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A Floating Home For Tech Start-ups
JoeMerchant writes "Max Marty, founder of Blueseed, thinks immigration laws in the U.S. make it too difficult for entrepreneurs from other countries to come to the U.S. and develop new technologies. In order to solve this, he's trying to buy a large ship he can anchor off the coast of California, in international waters, which he can then turn into a start-up incubator, fostering a 'year-long hack-a-thon.' From the article: 'With a B-1 visa, visitors can freely travel to the United States for meetings, conferences, and even training seminars. B-1 visas are relatively easy to get, and can be valid for as long as 10 years. Blueseed plans to provide regular ferry service between the ship to the United States. While Blueseed residents would need to do their actual work—such as writing code—on the ship, Marty envisions them making regular trips to Silicon Valley to meet with clients, investors, and business partners. With the ship only 12 miles offshore, it should be practical to make a day trip to the mainland and return in the evening. A B-1 visa also permits overnight stays.'"
.. this particular assumption is wrong.
I am based out of Canada at the moment and I work in a big IT company. We had our annual conference in Chicago, I applied for a B1 and was refused. The grounds were that i apparently could not prove "strong ties to my home country" . I am originally from India, and my job requires me to travel a lot. This situation ( having stayed in Canada for 6 months only ) was the criteria for them to reject my entry. And i had a perfectly valid reason to visit the US.
This is not a rant. I hope the backers of the venture understand that there are many more visa issues than what they are aware off.
This is the part I don't get: why bother with this dumb ship? Just set up shop in Vancouver and ignore the US altogether. Vancouver is already home to lots of software companies. On top of this, while Canada's immigration laws are pretty strict, if you're a software engineer, that's pretty much a free pass to get into the country. In addition, if you have $300k ready to deposit into a Canadian bank account, that'll get you in too. Canada is very friendly to people who will improve their economy. And if you really need to travel to Silicon Valley, it's not that long a plane flight from Vancouver to San Jose.
Mexican Immigrant here. I arrived in Mexico in 2003 and I have been illegal in Mexico for a quite a while (~ 2 years). When I went to the migration service (Xalapa) the people were *extremely* friendly. I had to pay a small fine and leave the country and come back in. I even got advice on how to do this the easiest way: go to Guatemala, cross at one border post, travel to the next one and come back into Mexico the same day. Trip to Tapachula (Chiapas) by bus was ~12 hrs, hopping over the border, and taking a minibus to the next border post and back to Tapachula took an hour or two, and we took the next bus back to Xalapa. All in all it was done over the weekend ( A very short visit to Guatamala ).
As for the immigration laws, as long as you can prove that you can make a small income you can start your paperwork, which is extremely easy to do. The immigration people are extremely helpful and very patient and give solid advice, in my experience.
I have also lived in New Zealand for a little over 2 years, and the whole NZ immigration circus is extremely elitist, expensive if you're not careful, and there is a strong hate against Asian people and a very strong preference for people purebred in the UK.