HN Explorer

Ask YC: Non-US founders

9 points by sraquo ↗ HN
I am from Russia and would like to apply to YCombinator. As far as I know, you can get to work in your own startup in the USA only if you

- are a student (J1 visa, not even sure if this works),

- plan to invest $100K in the US (E-type visa),

- can be considered an "alien of extraordinary ability",

- a US-based company that has an overseas office transfers you from there to US (O-visa)

As far as I know, the founders of YC-funded companies who came from abroad used one of the above methods.

Neither of the above is a way I could go (not a student, don't have $100K, do not qualify as alien of extraordinary ability, don't have an established company in the US).

I assume that it is impossible to start a company and work for it without a work permit in the USA, so YCombinator would not even consider my application.

So, are there any other ways to get to YC for foreigners?

And on a related note, what countries are more friendly to foreigners and have a startup community at the same time? I've only heard of Canada.

Thank you, really, for any advice!

--Nikita

3 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 21.9 ms ] thread
lv_
You should go thru an American Broker.... maybe one in the Philippines
car
An E-2 visa is not contingent on $100k, the money invested just has to be sufficient for the type of business to be established. So for a software startup, it can be on the order of ~$20-30k.

You'll have to write a business plan, and submit that as part of the application. The main deciding points - apart from a reasonable plan and presentation - are, that the business will eventually employ US citizens, and that the money invested comes from abroad.

Worked for me, good luck to you.

sraquo
Thank you, will dig deeper into E-2