go in this respect.

