YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas | Hacker News Reader

YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

blog.ycombinator.com

1,125 pointsdwaxe788 comments

If you don't provide opportunity and a good civil environment to brilliant/enterprising people, they will find a way elsewhere. And once Vancouver or any other city starts working for them, Silicon Valley will lose its exclusivity. The thing to note here is that this response from YC is not a political one, but a response that came out of market demand; it is pretty significant if it works out.

The thing to note here is that this response from YC is not a political one,

Indeed. It wasn't formulated as political -- but the intrinsically the move does have significant political import (as a form of "voting with one's feet", as it were). Which has the potential to send signals that signs, slogans and marches (alone) cannot.

A large reason many people are pushing back against globalism is _because_ of this thinking -- capitalism is blind to political movements, quality of life for its people, or growing inequality. All that matters is the bottom line. If it's cheaper to do it elsewhere, it will move there. But if this leads to yet continued wealth inequality while the laborers work for less in worse conditions, is it a good thing that it created more wealth in the process?

I know that example is an extreme one, but it is an example that is being seen throughout the country. Middle class jobs are being shipped overseas or supplanted by exploited H-1B visa holders. Lower class jobs are being displaced by illegal immigrants willing to do the job for below minimum wage. These are serious issues, and issues that will not be solved in a global economy where the bottom line is king.

Voice versus Exit.

Microsoft and Amazon already station employees who can't get a US work visa in Vancouver, Canada: https://www.quora.com/I-am-placed-in-Microsoft-US-and-am-una...

Been hearing this since late nineties about how inability to get visas is going to be the death of US tech industry. Absolutely nothing has changed since h1b visa was initially implemented, its almost exactly the same when as it was conceived. And yet U.S tech industry is not dead.

In the late 90's working remotely wasn't a thing for most of us.

Nowadays it is pretty common in any major corporation, and has opened the door for offshoring all sorts of projects.

Honestly, if the US had generally a welcoming visa/immigrant policy, I and most startup founders would not even think to set up my company elsewhere as it is in some regards "the center of the world". But as the US gets a more and more unwelcoming image, other places like London, Berlin or Vancouver rise. Of course tech in the USA is not dead and will not be any time soon. But it could be attracting much more talent if it was more open and easier to get into. Look at Dubai: you want to found a company in Internet Zone? Go there, found the company, get your visas in a simple process, move over. The fees are high, but it is straight forward. That is how it should be in the US. I know there are investor visas, but it is a difficult process with an open end. And then there is stuff like the random travel ban, which, for example, makes it impossible to take my wife (Iranian) with me.

>>And yet U.S tech industry is not dead.

Well not dead, but definitely lost out on total world domination.

There isn't much difference though. If you settle for a draw after once being in a unbeatable position, its as good as a loss.

> Absolutely nothing has changed since h1b visa was initially implemented

They've changed a bunch of things, including at one point tripling the number of visas available:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-1B_visa#Changes_to_legal_and...

Whats happening is response to current available alternatives(solutions ) , which was not exploited in 90s

But, this could also be quite positive for the bay area. By reducing the number of jobs, It might finally provide the housing relief the bay area so desperately needs.

Yes, I often save time on household chores by burning my home to the ground instead.

If the bay area continues its absurd aversion to adding housing or transportation, some other cities are definitely going to eventually pick off all the jobs till the bay area looks like Detroit or 1970s New York. You can stay #1 just by already being #1, exploiting the chicken-and-egg problem, for a while, but not forever.

Truthfully, I think it will just spread more in the bay area. You have all the talent concentrated and you have people commuting far each way. Companies can just start popping up in concord, vallejo, and gilroy (just random examples. I have no clue how much real estate cost there) because it would be easy to get talent from the bay area and might shorten commute for some.

> If you don't provide opportunity and a good civil environment to brilliant/enterprising people, they will find a way elsewhere.

While I am not certain how true this is in general, it is for me anecdotally. I have no intention of wanting to emigrate and work in SF based on what I have learned on HN. I like the idea of choosing a city based on what i want from that city then doing what I want to do there. Not living somewhere for a one dimensional 'job opportunity' and otherwise hating it.

How will Vancouver improve its weather?

California has a powerful draw...

Weather here is amazing! Vancouver has such a bad rep when it comes to rain, but honestly it's not that bad. Here's what it's really like:

Between May and October, basically half of the year, you'll have very comfortable T-shirt weather, and blue skies I'd say 70% of the time!

Between December and March it's gloomy, but you'll have awesome snow in the mountains, just 30 min from downtown :) from our office we can see the slopes. Just went skiing with the team 2 months ago.

Vancouver is one of the few cities you can ski in the morning and lie on the beach in the afternoon, grilling BBQ and play beach volleyball.

Life's not that bad! I've been here 5 years :)

BTW, if anyone is in town for the YC interviews, I'd love to show you a good time!

Canada has lower corporate tax, liberal startup grants, greater income mobility, higher qol, health care, safer, more tolerance - but it's an itsy bitsy tad cold, no one goes.

SF weather isn't that great. It cold and foggy. Socal has much better weather, but it isn't silicon valley.

Vancouver's climate/geography is a feature, not a bug. Mountain biking, climbing, and skiing in Vancouver is amazing. And you don't have to drive two or three hours to get there. It's literally right outside your front door. This will be a draw for outdoorsy types.

A little bit of rain is a small price to pay for not having massive drought problems

In my opinion, Silicon Valley is what it is majorly due to the kind of people it pulls in. There are several other places in the world which have a much better weather than SV, but don't have this kind of an ecosystem.

Literally one of the things I hated the most when I visited California and all I hear about California is the weather (I should say, "San Francisco", not CA, since obviously CA is a pretty big state). I can't imagine what living somewhere that is the same every day.

Lots of business is done in places where weather not up to Bay Area standards, such as New York, London, Tokyo, Beijing, etc.

Winters are mild in Vancouver. What kills anyone who wasn't born there is the nearly yearlong overcast gloom... Sunshine is a necessary ingredient to feeling good. Coffee is just a temp fix.

Snow sports are the answer to Vancouver winter gloom. I smile through the rain because I know it's snowing at Whistler. Enjoyed that snow today.

Winter is great when you prepare accordingly.

California's terrible (IMO alert) weather is the main reason I've never considered moving out there for a job.

> And once Vancouver or any other city starts working for them, Silicon Valley will lose its exclusivity.

Silicon Valley doesn't have exclusivity. It has startup funding. It's all about the money, not weather, not talent, not Berkeley, not Stanford, not visa availability. It's about money.

> The thing to note here is that this response from YC is not a political one, but a response that came out of market demand

At base, this is an expression of YC's disagreement with the Administration's positions on immigration. It's saying that the imposition of even more onerous visa restrictions is misguided because it prevents from entering people who would make valuable contributions to American society. That is political.

> And once Vancouver or any other city starts working for them, Silicon Valley will lose its exclusivity.

I fail to see the problem.

So all in all it's a good thing for everyone but Silicon Valley, suddenly bright people will stop clumbin in SF but start working, paying taxes and spending their money back home. They will not need to move to a different country and keep their social net, etc.

This was the illusory hope of many of us in the beginning of the IT revolution. Work from anywhere, connected with everybody and the equal distribution of wealth.

I would believe this is not political if YC would have done this in the past. Its not that Visa issues to enter US is something brought by Trump administration. In any case, I celebrate the decision.

Unfortunately Trump and his supporters hate Silicon Valley so much they might not have a problem with that.

Wow. We often wonder how the Bay Area would be unseated as startup capital of the world. Maybe it'll be the US's immigration problem.

I completely agree that visas are a problem but I disagree that they will be "the problem" to unseat Silicon Valley as the world nexus of startups.

I've spent most my adult life in Asia and have lived in several countries and cities that claim to be very serious about becoming the next tech hub. None of them have very liberal immigration policies. All have visas for highly skilled workers, all have visas for entrepreneurs and all have visas for investors. I have yet to see a single case where a founder could get a visa without either significant revenues or significantly more funding than YC originally gave. It's also pretty hard for mid-stage startups to hire foreign workers, even in places with exceptional government-driven startup initiatives such as Singapore.

In my perception, Silicon Valley's most critical weakness is housing prices and its most likely true competitor is Beijing—not due to openness of immigration by any means, but due to a larger base of technically educated citizens and access to what is becoming the largest market in the world.

I agree that the most critical weakeness of Silicon Valley is real estate costs. I find it hard to imagine Beijing as a serious competitor though. If it were going to be anywhere in China I would expect it to be Shenzhen.

What YC has to do - is classical very very early Symptom Ecosystem dissolution.i.e. SV (i know its too early to say so). Its very hard to disrupt such woven ecosystem due to inherent resiliency and there is higher chances it will survive but this is unprecedented . I checked few VC twitter feeds, they are leaning towards Canada ,very early ,very slow but still unprecedented.Networks are strong as long as the inflection point. One can watch this video i attached here to understand how ecosystem fails without the participation from value serving members and how quickly it may :by the way this is all facts checked. Here is vedio how ecosystems are fragile : http://bit.ly/2mqDdjf .

When adjusting for average income, Beijing is the most expensive city in the world.

It would be delicious and terrible irony if Vancouver took over the role of startup capital, since it is the only place with a more unaffordable housing market than the SF bay.

Vancouver's prices are high but they are not SF-high.

If you mean housing cost relative to salary, however, that's perhaps a different story.

$600 CAD/month for a bedroom in a house that's close to frequent transit and in a low-crime area isn't hard to find if you don't have your heart set on living right in downtown Vancouver. I am not going to pay $2200/month to live in gangland-torn East Menlo Park.

I worry about that. It would be a devastating blow to the country if the next wave of technology doesn't happen here.

If anything worried me it would be fundamental research more than startups -whether the new admin affects fundamental researchers coming in would be a bigger issue than a few entrepreneurs having to work harder at home. Missing up on start-ups is not all that. Uber, AB&B, etc. are nice to haves, but aren't making fundamental discoveries --they are changing how we use resources we already have rather then providing new things.

Don't worry so much. You have a mortal lock on the pipeline of first-time tech founders, and your cycles are overwhelmingly populated by graduates of US and European universities. Yes, a fair number of talented people from disfavored west Asian countries won't be able to start up here. That's OK: because of the way venture capital works, and because of YC's role in it, they really won't be able to start at all, and you won't have to compete with them.

Sure, they'll remain outside the US as a nucleation site for new startups that could have in theory challenged US dominance in technology startups. But the US controls the financial energy. They won't get anywhere.

Startups will survive large-scale institutional bigotry just fine. In fact: some of them will even profit from it.

Sleep well!

I don't know. It's not like there's all of a sudden a lack of homegrown startup ideas and tech talent in the Bay Area / USA.

There's a lot of tech talent all across the US and North America too, but they end up flocking to SF. For the same reasons they'd hypothetically flock to Vancouver in this situation.

Just because a few people from outside the US are worried about visa issues before applying to an incubator doesn't spell the end of Silicon Valley. The money, talent, and infrastructure to support startups (and large tech companies for that matter) aren't going away anytime soon and likely wouldn't go away even if we completely completely halted green card holders. Not that I would ever advocate something like that.

I don't think it's "a few people." It is everyone holding or desiring a US visa that is worried. I would contend that it is only the extent of that fear that is variable.

Maybe I am wrong and there are visa holders feeling absolute confidence at the moment, but I would like to hear why from even one before considering your "a few people" categorization as anything but spin.

I don't think that's necessarily true. The Bay Area's become an international hub for tech, not just a domestic one — many influential founders (including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel) were born outside the United States.

> aren't going away anytime soon

Reading the news, I would not bet too much money on that either.

It's almost always the government that makes or breaks a country.

Only if there's no mechanism for bad governments to be replaced, peacefully.

We'll see if we still have that mechanism in 4 or 8 years, but in the meantime, I'll remain cautiously optimistic. The U.S. has had terrible presidents & strong political leaders before, ones who drove the country down a terrible path, and they've usually been forced out of power and their policies reversed within a decade. That's the great strength of democracy: it's not that it governs efficiently (it doesn't), but it provides an escape hatch so if a government is seriously going down the wrong path and everyone realizes it, the government doesn't last long.

I agree, but only with the 'breaks' part.

The U.S. doesn't have an immigration problem. It has a political problem where a faction of nativist nationalists has seized political power.

Why did they seize power?

Because they were the only ones pointing out the economic collapse of rural and interior America.

Liberals should have been in front of this issue but they ignored it, preferring to hide in coastal urban bubbles and navel gaze. So they opened the door to a bunch of demagogues.

Immigration may not be a major cause of these problems but it makes a convenient scapegoat.

How would switching to a merit based immigration system - copying Canada's system - unseat the Bay Area as the startup capital? It won't, at all. If anything switching our immigration priorities will dramatically boost the Bay Area. This thread is overflowing with what is essentially revenge fantasy.

Ever tried to get a visa as an American for Europe or the U.K.? Good luck with that.

It's way easier to get a tech visa for Europe of the UK. At the very least you don't have to wait around for an H1B lottery.

Yes. Depending on where you're going it's surprisingly straightforward. Hell, you can even go set up a business in the Netherlands if you're self-employed with relatively few restrictions.

Also, what do you mean by "visa"? There are many different sorts, depending on whether you come to interview, work, be an entrepreneur, etc.

Calexit would allow California to bring in anyone they want though, and SF wouldn't have to worry about the US immigration policy screwing up it's tech scene. I'm looking forward to the Calexit proposition vote.

Obviously this is a joke.

In case it isn't: the war that would follow an attempted Calexit might be slightly detrimental to startups in the Bay Area.

> Calexit would allow California to bring in anyone they want though

In the same way that secession allowed the Confederacy to do that.

The US has no equivalent of the EU's Article 50, and until it does, "Calexit" means a war that California is in no position to win.

Calexit is a dead in the water idea. It's a waste of breath to even comment on it.

The obvious question is will the US government allow one of its most profitable states to leave? Highly doubtful. Great way to start another civil war, though!

Does that not require that other major nations loosen their policies in conjunction with this, in addition to cultural aspects of self-promotion as well as failure and access to *capital.

Or an earthquake.

A friend of mine runs a large, well known webdev agency in India and is attending a conference in Arizona in April. His friend was planning to come as well - he owns a US based business, has a US bank account, pays US taxes, has purchased airfare, hotel, and conference tickets.

He was denied a US visa because "attending a conference is not a good enough reason".

My friend with the agency who has a visa is concerned he won't get thru immigration. He was planning on expanding to the US, but is has shelved those plans.

What's the conference? (Arizona webdev here)

PressNomics

This is great news for both Canadian and international founders.

Is the next step having an additional Canadian office for those that can't get US visas? Canada has a generous startup visa for founders coming from other countries [0].

[0] http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/business/start-up/

The Canadian visa might sound appealing at first blush but won't help for ycombinator founders as far as I know.

To be eligible you need to have funding from a canadian venture fund, see below.

I guess ycombinator could setup a Canadian fund and apply for the funding eligibility, but with the principles being mostly American and living in the US, I'm guessing it would be a very tough sell.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/business/start-up/eli...

actually Canada just announced another visa pilot program for temporary workers i.e. "Global Talent":

"Canada to make skilled-worker permits easier to get in wake of U.S. delays"

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/canada-t...

I'm sure if YC opened up a Canadian branch they could be one of the accepted incubators. The federal government seems keen on trying to make Canada a home for startups, even if it hasn't been a totally successful effort yet.

In the medium term, I'm sure YC can find Canadian funding sources if they wanted to do this.

Oh please no. Leave the VC reality distortion field south of the border please.

We don't need YC ruining Canada with hopped up "startup" bros. If we even need more VC firms (I don't think we do), let indie VC or something like it come up.

Edit: This isn't meant to mean people shouldn't start companies here. They should. But they should do it firmly grounded in reality, not based in SV VC world which has very little to do with building solid long term businesses.

Geez, Canada's old problem of being a branch plant economy is back, 2017 edition.

Alright, now if I work like a dog and make a successful company (chances of this are in the low single digit %), after I hand back the YC cut I can get me a small family home in Vancouver that a regular factory worker could afford 30 years back!

If you're complaining about the price of Vancouver real estate, it hardly makes sense in this context where San Francisco is the alternative.

In light of recent events [0], there's a non-zero chance that some founders out there would rather avoid going to the US at all - if only to protest with their wallet.

It might be more sensible to open a second incubator in the EU. Berlin, Amsterdam, Dublin, Barcelona, there are plenty of options. (London is a good choice on paper too but pray tell what'll happen after Brexit.)

[0]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/02/26...

Let's not forget the upcoming European elections. Bar that, even as a French citizen, I would actually give my vote to Amsterdam as being probably one of the best places to start a startup in Europe.

Why not Waterloo?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/kitchener-waterloo...

Having spent a few years in KW, I have a feeling it might be difficult to convince people to move there.

Agreed. Come to Canada. We have a sane immigration system and we don't have right-wing parties breathing down our necks to shut it down.

Nothing wrong with KW, but compared to Vancouver?

There isn't much to do there outside of work!

Sydney!

To your note about people avoiding the US - I've already seen this for personal travel. I was planning on doing a bit of a holiday around the country, but now the US just leaves such a sour place in my mouth and I would much rather go elsewhere. A number of my friends have made the same decision.

Same here. As "digitalnomad" curious to see the world the last place i am going to visit is the U.S. if even.

Not only the visa situation, but also the unstable political situation, racism and violence let me stay away.

This coming from someone currently in malaysia

Vancouver seems like the most sensible place for a satellite office, due to proximity to San Francisco.

Also proximity to Asia and Europe flying over the top of the world makes Europe surprisingly close.

And Paris ?

"If only to protest with their wallet."

Except that 'the wallet' is in the US, not somewhere else.

I say this even as a Canadian. The money is not here.

As swiss resident i have no idea what you are talking about? Money in the us? :)

Dublin? Sure. Amsterdam - if you believe you can grow decent startup scene in location with 52% income taxes and 1.2% wealth tax and 21% VAT, I have a bridge to sell you.

Silicon Valley happened before the tax madness, and there is now net wealth outflow to lower-tax locations.

52% income tax is only on income > 67K euros, below that it is tiered with the next level down being 40%.

The wealth tax is subject to an exemption of the first 25K.

Also important: there is no capital gains tax and healthcare costs are ~100 euros / month no matter what you earn.

An one who lives in Hungary at the moment, I'd trade this country for Amsterdam any day from a tax standpoint - but admittedly wouldn't go there either way because their extreme right wingers are on par with Jobbik. It's a matter of reference points I suppose.

Surely the land of Donald Trump is somehow better? Or not... /troll

Great intent.

I'd like to know the reasoning behind choosing Canada as an alternative interview location because from experience, it easier to get a US visitor visa than that of Canada.

Nigerians cannot even transit the Canadian airport without a visa which takes upward of 8 weeks to get AFTER approval vs days for the US. Requirements for Canada are more onerous.

2 suggestions.

1. A country of interview per continent. For instance, Dubai will cover Africans + Middle East + Europe

2. Shortlist some countries and let people select 2 options to interview at.

On paper, the passport index [1] looks like a good way to do it but doesn't take into account spread of countries that can visit

[1] www.passportindex.org/byWelcomingRank.php

I also know several US citizens that have been denied entry into Canada because of a DUI in the United States. AFAIK It's not a hard fast rule, and you won't find out until you get there.

Canada doesn't exactly have an open border.

As a Canadian, I was surprised someone would be denied entry for a DUI. Since I looked this up I'll summarize:

Essentially Canada can prevent people who have committed what would be indictable crimes under Canadian law from entering. DUI is particularly strange because it can be either an indictable (serious) or summary (less serious) offence, and in Canada this depends on the circumstances and the way it's prosecuted. Coupled with the varying laws in different states regarding DUI/DWI/OUI/etc, and presumably to prevent the border guard having to act as a Canadian criminal court (to judge how it would be handled here) they just always treat it as if it was an indictable offence.

So even if you're not driving and not intending to drive, the fact it's a potentially indictable criminal offence is what prevents entry -- nothing at all to do with it being a DUI.

There appears to be a couple possible ways to be admitted despite a criminal record[1], by getting either a Temporary Resident Permit (TRP) or being granted Criminal Rehabilitation. I'm not sure what's involved with either, or how likely it is to be approved, but they apparently issue around 10,000 TRPs a year.

http://www.ezbordercrossing.com/the-inspection-experience/pr...

Yes this has been a problem for several people I know. There is an arduous apology form process one can go through but most people just give up because it is so embarrassing. I've had more complications at the US-Canada border crossing than at any other crossing I've ever taken.

It's particularly interesting given that having a DUI on your record is not disqualifying for entry into the USA. The US denies entry for what it deems crimes of moral turpitude, a relatively nebulous concept, though one a DUI does not fall under.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_turpitude

I totally agree with you especially your suggestion that Dubai be considered for the interview. In fact Dubai should be considered as a site for the 3 month program.

I applied to YC for the 2017 batch and I'd rather get into the program than not. But if I have to jump through needless hoops to do so, and put up with the bullshit of a narcissistic circus-performer politician while at it, I'll bootstrap my business for longer or seek investment from someplace else.

If YC is committed to 'discovering world-wide talent' it had better do something more drastic in pursuit of this goal in the light of recent events and challenges.

Which makes me wonder what are the most open countries? Ie. Requiring the least visas.. Is there a country requiring no visa?

Svalbard is the only region that comes to mind (though it's hard to imagine a huge tech scene starting there). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Treaty

Bir Tawil probably doesn't require a Visa. You might find the fiber optic infrastructure a bit lacking though.

( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bir_Tawil )

Not sure whether I know of countries that require no Visa. As far as most open countries go -- Thailand, Singapore, Hongkong come to mind.

I'm a couple hours late to this thread, but speaking as a long-time member of the HN community and Vancouverite: Welcome!

I'm happy to assist YC and/or founders with anything requiring local experience or a local presence. Send me an email.

If you're Colin Percival, I know you from Reddit. You're /u/perciva, right? SFU Senate member, an /r/simonfraser mod.

Yes. I was originally /u/cperciva on Reddit, but forgot the password for that account a few months in and created /u/perciva.

And yes, I'm coming to the end of my fourth 3-year term on the Senate, and about to submit my nomination papers seeking re-election for a fifth term.

Combined with Expa Labs opening an office in Vancouver, it seems that President Trump is the best thing that could ever happen to Vancouver's tech scene. Our anchors historically have been companies like IBM, HSBC, Nokia, and Ericsson, which are all shells of their former selves and have long since closed down their presences in Vancouver. The few existing long-term anchors include MDA and Vision Critical, and SAP's BI division (SAP BusinessObjects and BusinessObjects Cloud, which originated from a local startup called Crystal Decisions which was purchased by SAP in 2008 by way of some Seagate M&As), along with gamedev and film/TV VFX studios which are all feast-or-famine. Just look at the fate of Radical, Roadhouse Interactive, United Front Games, Pixar's office in Vancouver. Sony Imageworks, A Thinking Ape and Animal Logic might go the same way if the loonie increases in value. HootSuite is set to go under eventually as CRM suites integrate social media management; they waited too late to IPO. So this might be the kick in the ass the Vancouver tech scene needs in the eventual post-HootSuite landscape.

So, I say, with all sincerity, "thanks, Trump."

Expa's founder is from BC so I think them opening up an office there is mostly due to an excess of cash they have from Uber's success, not that it necessarily makes sense from a VC perspective.

I hope I'm wrong since I would love to see Vancouver / Toronto have the same earning power as SV.

> Expa's founder is from BC so I think them opening up an office there is mostly due to an excess of cash they have from Uber's success, not that it necessarily makes sense from a VC perspective.

The founder of Slack grew up on Vancouver Island and went to UVic, the co-founders of Tableau is an SFU comp sci alumnus; so is the founder of Buddybuild[1] (the first genuine mobile-first CI provider, raised a series A round from KPCB (!) for $7.6M which is unheard of for a Van company, let alone they managed to find an SV VC firm which was okay with the company keeping the company local).

The way I see it, it matters less why they came (whether it makes sense from a VC perspective, the founders are homesick, or as a response to shifting political tides in the United States) and matters more that they're here.

[1] Further reading:

https://www.sfu.ca/computing/newsandevents/archives/2007/sfu...

https://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/stories/2016/sfu-in-the-news-janu...

We're opening up Vancouver because there's a massive untapped potential of talent in the area that we can help bridge with SF.

I've met and seen many amazing entrepreneurs, developers, designers and all other roles of a startup in this city who are very capable and talented. Our goal is to give them a platform and a opportunity to realize success without having to move south.

May be this is a dumb question, I will ask it anyway, Tijuana Mexico is about 500 miles from Bay Area, where as Vancouver Canada is 1000 miles.

Que Canada?

How are you comparing Tijuana to Vancouver? I have lived in Tijuana. It's one of the worst cities in Mexico. Guadalajara or Mexico City would make much more sense, but even they can't compare to Vancouver. I openly say that the bridge that connects the Tijuana airport directly to the United States is the best thing that ever happened to the city.

I have never been to either of the cities, my question is a question of curiosity, that is why I qualified it with probably being a dumb question.

Going to 'Diet USA' is likely more seamless and convenient. I lived in Canada for several years and I honestly think that's a good description for it, you cannot really tell whether you are in Michigan or Ontario if you don't look at the road signs.

Or visit the museums, where all the exhibits have both French and English text.

As an American who worked in Canada for a summer, I can honestly say that the two countries are so similar you're surprised by any minor differences that do come up.

Ontarians say "Eh" unironically.

I'm a Canadian who lived and worked in the US for six years, and my impression on returning home is that Canada is the country you'd get if you took the U.S. and removed the extremes of wealth and poverty.

As a Chicagoan, being in Toronto can be a little bizarre. After a while I forget I'm not at home. That said, Canada is fairly diverse. Montreal has no easy American city comparison.

My obvious thought: YCombinator is in English (based on what I've seen, at least as their primary language) and Canada is an English speaking country.

Also a homicide rate of 2/100k vs 40 might be indicative of other problems one city may have that the other doesn't.

I'd guess the number of tech startup founders in Vancouver is higher than in Tijuana. Also, no need for bullet proof vests.

Oh boy, I really doubt anyone who stepped on TJ grounds wants to ever come back. Especially not YC people

Other than the language barrier? I imagine its terrible crime problem is a mark against it as well. It had 100+ more murders than often-cited Chicago last year with 1/3rd the population of Chicago!

Also at $15,000 GDP per capita, its not exactly a wealthy place. Vancouver chimes it at 3x that and had all of one murder last year.

Vancouver had more like 12 murders last year (http://vancouver.ca/police/Planning/2016YED.pdf).

Vancouver is one of those places where:

The future is already (t)here – it's just not evenly distributed.

-- William Gibson

Canada has some really great universities, so the talent pool might be higher quality there.

Another reason: despite being closer to the Bay Area, flights to/from Mexico from SFO are actually more expensive (by 100-200 dollars) than to/from Vancouver.

and cheaper than Vancouver

and Mexico's a lot easier to go to than Canada (which now also has an ESTA like system)

also I would guess that people in Tijuana are pretty good with their English

I may vehemently disagree with the eTA program, but let's not overstate, it's $7CAD ($5.18USD) and lasts a decade.

English, and Vancouver is a lot safer/cleaner than TJ.

As a Mexican I agree. Tijuana is not particularly one of the star cities of Mexico.

Maybe YC going there could pump money into the area to improve it.

Probably IP law

It's oddly ominous reading about America's rise on the back of textile patents taken from England and Europe, then poaching of German physics talent and scientific talent from across the world. Germany was, by far, the pre-eminent power in theoretical physics at the turn of the 20th century, with Einstein, Heisenberg, Planck & Born about to be at the peak of their powers. Then the country decided to turn on intellectuals, immigrants, and minorities and turned its scientific prowess to war rather than peace.

There's an old saying out there that history is merely a set of cycles. I suppose we'll see if that is true in the upcoming years.

*one note I would add is that with recent policy uncertainty (i.e healthcare) the advantages of hiring around the world have come into starker relief. That's even more dangerous. Sure, the United States may become less competitive in the war for talent because of walls and tighter borders -- but it'll become less competitive, period, for companies relying on high-skill workers who by definition will be close to or at the peak of their physical and/or mental health.

As a Texan it boggled my mind to hear people complain about immigration. Walk into UT, A&M, UH engineering departments, half the students are Chinese or Russian or Indian. In the grad programs it's even more.

That means their best talent is here, paying US taxes, contributing to US companies, making the US more powerful, all the while contributing almost nothing to their home countries. How is that a bad thing! I don't get it!

The move from calling illegal aliens to illegal immigrants (or undocumented workers, or whatever) creates so much confusion.

I don't know a single person, and I know a good number of Trump voters, who is opposed to legal immigration. What many people, myself included, are opposed to is the illegal part.

Yet I consistently see this stance twisted to mean opposition to all immigration. This conflation is patently ridiculous but it makes for a nice straw man.

(edited for clarity)

You might want to take a step outside the academic setting every once in a while.

Chat with a cop, ambulance driver, or immigration officer from a sanctuary city if you really want to "get" it.

It's the illegal immigrants that suck the system dry, not the smart, diligent, legitimate ones working in academia and top companies.

I agree with you 100%, but people who complain about immigration would argue that they're taking away the opportunities for Americans for the same education / positions.

Heck, that's what they say about undocumented migrant workers in agriculture. But seeing them in positions in the "intellectual elite" is even more threatening to them because such positions are seen as a position of power.

Well it is a bad thing if you are an American student and have to compete with cheaper foreign students (Universities recruit foreign students because they pay more money). There are winners and losers in immigration.

I think the point the OP is making is that nothing last forever. Yes it is great now but the times they are a changing.

Germany waged two world wars over 20 years and tens of millions of people died because of that.

Germany, even at its scientific height was racist and nationalist. Hitler didn't come to power in the 30s without generations of Germans being the foundation.

The US is very far from that.

I don't understand the massive overreaction. The United States in the 60s was a place where there were sundown towns that blacks dared not travel. In 2004 they were seriously considering a constitutional amendment against gay marriage. Now?

We can't lose sight of progress and we can't overreact to the sway of government. All progress has not been lost and the US is not in the dire state some act like it is.

I don't think it's a bad thing to bring up the negatives of what happens when nationalism is at its worst. I agree that we can't lose sight of our accomplishments -- not all is dire, and the United States is quite far from a Germany scenario as of now.

But a bit of nationalism has crept up in the politics of the United States and several other European countries. Bringing up what happened when nationalism ran wild is relevant.

After all, even with the current policies Trump enacted, it is not impossible that our nation will lose out on being the home of the next Einstein, just because they were born in the wrong place.

But the US has a history of racism, slavery (even today, in the prisons), genocide angainst the natives, Christian supremasism leading the military to torture people without cause [1], mass internment of native Americans, Japanees, and Irish. In US history, Americans have already killed more inocent civilian Native Americans and blacks than the germans killed Jews, Polls and Gypsies. Unlike the Germans, Americans still deny their own hollocaust of the Natives. Claiming that it was smallpox, which echos the hollocaust deniers claims of typhus quite clearly. And in the past 30-40 years, Americans have been quiet about this. This has become taboo. But many people, even in the US government, such as Jeff Sessions, and Donald Trump are rooted to the history of racism and genocide. They are alive today, and they are ruling the country.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisone...

Well you see, the lack of sanctions against US exports and the lack of the US relying on exports pretty much undermines the oddly ominous parallels.

The US could benefit in the coming years by being more inclusionary again. It spans an entire continent and has a diversified portfolio of industries to sustain itself. It is unquestioned by its allies officially in wars that are remote and primarily benefit the industries within the US. It really could use an inclusionary policy to enhance its population wealth machine making selective immigration there to once again be a greater object of envy.

You see where the parallels to Weimar and German fascism fail? There isn't enough to extrapolate outcomes just because you see the trendiness of dietary restrictions in the US and notice that the fascist german leader had one too SO OMINOUS.

Enough of this fear mongering, and Nazi comparisons. Nazism, after all, was practiced by a majority of German population, and if everyone now in the US is forecasting it and fighting a what's to come, how can it really happen?

I am much more concerned about our "soft hegemony", propagated by politicians (for politicians) and accepted by a wide populace. Namely, slogans and ideals that are passed as a public policy. Instead of delivering goods, these politicians deliver slogans. California governor would talk for hours about the environment, but nothing would actually be done about the Oroville dam or building a new reservoir to store the water, to actually improve the environmental impact of millions of Californians. Take any lingering issue, from inner city blight to terrible situation of African American males, it's all political talk and nothing is done to actually fix things. That's where hegemony is, in my opinion.

>There's an old saying out there that history is merely a set of cycles. I suppose we'll see if that is true in the upcoming years.

"Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce."

I don' think the situation is as dire as people think. Europe exported many technical people during the war years and one would be hard pressed to say they are backwards because they lost talent. Japan as well is not very friendly to labor migrants and they are at the forefront of science in technology despite their small population size relative to other geographies.

It did, however, dramatically help the U.S. We got the atom bomb, moon landings, computer, and many other inventions out of European immigrants who fled the Nazis. The U.S. had a strong science program before the war, but its superpower status afterwards was just as much because we got all the brightest minds in Europe as because we bombed everyone else into rubble.

I could see Australia, New Zealand, or Canada similarly benefitting if the U.S. turns towards xenophobia & warmongering.

The United States is never going to decay to nothingness.

However, whether or not it becomes the top place for technologists to congregate and build things will become an open question.

That alone, while perhaps not dire to the nation as a whole, will be quite damaging. There, so far, has been an order of magnitude difference between the best technology ecosystem and the second best.

Japan is also looking to open up permanent residency rules, and it has suffered through a nearly two decades long spurt of deflation-driven economic stagnation, with incredible debt/GDP, some of it due to demographic concerns and an inverting age pyramid. Just pointing out that might not be the best counter-example.

It's not an "old saying", it's the work of philosopher Giambattista Vico, a contemporary of Enlightenment. http://www.iep.utm.edu/vico/

"Poaching" is an odd word for it when those people were fleeing for their lives.

Source for this textile patent claim? I want to read more on it :)

So the US poached Einstein from Germany?

As someone who is tired of the decades long wait and uncertainty in the US immigration system, it would be amazing if tech companies were to open a Vancouver outpost and offer transfers to people in visas. I would take that in a heartbeat. May be YC can consider another incubator in Vancouver

Vancouver has been a popular place to transfer foreign talent to the U.S. for years. It's a short drive to Seattle, a short flight to San Francisco, and in the same time zone as both cities.

Famously, Facebook had an office in Coal Harbour that was just for transferring hires to Menlo Park, they didn't hire any Canadian citizens or permanent residents.

Even more famously, Microsoft's recent expansion in Vancouver, the "Excellence Centre" (doubling its workforce from 400 in Yaletown to 800), was mostly going to be for L-1 visa transfers to Redmond HQ. 360 of those positions were planned, with MS only promising 40 positions (5%) for citizens/PRs. The former Conservative government offered winking acknowledgement. However, voters in Canada were furious when the mass abuse of the TFW program came to light, which forced the government's hand.

The vast majority of positions at the "Excellence Centre" (which was opened by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and houses ~650 engineers as of now) have gone to locals. Anecdotally, I've heard that ever since the TFW backlash, the most popular cities in which to open visa transfer offices have been London and Zurich.

If you want to see the documents proving that MS was mostly going to hire visa transfers in Vancouver, documents obtained by CBC News under the province's access to information laws show what were the draft plans: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1685182-b-c-atip-doc...

Ditto. Will complete a decade in the states shortly but I don't see myself breaking free from the visa chains for another 5 - 10 years at least unless the US immigration system is overhauled. We (me and my spouse) have decided upon a hard deadline (~5 more years) before shutting up shop and moving on if things don't change.

It would be awesome if they set up a remote office here in Vancouver :)

Who is having trouble getting a Visa exactly? Just curious, trying to separate fact from hysteria

I understand this post is more startup-visa focused, but generally the US employment based visa and permanent residency system is fucked. I'm in the US on a work visa, but due to my nationality am looking at over a decade of wait time for getting permanent residency. This means I've to stay in the country at fear of losing my job, pay top of the line taxes and still not get any rights during my best years. Which is highly unfair. Canada is a culturally similar first world country where I can get to a citizenship quickly. The only thing preventing me from moving tomorrow is the large difference in tech industry size. If more and more companies set up shop in Canada, I'm ready to go.

You could say that things are how they are, and if I don't like it, I should go back to my home country, but I _want_ to be American/Canadian. I identify with the outdoor, adventurous culture of the American West more than anything else. I am willing to pay my dues and become a well integrated citizen, but this country doesn't want me to, because it continues to conflate people like me with immigrants who don't pay taxes or commit crimes. Or because it has weird laws that cause these delays and a government unwilling to change that because indentured labor is better for existing companies. I already see Canada being a much better choice in a few years.

So the problems for highly-skilled people who want to to become a part of the US are more widespread than just having difficulty getting a visa. If this YC experiment is an indicator of things to come, and more tech companies lead to better salaries in Vancouver, I can see many engineers taking their taxes and skills north of the border.

I'd guess about 5 founders emailed me, and I always assume that indicates there are a lot more who don't.

Nationals of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, or Yemen that do not currently hold dual nationality with another country, an existing visa, or another document permitting entry. No hysteria there.

> Who is having trouble getting a Visa exactly? Just curious, trying to separate fact from hysteria

Anyone, even US citizens, who does not want ICE/CBP snooping on his/her IT equipment, cellphones or social media accounts.

Certainly I (born German/Croatian, living in Germany) might be able to land myself a nice shiny job in the US IT industry but no way I'm ever crossing your border as long as such outrageous privacy violations are legal.

Trump's "extreme vetting" combined with the federal hiring freeze applied to USCIS means every visa application is going to take longer.

Lots of people. From the perspective of a founder, the US doesn't have a startup-founder-visa program (there is a recently approved parole program if you have >10% stake). There's two broad classes of visa for founders, EB5 investor green card ($500,000-$1,000,000) and E-2 treaty investor visa ($15,000-$100,000) but of course E-2's are non-intent (no route to green card), only valid for 2 years and only available to nationals of a handful of countries and require the foreign national to retain majority control of the business.

As an early employee you've got 3 options:

TN (Canada and Mexico only -- for as long as there's a NAFTA) - dead easy, $50 fee (+ $2000 in legal fees), 3 year status, no caps, no path to green card. Cannot have majority interest in the company. Need to prove intent to return to Canada once your temporary employment is complete, to the satisfaction of a border guard.

O-1A alien of extraordinary abilities visa, very challenging to get, requires meeting very significant criteria that is hard to do unless you've already started a business abroad. 3 years, no cap, $10,000 in legal fees, good way to test the waters on an EB1A petition without declaring immigration intent [declaring intent precludes you from future non-intent visas like a TN and happens when you file I-485].

H-1B expensive, slow (6 months processing window right now with premium processing suspended), 33% chance to obtain once every year in April and you can't start until October. $6,000 in total fees give or take. Dual-intent so there is a path to naturalization.

Unless they're a Canadian, I'm not sure how a foreigner can possibly join a startup as an early employee, except as an F-1 OPT student.

Outside of the 6 nations banned, it could just be anybody else at random really. CBP officers have infinite authority to reject people at will. It's commonplace at the Canadian borders for Canadian citizens to get turned away[1] [2], I'd like to point at their skin colour but then I'd get called hysterical.

[1]: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/canadian-woman-turned... [2]: https://news.vice.com/story/another-canadian-of-moroccan-des...

P.S: CBP officers have a difficult job so the decentralised decision-making is understandable to a certain degree

Mexico could capitalize on this as well. Guadalajara is a mini tech hub.

I visited Guadalajara for a few days and it was great! People were extremely friendly and tolerant of my 100 word spanish vocabulary. Housing and living is very reasonable, food is quite cheap, the weather is mild and the city is lively, if a bit spread out. I didn't feel more unsafe than I did in Istanbul. I didn't get a chance to see the tech stuff but there were a bunch of companies and also a reasonably lively meetup scene too!

This is just the opportunity Vancouver needs. They have been laying infrastructure to attract startups, and have been working on plans for a highspeed train between Vancouver and Seattle which are only 2.5 hours apart...

What if it's because I oppose the muslim ban and refuse to enter the US? That's a serious question. Actually I feel like the response to that will be, "It's your choice" but hey solidarity man!

Have all Muslims been banned from the US? I thought it was only a set of countries draw up by Obama.

Edit: Words are hard!

Edit2: Yes, downvote me & upvote the hyperbole. Welcome to the post-fact world. All Muslims are banned. Trump is Hitler. The stock market's going to crash. Anyone right of Obama is racist scum who should lose their job. Etc.

I wonder what action you want Ycombinator to take to satisfy your standards of solidarity? Should they leave America? Apparently (I could be wrong) its their view that remote startups are not ideal, so it seems like you suggest they either operate in undesirable circumstances or move.

As much as the tech world wants to "disrupt" they want to stay "cozy" in their California corner with their known business environment and English speaking places and their way of doing things.

To which I can assume there is cultural shock even when they go to the East Coast

But the world is big and not everything that happens appears on HN (or even on English speaking media).

Perhaps a startup founder could exploit "ease-of-travel arbitrage" and offer a service: Remote working from several countries that are easy to get to, accept a wide range of passports, and have enormous bandwidth.

Canada is a lot more open than the US at this point in time, but it's not all roses for people even to get to Vancouver.

What if there were a hub in, say Dubai? And a few other spots around the world?

I imagine Ycombinator would be one of many potential clients. Universities whose students have to delay a semester might use it. Other institutions would use it.

Dubai is an excellent idea. UAE is one of the countries, for example, that bans any citizens of Israel and anybody who ever visited Israel from entry. Nice way to solve those visa questions once and for all. Why worry about unclear visa policy if we can choose a country with a clear "no Jews allowed" visa policy?

This is just misinformation.

There are many jews living and working in Dubai.

It is true that Israeli passports are not allowed. But that is the point of multiple sites. Perhaps Cambodia would have been a better choice.

It would be great if they held interviews in a couple of places besides Canada, one place in Europe and one place in Asia. Would be a lot of travel for them twice a year though.

They'll still need a visa to go though the YC acceleration period if they get selected though.

Are you aware that Dubai is lacking in various freedoms?

Good. The entire premise of the internet is that it allows coordination at low latency over distance.

It's also probably not fantastic for the United States to be strip mining the entire >130 IQ population of eg Sudan and packing them into SF/NY/DC to work on ad optimization when they're desperately needed by their own people; setting up infrastructure to work remotely is a great first step to eliminating the brain drain problem period.

I like the way your world-view treats intelligent people. Instead of having them being independent agents, there's some form of ownership of them... such that if they head off to foreign lands to pursue what they feel is a better life and earn more money, then it's a theft of community property.

All Sudanese should be happy with their lot in life and either work to improve it or rot. So how dare these Western companies pay the dark skinned people of Sudan as much money as rich white people could earn!!!

(No seriously though, the implications of what you say are disturbing to me.)

The disturbance you feel is likely at least partly cognitive dissonance at the idea of open borders amounting to labor colonialism.

It's an interesting idea, wouldn't you say? What are the effects of ensuring Sudan or wherever is unable to maintain a functional local elite? Are they good or bad, on balance? If we strip-mine all of their potentially capable administrators, do we have an obligation to administer their state for them, or just airdrop rice every couple years, or what?

The idea that states and people have reciprocal obligations beyond Maximum GDP isn't exactly novel.

This is the business equivalent of a code smell.

/r/vancouver "Visiting Vancouver" page:

https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/wiki/visiting

If there was an interview day in London, UK. I would actually apply in a heartbeat.

This is a positive thing for YC. Great.

I mean, YC's still onboard with Peter Thiel: YC Partner, one of Trump's most significant individual donors, and founder of Palantir, the analytics services company that's powering the Trump administration's purge of immigrants (http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/07/peter-thiel-palantir-trump-im...).

But good for YC. Helping several foreign entrepreneurs break into the Valley scene. Moving the needle.

Why not just open a EU branch? Participate remotely - bad idea :(

For those who thing this will unseat SV, no, quite the contrary, showing this flexibility will just make people want to work more with Ycombinator and here.

Why not Toronto? It has a much more vibrant tech scene.

I wondered the same thing. If they launched another location for YC, I would hope they wouldn't just do it because it's in the same timezone, because dang would Toronto be way better.

As someone who went through quite the arduous process to end up working in the US legally, this is great news. Many friends I've had over the years have been unable to access many great resources due to their inability to lawfully work in a different location. I'm happy to see YC making progress towards offering quality opportunities to exceptional individuals in different locations.

Well, it is a very assuring and comforting move for internationals in this tempest. Thanks for doing this.

We need technologies which will make location unimportant.

With virtual reality, 4k HD conferencing and network bandwidth which can support both.

California taxes and real estate prices in SV will make more businesses move to Texas and other states where there is little or no income taxes.

That's cool. Good for folks in that situation.

What about people with families or dependents that can't afford to uproot their life and relocate to SV?

Don't get me wrong, this is great, but it would be even better if it expanded to include additional circumstances.

Very interesting considering the post even discusses participating remotely. Politically incorrect theory: enabling people with families just isn't as sexy as helping immigrant founders.

VCs don't want people with a life outside work.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/business/how-trump-became...

> “Trump is the Silicon Valley candidate in every way except that the ideology is flipped,” said Sam Altman, a prominent technology leader, chief executive of Y Combinator.

So now that the government has been "disrupted", YC has decided to avoid the issue by fleeing the country? Maybe instead of avoiding the issue, YC could organize Silicon Valley and spend some of it's political power actually addressing the issue (lobbying, funding local candidates, etc). Silicon Valley is home to many fantastically powerful corporations and individuals, it's time they took a stand for justice.

Yes, this is an important comment. While it's a virtue for Silicon Valley organizations like YC to adapt quickly, adapting in this case means clearing the way for the administration to solidify its haphazard immigration policy. Hopefully the YC staff is using its connections to Peter Thiel and others who have the president's attention to lobby hard against a policy that will directly and indirectly hurt many people and businesses in Silicon Valley.

Vancouver-based founder here. What's the best way to stay on top of this -- apply through the front door? Would be up for connecting with others looking to apply when YC comes to Vancouver.

Maybe they will take it further and set up shop in Vancouver or Toronto.

Isn't this going against the recently approved International Entrepreneur Rule?

EDIT: It'll work pretty well for people coming from countries which have the Muslim ban.

Why even go to that length when you can interview on video?

I'm really interested in hearing how many interviews take place in Vancouver for the intended reason (as opposed to, for example, personal protest).

Why not do it also in London for European founders?

I don't know if London would be a good choice due to Brexit. Maybe Amsterdam instead.

If ease of attracting international founders is a concern, my recommendation would be Dubai. Unbelievable facilities which are turn key in their own business hub, a tax free environment to incorporate in, if it goes there. Foreigners can own property, which just makes sense for a future hub.

One of the easiest tourist visas to obtain for vast majority of nationalities, with cheap flights. Near EU, other Asian countries, and Africa. Thailand and Singapore could be other options, but they are far from EU.

What about the internet there? Isn't it censored and relatively slow and expensive? VPNs are legally banned (1). Last I checked, FaceTime + WhatsApp audio were completely blocked in Dubai. Skype was blocked when on mobile data (but available on PC-to-PC).

1 - http://gulfnews.com/news/uae/crime/using-vpns-what-uae-resid...

Those restrictions do not apply in the business district, AFAIK. There is a lot of encapsulation that Dubai provides international businesses from their local restrictions.

Vancouver is a nice place. Love it here :)

Great founders and technologists are an amazing asset to US, we'd be lucky to have them.

Sorry, are they just conducting interviews in Van or actually running a cohort there?

I'm curious does Canada require bachelor degree for this type of visa or not?

I would love to see YC funding Vancouver companies and working with them.

There are a number of questions that have not been asked:

How many applicants does YC have from countries with visa issues?

Has any YC applicant been denied entry into the US? If so, what were the circumstances?

In looking though YC historical records, how many people, on average, would typically apply from affected regions?

How many of those people were accepted into the program?

How many of those people succeeded?

In the age of Skype, why can't interviews be conducted without the need to travel?

Yes, I understand speaking to someone in person delivers a lot more information than possible through online meetings. An initial online meeting could function well as a 1 to 3 pass filter leading up to an in-person meeting, thereby providing a lot more time to deal with visa issues.

I am taking a wait-and-see attitude with regards to visa restriction issues. As is the case with any startup or new venture, mistakes are made, non-ideal rules are implemented, some confusion seeps in, etc. So long as the process is one where the right solution is evolved and the ability to pivot is retained things eventually improve. These rules should not behave differently.

What gives me hope? Take a look at who sits in Trump's business advisory council (not sure this is a current list):

http://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-on-trump-business-advi...

It would be inconceivable that this topic isn't discussed with frequency in these meetings.

If I were to presume to be able to give YC advice it would be this:

Use your connections to gain a seat in this council.

Being part of the dialog is the best way to affect positive change. That doesn't mean agreeing with all policies, it does mean you'd be heard at the highest levels rather than not.

And, if you do gain a seat in this council I would further ask that you work hard to convince the administration to take the SBA and convert it into a YC-style program where, in every city of this country, entrepreneurs can have access to not just funding but a real support infrastructure to chase after their ideas.

The SBA has never been of real use to the myriad of startups that have revolutionized the world. If you want to borrow $100K from the SBA you better have $100K in the bank, or more. And the "advisers" they offer-up are often so far behind the times they are only good to help open a doughnut shop or more traditional non-scale-able businesses.

Yeah, do that and the immigration thing and you'll change this country. But you have to be on the inside to do it.

What happens if you get accepted and still can't get a visa?

What is the visa situation right now? What exactly has changed?

You know H1B visas? You know how there's an expedited program for them which basically every tech company tries to use? Well, not anymore there isn't.

First link off Google News: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/06/us-h1b-visa-...

And, there may be more changes coming in the future, so, yay political risk?

(I'm on H1b)

The lack of an expedited program does not really call for this kind of a move. If you are a new applicant (ie never held h1 before), you have to wait till Oct 1 to start anywy, so the USCIS taking 3 months to process your application does not affect your ability to work. If you are transferring to another company, you can switch after you receive your receipt, which is usually under a couple of weeks (at least the times I've tried).

Do YC founders usually come in on a H1b visa? I don't understand how that would work well, given that there is a lottery every year. Also, I wish you had adopted a less snarky tone.

Weird choice of country for this purpose. I wonder who needs visa to the US and doesn't need one to Canada, and I'm pretty sure the number is small.

Poles, for instance. But even when Canada, as the US, requires visas for most nationalities, it is extremely simple to apply for one (just scan your passport, fill out the online form and pay $7 CAD). On the other hand, applying for a visa to visit the US is a stressful and relatively expensive (~$180 USD) long process with a high chance of getting rejected. This is not new though.

I'll add that, at least here in Brazil, applying for a US visa necessarily involves at least one in-person visit to any US consulate or embassy, in a business day, and they naturally don't exist in all cities. Lines are long, and the visit can take the whole day. So there's this much extra stress and expense.

It's about the possibility of having your visa granted, not whether you need one. Perhaps you have heard about the travel ban in the US?

Now I see, forgot the context and last events

Canada welcomes everyone* with wide, egalitarian arms - regardless of age, race, gender, identity, etc.

* excluding the disabled: http://www.ccdonline.ca/en/socialpolicy/immigration

As others pointed out, Canada recently made mandatory their eTA program which is very similar to US ESTA, so the differences are non-existent anymore.

Original text: The number is huge. For instance the whole EU doesn't need visa for Canada [0] but it does for US (although it's called a waiver program [1], which guarantees nothing).

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_Canada#Visa_exe... [1] https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/visit/visa-waiver-...

For friendly Canada all you need is an Electronic Travel Authorization document, whereas the fascist US demands an Electronic System for Travel Authorization document.

The visa waiver program is not a visa, that's why it's called the "VISA waiver". It's basically the same process as visiting Canada.

The number is huge? The difference is what, a couple countries?

That's news to me. I thought EU can enter US easily

Thank you, sama, for doing this.

How about Oslo & Berlin?

Kudos to ycombinator !

Why not Tijuana?

I have lived in Tijuana and it's one of the worst cities in the country. If you _really_ have to choose a Mexican city, Guadalajara or Mexico City are orders of magnitude better options.

The lead the US has had in science/engineering/technology over the past 70+ years is in no small part due to the massive brain drain from Europe, and the rest of the world, due to fascist regimes.

If the US's new shiny fascist regime keeps progressing at this pace, you can bet that things will reverse quickly. Good bye, world leading startups, nobel prizes, top universities, etc. These things can happen faster than one tends to think.

The best thing countries like China could do right now is heavily open up to English, and fund things such as foreign PhD students. Everyone is fighting to get into Harvard and MIT right now, but a half decade of Trump policies could have drastic consequences a few decades down the line and give us a very different world.

Edit: some followup to this comment further below https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13831085

People also seem to get stuck on "China" in my comment. If that makes you unhappy, replace that word with Brazil, Japan, Singapore, Estonia, whatever you want... the point is, viewed under the "startup lens", this new administration makes the dominance of the US in STEM/entrepreneurship ripe for disruption by a more nimble, flexible entity.

Would you mind not taking HN threads straight into political flamewar? The mess you set off is totally not in the spirit of this site, and the problems can be traced back to how you posted. Comments on HN need to get more civil and substantive, not less, as the topic gets more divisive.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13830700 and marked it off-topic.

If the US's new shiny fascist regime keeps progressing at this pace...the best thing countries like China could do right now is heavily fund things such as foreign PhD students.

Wait, so you're saying everyone is leaving fascist USA, but China will be the beneficiary of that?

> People also seem to get stuck on "China" in my comment. If that makes you unhappy, replace that word with Brazil, Japan, Singapore, Estonia, whatever you want... the point is, viewed under the "startup lens", this new administration makes the dominance of the US in STEM/entrepreneurship ripe for disruption by a more nimble, flexible entity.

The problem is that for various reasons, none of those are credible alternatives. One of the things keeping US dominance of science/engineering/technology going is that there's no place quite like it.

"Where to next"? I'm stumped, myself. Europe doesn't look very good right now. Australia? Or just hang out someplace nice like Chile and hope things blow over?

Where are people gonna go?

There's no evidence that China wants to open up like that.

"...fascist regime..."

Yes, the fascist regime everybody is so terrified of that they don't hesitate to criticize it in public.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/beijing-toughens-its-internet-s...

Comment Rating: 1/10: Just another Political post

> The lead the US has had in science/engineering/technology over the past 70+ years is in no small part due to the massive brain drain from Europe, and the rest of the world, due to fascist regimes.

Awesome! I was curious about hearing more about this.

> If the US's new shiny fascist regime keeps progressing at this pace,

You're making a claim that is fairly recent and that is intentionally inflammatory. Then you're making a comparison to someone and the party that is new to older established negatively impacting politics.

If something is going on at the moment that is relevant, name the specific thing. Trying to blame the whole group now is just silly pandering.

----

Why did you feel that it was necessary to inject political commentary into this? I'm really tired of hearing armchair politicians or regurgitation of political pundits. This is hacker news not r/Politics.

Submissions of articles from YC/by YC people always have the least descriptive titles. :(

Edit: Thanks!

I think it's a signalling thing, like when people sign their emails with a single lowercase initial, i.e. we're too busy and important to spend time on this.

The title was "US Visas" for those wondering.

I'm new to the site. Seems you are controlling things around here (moderator to say). Why are my comments only visible when I'm logged in? as soon as I logout and look at the comments on this article as unregistered user, I do not see any of my comments. That gives false sense that everyone is looking at my comments but in reality they are being hidden. That makes me think other users even when they are logged in the website will not see my comments because they are censored Probably as comments are not in line with rhetoric of those in charge of this site, maybe? Is it a way to censor what YC does not agree with? I never knew this existed.

Please explain if otherwise.

Your comments were killed by anti-abuse software that detects past patterns by trolls. The software looks to me to have gotten it right. You've been posting comments that don't fit the site guidelines and creating multiple accounts to do it.

HN moderation is based on https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html, not YC.

Political or ideological battle is not what the site is intended for, so we ban accounts that use it primarily for that purpose.

We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13833091 and marked it off-topic.

I'm not part of YC but if you are in downtown Vancouver around Robson Square, give me a shout (email is in profile) and let's get a coffee!

Welcome to Vancouver.

"Move fast and break things" indeed :-/

https://twitter.com/tqbf/status/839608371686801410

Wow, that's pretty far out of context. Far enough to imply the opposite of the statement's sentiment. For reference, the full quote by Altman is,

> “Trump is the Silicon Valley candidate in every way except that the ideology is flipped,” said Sam Altman, a prominent technology leader, chief executive of Y Combinator and a major Hillary Clinton donor. “He’s an outsider. He took on a system he thought was broken and then disregarded the rules, he got to know his users well and tested his product early and iterated rapidly. That’s the start-up playbook. That’s exactly what we tell our start-ups to do.”

Cherry-picking the words in the quote to paint the picture that Altman supports Trump somehow is quite deceitful.

That Altman quote seems terribly out of context. I haven't found a full reference yet, but it seems to me that he's not endorsing Trump's policies, he's explainging that Trump won because he (perhaps accidentally) appropriated the "startup playbook".

For context, the full quote from the article is:

“Trump is the Silicon Valley candidate in every way except that the ideology is flipped,” said Sam Altman, a prominent technology leader, chief executive of Y Combinator and a major Hillary Clinton donor. “He’s an outsider. He took on a system he thought was broken and then disregarded the rules, he got to know his users well and tested his product early and iterated rapidly. That’s the start-up playbook. That’s exactly what we tell our start-ups to do.”

Since there was a big thread about that yesterday I think we're going to mark this subthread as offtopic and invite those of you who are interested to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13824680.

The entire quote is very insightful, and the tweet entirely takes it out of context. It's negated in the very same sentence.

Administration may unleash FATCA on YC

Do..you have a point?

Please post civilly and substantively.

We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13830841 and marked it off-topic.

Dubai? So are you not interested in attracting women to startups?

Inflammatory drive-bys are trolling. If you have a substantive point, make it thoughtfully; if you don't, please don't post.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13830706 and marked it off-topic.

The irony of choosing Dubai because of America's supposed intolerance.. hope you don't want not only women, gays, non-married couples, or all the other BS a muslim state enforces.

What do you mean?

And a few other spots around the world?

Have you even been to Dubai? It's more happening place than SF. Clearly you have no idea and can't differentiate b/w Saudi and Dubai.

I like how HN will change any clickbait titles you post but regularly does clickbait titles of its own.

This entire article could, and should, be a single sentence title. "YCombinator holding Canada interviews for founders without US Visa".

Assume good faith! We changed the title to representative language from the article.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com