USA H-1B VISA IS PUTTING LIFE IN LIMBO OF MANY START UP COMPANIES UNABLE TO OBTAIN IT EVEN AFTER HAVING EMPLOYED NUMBER OF PERSONS WORLDWIDE SEE THE FRUSTRATING STORY OF ONE SOFTWARE ENTREPRENEURS For immigrants, the H-1B visa represents a thread of hope that can entangle the most ambitious entrepreneurs. Current H-1B policies can both stifle startups and force immigrants to seek sponsorship from big, established companies when they’d rather be pursuing the next great idea at their own company. In 2008 alone, 404,907 foreign nationals applied for H-1B visas. Only 129,464 people got them. Of those, 65,000 of the H-1B visas allotted were for private sector employment. There also is a strict quota per country of origin. Each year, only about 4,550 H-1B visas are granted per foreign country for entry into the U.S. Those numbers spelled difficulty for New Delhi native Prayag Narula. Narula, 28, co-founded the startup MobileWorks, an online business that connects people seeking intermittent labor with jobs that pay a living wage. After graduation from U.C. Berkeley in 2012, Narula was hoping his MobileWorks project would qualify him for an H-1B employer visa — one of the most common, and widely-panned, employment visas — to stay in the country and keep growing the startup. But Narula’s lawyers encouraged him to apply for a more temporary Optional Practical Training program for former U.S. students, since visa evaluators often view startups with skepticism. He’s currently working on the OPT visa. The bar for workers seeking H-1B visas is high: Companies must prove that employees can be paid market-rate salaries (a dicey proposition at many startups). Narula said his attorneys recommended that he document at least $500,000 in company funding, which MobileWorks didn’t have at the time. MobileWorks’ difficulties securing an H-1B for Narula is particularly telling, given its profile. The company, which participated in the Y Combinator startup incubator in 2011, was singled out by Forbes on the publication’s 30 Under 30 list for social entrepreneurs in 2012. “It’s really frustrating,” Narula said. “We have employed people all over the world. We employ hundreds of thousands of Americans.” For now, he has one year on his OPT visa, plus a possible 15-month extension, before he has to arrange new documentation. His experience navigating the murky H-1B visa system is a variation on a common theme. A manager at a major local tech company, who asked to remain anonymous because he’s concerned about compromising his immigration status with his employer, said he was forced to resign from a mobile technology startup he co-founded with American citizens because of restrictions on his H-1B visa. “I could not file for my own visa with my own company,” he said, noting that he couldn’t guarantee company finances would pay his salary. Instead, he took a job with an established company in hopes of securing a green card.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 02:01:05 +0000