

Coming to America?  - redrory

Hello again guys.
I see alot of posts by persons wanting info about move to San Francisco , and stuff.
But I was wondering for the international persons among us, ( I am from Jamaica) on what bias do international persons come to properly develop their startup.
I mean like, will I need work permit?
Can I come on a Visitor's visa? etc.<p><p>Thanks much..
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petercooper
It's not too difficult. It's what the E-2 visa was designed for.. for people
to come to the US and start (or, rather, "invest in" businesses). All you need
is to invest about $100,000 into a company, either one of your own creation,
or one you're going to take over, and you're in for two years (and then
indefinitely if the business continues to make reasonable revenue). There are
no quotas on this visa and application times are very quick, whereas the H-1B
ties you to an employer (totally useless for your own company), etc.

The L-1 visa is another option if you have a company and you want to set up a
US office while maintaining the company in your home country, which can be
harder to do but is most likely "cheaper".

~~~
petercooper
Ah, I just realized this probably won't work for you. I don't now for sure,
but Jamaica probably isn't a "treaty" country, which E visas demand applicants
have citizenship of.

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yawl
You can come with visitor visa, but if you want to work in US, you need to
start with H1B visa, which is now kind of a "lottery" (the annual limit is too
small and no guarantee if you can get one).

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bluishgreen
We have talked a lot about this before..
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40208>

