Ask HN: Practical ways for a Malaysian to set up business in the Valley? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Practical ways for a Malaysian to set up business in the Valley?

16 pointsfezzl8 comments

I'm an owner of a close-to-ramen-profitable startup who has always wanted to set up business in the Valley. I'm in my early twenties, personally quite rich (made some stock market dough, kind of like Eduardo Saverin in the Social Network), speak good English, know American culture, etc. Is basically joining an accelerator program like Y Combinator the only practical way?

View on HN

There are multiple issues here. Likely the stickler is going to be immigration status, since without a work-capable visa you can't meaningfully participate in a startup. This is totally orthogonal to joining a tech incubator at the moment: YC matters in the Valley but being accepted into YC will not magically grant you a visa.

Depending on how rich "quite rich" is, you may be able to qualify for an investor visa in a US company. If this is the high percentage option for you, start talking to an immigration lawyer ASAP.

If that is not an option, suffice it to say that the difficulty of getting a legitimate visa into the US is probably the biggest single challenge you'll face up to Series A or so. (Believe me, I sympathize.)

I believe that you need US$500k for an investor visa. Has it changed?

AFAIK the current standard is low to mid six figures, depending on circumstances and the whims of the examining officer. It has been a while since I needed to be up on this, though, so don't treat that as gospel. (I used to deal w/ US immigration peripherally on behalf of Japanese clients. These days the geta is on the other foot.)

I checked out your startup zuupy.com , its a daily deals site for business owners. I'm not exactly sure if YC would want to fund another daily deal site ( unless its a specific vertical, like daily deals for sports/theater tickets )

Not sure if you would want to put in $500k just for the sake of being in the Valley.. Alot of non-valley startups doing very well too. If you really need the connections, best way is to make a kickass product and the investors will come knocking.

Probably start with the hard grind - join a startup that offers a h1b, then go from there.

Wait. Why would you use a throwaway account?

There's another quick way. As a Malaysian national, if you have a master's degree or 5 years of work experience. If you can get a US company to employ you and sponsor your green card. You can get it within just a year.

Its $500k if your business is setup in designated distress areas, for other areas its $1 million. From what i hear there is something called a "Regional Center Program" where you don't have to manage. There are companies which do it for you (and manage your immigration process). You just have to write them a big fat check and hope you will get it back in 5 years :)

Just google for EB5 investor visa and start contacting the law firms!

I know at least two Y Combinator companies who moved to Valley. I believe YC helped the founders to get L1 visa.

If a US company or person is a partner in your company, then you may be able to get a L1 visa. I guess this can also work out if you have a US based investor, but I recommend to confirm from an attorney.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com