advice needed, shall we do refinance right now??# Living
x*i
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This article is inspired by the Techcrunch’s post written by Professor
Vivek Wadh, visiting scholar at the School of Information at UC-
Berkeley, director of research for the Center for Entrepreneurship and
Research Commercialization at the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke
University.
US economy is shattered and shows no signals of full recover. Many
people have lost houses and jobs since 2007. It is still unclear for
when or how our economy can be recovered.
Meanwhile, the number of startups dropped 24% in 2009. The data in
2010 is still not available. It is already known the US job loss rate
is 9.5%, with 131,000 loss by July of 2010. Startups contribute to
most of fresh employment annually. This implies some plunge or very
slight increase of the number of startups in 2010.
Does this seriously mean US has already lost its innovation and the
startup momenta?
First let us scan who and what are behind of these startups. Reports
showed immigrants are one main force of US startups, source 1, source
2, source 3. Since 1990, immigrants have founded 25% venture-capital-
backed startups in US, source. These startups are mainly in
information technology (24%) and high tech manufacturing (42%) areas.
Silicon Valley’s innovation has been constantly driven by immigrants.
From 1995 to 2005, 52% of Silicon Valley’s startups were founded by
foreign-born workers, source. The number of immigrants staying in US
however dropped about 1 million in 2009 due to the financial crisis
started from 2007. In 2008, the number of immigrants in US were 11.6
million. In 2009, the number was decreased to 10.8 million. Such drop
has actually already started from late 2007. The trend might continue
in 2010 or even in 2011.
Then we continue to look at the fact of graduate students entering US
and staying in US, who are probably the most promising candidates to
create startups. In 2009, there is a 1% decline of international
graduate students entering US. In 2010, the plunge was reversed. The
number of international graduate students increased 3% from 2009,
source. Good news indeed!
It comes to the question whether they can get jobs after graduation.
Until 2010, the H1B visa application process is still painful. It is
unknown whether the application can be approved. The US government is
very wise for dealing with this by creating the H1B visa quota policy.
The quota specifies the number of 65,000 for each fiscal year. Until
present, it is still unclear for how the US government comes up with
this quota number. For many international students, the process to get
the H1B visa is very similar to win a gamble. Considering there were
671,616 international students in US in 2008 – 2009, source, it is
likely that many of these students can not get luck among the H1B
lottery process. What this means to those who can get the job offer
from companies but can not win the H1B lottery? It simply means you
are not very needed to work for US. Please go somewhere else to get a
job.
H1B visa is a quite strict policy. It very rigidly specifies that you
are only eligible staying in US for three years, extendable to six
years, with possible another one year extension. Is it possible for an
international graduate (undergraduate) students to create a startups
within 3 or maximum 6 years? The answer is it is very challenging to
even get it started. First, for most of international students, even
they are intelligent, they still have culture, language barriers. If
you even can not speak English fluently, how come you can convince
people to invest you. Second, during these 3 or 6 years, you must work
as full time in order to keep the H1B visa valid. You do not have time
to spend on starting up your business. After working a 40 or probably
even more than 40 hours per week, you are fatigued, exhausted. Third,
international students have very few social network available. They
are only able to get the very minimum help as they need.
How about you are exceptionally smart, energetic, and social, and
finally great God offers you a gift, somehow you get a startup. Hold,
you still have trouble. H1B visa has explicitly specifies that anyone
who is under this visa category can not get even a single dollar
reward beside the income from the official job under the H1B visa.
This might be confusing for many ones who do not know H1B. It is
actually simple. For example, you have a job, the company helps you to
apply for the H1B visa. That is called the job under the H1B. You are
only allowed to be paid from this job, not from anywhere else. You are
simply a volunteer for your startup or you have to figure out the way
to get some illegal ‘dark cash’.
Even you really enjoy this struggling process, working as a
volunteered CEO/CTO to pursue the dream of innovation, the road in
front of you is still very undetermined. Your H1B visa is only valid
for six years. You have to apply for the Green card in order to stay
in US. There are several categories for applying for a Green card,
which are EB1, EB2, and EB3. EB1 is designed for international famous
scientists and scholars. Most of people are only qualified under the
EB2 category. It takes about 5 to 6 years in average before you can be
issued the Green card. During this period of time, you have to have a
legal job, for example H1B visa job in order to be qualified for
getting the Green card.
How much time is granted for an international student to get a
successful startup in US?
Visa application (1 year) + work to impress boss in order to keep the
H1B visa job (2 – 3 years) + start to apply for the Green card
(typically requires 5 -6 years)
It is apparent H1B visa workers have to wait for about 10 years before
they can do anything about startups. If they are ambitious and want to
start early, for example, working as full time in a company, making
use of the late night time to work on the startups, in total they need
to work at least 80 hours per week in order to start some business.
The truth is the H1B workers probably are risking their personal
health and the H1B visa job satisfaction. What this really means to
H1B visa workers? It means (1) They can really be aging early and
fast. (2) In reality, they very often do not have time or over-
pressured for starting the startup before the H1B visa gets expired.
(3) The job is essentially their life. If the job is lost, they likely
have to leave US. (4) How many people want to risk the whole family
becoming illegal to pursue the dream of startups?
Economy is not just simply the number. It is about fact, policy, and
enthusiasms of people. Hope this article can help US government policy
makers reflect on the H1B and Green card polices with a single goal in
mind, which is to make US a better place to live and to thrive.
http://newsicare.wordpress.com/2010/08/21/america-pain-fact-and
up/
Vivek Wadh, visiting scholar at the School of Information at UC-
Berkeley, director of research for the Center for Entrepreneurship and
Research Commercialization at the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke
University.
US economy is shattered and shows no signals of full recover. Many
people have lost houses and jobs since 2007. It is still unclear for
when or how our economy can be recovered.
Meanwhile, the number of startups dropped 24% in 2009. The data in
2010 is still not available. It is already known the US job loss rate
is 9.5%, with 131,000 loss by July of 2010. Startups contribute to
most of fresh employment annually. This implies some plunge or very
slight increase of the number of startups in 2010.
Does this seriously mean US has already lost its innovation and the
startup momenta?
First let us scan who and what are behind of these startups. Reports
showed immigrants are one main force of US startups, source 1, source
2, source 3. Since 1990, immigrants have founded 25% venture-capital-
backed startups in US, source. These startups are mainly in
information technology (24%) and high tech manufacturing (42%) areas.
Silicon Valley’s innovation has been constantly driven by immigrants.
From 1995 to 2005, 52% of Silicon Valley’s startups were founded by
foreign-born workers, source. The number of immigrants staying in US
however dropped about 1 million in 2009 due to the financial crisis
started from 2007. In 2008, the number of immigrants in US were 11.6
million. In 2009, the number was decreased to 10.8 million. Such drop
has actually already started from late 2007. The trend might continue
in 2010 or even in 2011.
Then we continue to look at the fact of graduate students entering US
and staying in US, who are probably the most promising candidates to
create startups. In 2009, there is a 1% decline of international
graduate students entering US. In 2010, the plunge was reversed. The
number of international graduate students increased 3% from 2009,
source. Good news indeed!
It comes to the question whether they can get jobs after graduation.
Until 2010, the H1B visa application process is still painful. It is
unknown whether the application can be approved. The US government is
very wise for dealing with this by creating the H1B visa quota policy.
The quota specifies the number of 65,000 for each fiscal year. Until
present, it is still unclear for how the US government comes up with
this quota number. For many international students, the process to get
the H1B visa is very similar to win a gamble. Considering there were
671,616 international students in US in 2008 – 2009, source, it is
likely that many of these students can not get luck among the H1B
lottery process. What this means to those who can get the job offer
from companies but can not win the H1B lottery? It simply means you
are not very needed to work for US. Please go somewhere else to get a
job.
H1B visa is a quite strict policy. It very rigidly specifies that you
are only eligible staying in US for three years, extendable to six
years, with possible another one year extension. Is it possible for an
international graduate (undergraduate) students to create a startups
within 3 or maximum 6 years? The answer is it is very challenging to
even get it started. First, for most of international students, even
they are intelligent, they still have culture, language barriers. If
you even can not speak English fluently, how come you can convince
people to invest you. Second, during these 3 or 6 years, you must work
as full time in order to keep the H1B visa valid. You do not have time
to spend on starting up your business. After working a 40 or probably
even more than 40 hours per week, you are fatigued, exhausted. Third,
international students have very few social network available. They
are only able to get the very minimum help as they need.
How about you are exceptionally smart, energetic, and social, and
finally great God offers you a gift, somehow you get a startup. Hold,
you still have trouble. H1B visa has explicitly specifies that anyone
who is under this visa category can not get even a single dollar
reward beside the income from the official job under the H1B visa.
This might be confusing for many ones who do not know H1B. It is
actually simple. For example, you have a job, the company helps you to
apply for the H1B visa. That is called the job under the H1B. You are
only allowed to be paid from this job, not from anywhere else. You are
simply a volunteer for your startup or you have to figure out the way
to get some illegal ‘dark cash’.
Even you really enjoy this struggling process, working as a
volunteered CEO/CTO to pursue the dream of innovation, the road in
front of you is still very undetermined. Your H1B visa is only valid
for six years. You have to apply for the Green card in order to stay
in US. There are several categories for applying for a Green card,
which are EB1, EB2, and EB3. EB1 is designed for international famous
scientists and scholars. Most of people are only qualified under the
EB2 category. It takes about 5 to 6 years in average before you can be
issued the Green card. During this period of time, you have to have a
legal job, for example H1B visa job in order to be qualified for
getting the Green card.
How much time is granted for an international student to get a
successful startup in US?
Visa application (1 year) + work to impress boss in order to keep the
H1B visa job (2 – 3 years) + start to apply for the Green card
(typically requires 5 -6 years)
It is apparent H1B visa workers have to wait for about 10 years before
they can do anything about startups. If they are ambitious and want to
start early, for example, working as full time in a company, making
use of the late night time to work on the startups, in total they need
to work at least 80 hours per week in order to start some business.
The truth is the H1B workers probably are risking their personal
health and the H1B visa job satisfaction. What this really means to
H1B visa workers? It means (1) They can really be aging early and
fast. (2) In reality, they very often do not have time or over-
pressured for starting the startup before the H1B visa gets expired.
(3) The job is essentially their life. If the job is lost, they likely
have to leave US. (4) How many people want to risk the whole family
becoming illegal to pursue the dream of startups?
Economy is not just simply the number. It is about fact, policy, and
enthusiasms of people. Hope this article can help US government policy
makers reflect on the H1B and Green card polices with a single goal in
mind, which is to make US a better place to live and to thrive.
http://newsicare.wordpress.com/2010/08/21/america-pain-fact-and
up/
