

Is immigrating to the US really that hard for foreign entrepreneurs? - tesseract72

I keep reading about the high percentage of tech startups in the US that are founded by foreign entrepreneurs (39% in California). I also keep reading about how hard immigrating to the US is for foreign entrepreneurs - i.e., people without prospective traditional employment. Can somebody explain this apparent contradiction? How is it that so many startups are founded by foreigners if it's so hard for them to stay in the country to do so?<p>I ask because I'm Canadian and I'd like to look into starting a software/biotech company in the US after college (I've heard about the proposed startup visa, but clearly plenty of foreign entrepreneurs are doing just fine without it).
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dj_perl
I came to the US as a student. I believe this is a very common background
story for foreign entrepreneurs.

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mailshanx
Is student->H1B->green card the only path available for entrepreneurs looking
to set up shop in the US? That is an incredibly long path: especially the
H1B->green card step, which can potentially take as long as a decade.

Does anyone know of alternate routes?

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CookWithMe
You can take part in the green card lottery...

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversity_Immigrant_Visa#Winnin...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversity_Immigrant_Visa#Winning_chances)

If you happen to be in Australia or New Zealand and take part for a couple of
years, your chances are actually pretty good. Everywhere else, not so much.

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nickbyfleet
Why the US? Are you just looking for a bit of a change? If so, you should look
at New Zealand!

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ig1
H1B and O1 are the common visa options, there may also be some canadian
specific ones.

