Ask HN: How to get recruited at a US based startup?

Not a startup but have you considered Google? They have a whole legal team dedicated to this kind of stuff, you'd have a lot more luck there.

Without a lot more details, it's impossible to say anything specific. At the very least, I don't think anyone here could tell you if visa is really the reason you were rejected by the startup - it could just be the most convenient reason that the startups gave you.

It's very very hard for startup to sponsor you a work visa, whether they want to or not. Every year, the new window for applying the working visa (H1B) starts at April 1st, last year it took one week to fill out 210% quota of the visa for the whole year (translation: even if you did apply, you have less than 40% of getting the visa). And the visa won't take effect until October of the same year. It means that for a company, they have to wait for you at least 6 months before you can work (not counting any other months of interviewing and otherwise). For that reasons, most companies that can sponsor visa only do so for people who can already work using another visa, while waiting for the H1B visa. Not to mention the chance of not getting the visa in the first place.

That said, do you want to work for a startup, or just come to work in the US? If it's the latter, you might have better chance with finding a subsidiary of a US company in India, and hope that you can negotiate/ get them to send you to the US (you would be working for them first in India, obviously). I've known friends who came to the US this way. But beware of what you're getting into, many HN users here will gladly tell you that the H1B visa is evil, or might I say, literally Hitler.

Send me an example of your Python work.

I have visas available for Python devs from India or Eastern Europe.

In depth knowledge of systems programming and distributed computing, and familiarity with cloud service provider APIs and automation frameworks (e.g. Ansible/Chef) a plus.

You might try to enter the US through another country. Have you considered Canada, Australia, or England?

Since this thread is pretty popular, i'll try to latch on to it.

I too am a developer from India, college student to be more precise. I'll get my degree in 2016. I want to move out of India to US or a country in Europe and am trying to find a way to do so.

As for my skills, i have done a ton of open source work and am proficient in popular languages like Python, PHP(?), Go, Clojure, etc. and some obscure languages as well.

I am not sure which field of the industry i want to specialize in right now but have done web, mobile, game-dev, desktop apps (linux & windows) and a bit of embedded stuff.

Whats the best way to get a job and move out of the country?

Someone here has already suggested that you enter the US through another country. For some reason, that comment is dead. However, you should be sure to spend some time considering that option and similar alternatives that will not put you at a Silicon Valley startup immediately but which will could put you at one eventually, or at a non-Silicon-Valley startup (maybe Berlin?) and if you're really lucky you might be able to find a US-based startup with an international office (possibly in India) that can get you the sort of visa where you transfer to the US office after working there a year. (Currently I'm doing something quite similar to this myself, except at the US offices of a company that has offices in London too. For non-EU/EEA residents the UK immigration regime is a little better than the US regime, but not that much, and worsening.)

The visa sponsorship regime in the US is ridiculous and extraordinarily risky (in the sense you must put in a lot of time and effort for a small chance of getting a visa). Not a lot of startups are able to put up with that. If I recall correctly, the H-1B in particular involves (a) posting a job requirement that you don't end up filling with an existing citizen/resident - a little game to appease the bureaucracy that's meant to ensure you're not TAKING OUR JOBS!!!11 (gag) (b) applying for a visa and paying $$$ at the right time of the year when they reset the annual quotas (c) waiting months for an answer.

:(

That said, if you don't take risks you don't get lucky.

Damn! I also want to work in Silicon valley... But I don't write python, I write C++.

Damn! I also want to work in Silicon valley... But I don't write python, I write C++.

I was in same shoes as yours around two years ago. I feel your pain. I asked similar question on HN then (1). My advice is apply at startups that explicitly invite international candidates, especially the ones that lists 'can sponsor visa' info in their job postings. Even if they are willing to offer a job, it's just very difficult to get a visa to US. I have interviewed with one or two from Valley, it always came down to visa.

If you don't find a great startup, try looking for one in India. Hard to filter through awful lot of crappy ones, but put some time. Talk to as many startups as possible, don't just interview, but go to the offices, see how they work and try to work for a week before you join. You will find something good. Be patient, I must have talked to at least 40 startups face to face, went to at least 10 offices. It's funny though, at last I found my job through monthly HN-hiring thread.

1-https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5462515

You are in a tough position. Even if someone is willing to sponsor a visa, you are competing with everyone who doesn't need a visa. You cannot just be "as good" as the next guy - you need to be better, because it is more trouble to bring you on board. And if the job explicitly says they will sponsor a visa, you also need to be better than everyone else internationally.

This should not stop you from trying - but you need to focus on making yourself stand out from the crowd. They may like your profile, but if they like 45 other profiles, too, you need to tell them what makes you the one to choose.

If you are really the best guy for the job, they will figure out the visa issues. But if you are only 2nd best, they won't.

EDIT: I was also just thinking of how people I know who came from India made their move here. Most of them worked for one of the big Indian firms who outsource from the US. They would start working remotely in India, and then get a role that moved them to the US. Once they were here, they could get to know people, network, etc, and then find permanent US-based jobs through that network.

My tip:Get a job at a company in Ireland that has US headquarters(they have great immigration laws when it comes to qualified workers),you'll be able to transfer to the US sooner or later.Will it increase your life quality? Well I don't think so.

Why don't you consider Germany? US is great in terms of taking technological inspirations but I wouldn't want to live there as that would mean working for the landlords. I've been to Berlin for a year and consider working for any company there (big or small) because the prices (rents, food, travel, entertainment) are low and the incomes (whether salary or hour based) are high and they pay satisfactorily to IT workers. They prefer more enterprise stuff though such as Java and SAP. And in some areas being fluent in German is a requirement. Still, it's worth it, they have more open and straightforward visa applications.

I did come this website http://tyba.com/ which has listing of jobs and internships worldwide but it hasn't proved to be useful yet.

From my experience, being present in a country is going to greatly increase your chances of being able to be hired there (even with the visa).

I would also give another vote for Berlin. I have lived here for the last year & it has a very low cost of living, yet still a strong tech/startup focus.

Are you able to travel to Berlin for 1 or 2 months & find a job? As mentioned, the visa process is much easier than the US & to be honest, your salary is going to go a lot further in Europe than in Silicon Valley.

Others might have scratched the surface on this, but based on my network's experience and my own, don't even try the startup route, it's not worth it. Outside the US, you'll either get a) no sponsorship b) non-competitive salaries c) mentor roles and that's being on the real top of your field. I'd go for a bigger company which has a) the resources b) the legal expertise c) the demand

Given you do Python, Dropbox comes to mind, but you can always Google or stackshare.io for targets.

Good luck.

Try bigger companies. Early and mid stage startups won't have the resources for all the paperwork.

But bigger companies lacking talent have no problem with it.

Recently, I was researching about moving back to India and continue working for my employer from there and get paid in USD. In theory, this should be possible. My employers might agree to this (they do it to other colleagues of mine in different countries). However, the taxation laws in India are not straight forward around this. You can explore to see if this is a legit option for you. If you have a solid profile as in open source contributions and you can pull off working remotely (definitely not easy), this is the most lucrative option for you. Trust me, living in USA is not what it used to be. The whole political climate with so many wars, government snooping, highly variant economy and things like Ferguson make it less attractive. If I were considering a move today, I'd definitely think 10 times. Plus the stress levels here are amazingly high. Everyone seems to be lost in their "careers". Of course there are positive aspects of living here. It's definitely a trade off like anywhere else. Good luck. I hope to bump into you someday and hear your story of sailing the boat ;).

Can you work in the US as a freelancer without the H1B visa?