An immigrant entrepreneur’s path to Green card..

To all the brave entrepreneurs who left their home country and came to United states to establish your business, I salute:-). I am not an expert in immigration, so I will limit to my own story of how I got my green card.

Step 1 — Decision to come to US: I was from India and wanted to establish a business on a foreign land, applying to startup accelerator seemed a good idea. I came here on B1 visa (as in last 10 years), I was not really thinking in this duration about anything else other than demo day, building product and finding a niche market, doing pilots etc. Some accelerators are market focused (like Y Combinator) and some are product focused (build your hardware & MVP — Bolt, PCH Highway 1 etc). Most importantly, I used some part of my daily day to build network. What’s great about valley is the culture of breakfast meetings, you start really early in the day and can meet several people by end of the day. There is a culture for everything — marketing, design, engineering…don’t worry about failure.

Step2: 01 Visa: Shifting base, from your home country is not a easy decision to make, esp. with all the risks involved with running a startup. Financial expenses are at-least 5 times more and lesser take home salary. Frugal life begins!. Be ready for lot of sacrifices. If your market, customers are here, then its a no-brainer for a founder to decide to move to the place where the market is.

I applied for an O1 work visa. One of my US investors sponsored my visa. If you are a domain expert in your field, all you need to prove to immigration authorities is that you are one of the top talent in your field. Get 3–4 good recommendations letters (past work experience with those in US helps) from established talent and those famous in your field. It’s quality of recommendations not quantity that’s important. Plus your own track record — international awards, judging at events, publications, patents, position at your company etc also help. Remember, immigration authorities want to help founders establish their business, generate revenue and local employment in US. They want to help you.

It helps to negotiate with your lawyer (its damn expensive) for part pre-payment or full post payment after you get your visa. A good immigration lawyer is a key. I choose Gabriel from M.J. Law/San Jose. I was in constant travel mode between US and India. Its a difficult phase to be away from family & friends. Follow your lawyer’s advice diligently. I took my O1 visa interview from my home country, India. You can choose for change of status, if you are in US and not on constant travel. In a week, my O1 Visa was approved. I applied for social security right after this. .

Step3: Settling down: If you think step3 gets easier, no. I needed my family with me. There was no way I could be any longer away from my daughter. It was already an year away from family by now. Luckily for me, my family decided to come here to US. This meant lot of sacrifices for my family. My husband had to give up his 18 year career and job. I setup a small house in Cupertino myself. It was for the first time, without any family support, setting up furniture, kitchen and everything else (at the same time setting up office, hiring, launching product in market etc) .O3 dependent visa doesn’t allow dependents to work. But on retrospect that makes sense. My daughter (9 yrs) did not want to move, there was a fear of the unknown, she needed lot of support to transition her smoothly into a new environment. We decided my husband will not to work for 6 months until transition is complete.

Step4: Green card: This is a good curve. Stabilization time. My daughter found new friends and liked her school & friends. By now, first product was beta launched in market. So I applied for EB1-A — green card. If you already have an O1 visa, this path is easy. You just have to establish some more credibility above your O1 criteria. My EB1 petition (I-140) was approved in 3 days at first shot. Post that medical examination, fingerprint & background verification, I485 approval took longer time of 3 months. Finally, got Green card after close to 200 days, for me and my family.

It took me a year’s effort to reach permanent resident status, journey from O1 visa to Green card. Be prepared for the drill. Its hard to find time for immigration activities esp. when you are running a startup and looking after your family. I had to burn some weekend and midnight hours. Wish you good luck for yours. Please feel free to reach me here, if you need any help.