Love, help, play
Love, help, play
Let me start this post with a lazy web run down of US work visa options that I’m aware of.
DISCLAIMER — I’m no expert on visa matters so do consult a visa specialist if you’re considering options.
Visa Waiver:
Singaporeans and folks from some countries enjoy the privilege of not needing to apply for a visa to travel to the US for social or business development purposes if it’s less than 3 months of stay. Do note that you’ll still need to apply and make payments for the ESTA online, which is kinda like telling the US customs “hey guys, I’m coming over”.
B1/B2:
The go-to social visit/ business dev visa if your country isn’t under the visa waiver program. Usually given with 10 years validity and allows you up to 6 months stay at a time. It’s usually easy to get but I’ve heard of Malaysians whose applications got rejected — reasons were they were heading over for business reasons and were unable to prove strong ties back home. How to prove strong ties? Being married, having kids, owning properties in your home country helps a lot. It’s usually better to tell the consular officer that you’re going over for a social visit if it’s just a short trip (less than 3 months) unless you’ve strong compelling legal reasons to say otherwise. I’ve heard of folks trying to get the visa to attend or speak at a conference and got rejected. Do be prepared to state and give reasons for all the places that you intend to go.
J1:
Student visa that allows you to study in the US and work part time at the same time. The catch is you can’t return to the US for 2 years after the end of the visa. Think this has been amended for Singaporeans coz folks who went on the excellent NUS’s NOC Silicon Valley program under that visa are able to return within the 2 year period.
H1-B:
This is what most folks wanting to work for well funded startups and multi nationals in the US would go for. It’s a 3 year renewable visa for skilled professionals with dual intent - you can convert it into a green card for permanent residency. The catch is the yearly quota gets filled up pretty fast coz whole world’s fighting for it. That means applying in April and waiting till October for the visa to take effect before you can enter the US. Plus it’s relatively expensive to obtain at $8-12k for legal fees and likes.
H1B1:
Special class of the H1-B visa for Singaporeans and Chileans. The main difference is it’s non dual intent - can’t convert to green card and it’s valid for only 18 months (renewable). Plus the quota never gets filled up so it’s very easy to obtain and fly off to the US a few days later. And it’s much cheaper. Other countries might have similar visas from their free trade agreements with the US.
H4:
Spouse or children of a H1-B or H1B1 holder can get this easily so they can be with their family. Catch is a H4 visa holder isn’t allowed to work in the US legally.
L1:
Not too familiar with this visa but it seems like if you’re employed by an overseas branch of a US company, you can get this visa and be stationed in the US. Some startups founders are using this but that means their startup has be well funded with proper tax and payroll in place to prove establishment.
O1:
Some startup folks are using this to get around the H1-B window period and long waiting time. It’s meant for folks with “special abilities” and allows green card conversion. To prove your speciality, one has to have a testimonials, publications and special mentions which might be a great hassle. Musicians and models wanting to establish their careers in the US have to get this visa.
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So as per my previous post on working with tailored, I wanted to share a little about my H1B1 visa application experience.
We got a lawyer to do the necessary paperwork which costs us less than $2k. I had to fill out this super long DS-160 form online which took me about an hour. Payment for the visa has to be made before scheduling an appointment with the consular officer who’ll determine the outcome of the application. All payments has to be made through Standard Chartered bank in Singapore.
I had to apply twice before my H1B1 was approved. The first application was rejected based on us failing to prove Tailored establishment. Shan’t go into the details. Let’s just say that the US embassy consular officers are doing a great job of protecting the interests of the applicants and their immigration policies.
H1B1 is traditionally very easy for Singaporeans graduates to obtain. However, it’s not geared towards early stage startups with less than $1million in funding. These startups typically have problems proving financially capability due to a lack of tax returns and payroll documentations. Those who wants to explore using this visa to work for an early stage startup please keep that in mind - better to let the startup fix it’s accounting and financial health first before applying. If rejected, any existing visa waiver or B1/B2 on your passport will be voided, so consider your options very carefully. I should have asked for referrals to folks who have this before (there are many) and can help paint a clearer picture for me before applying.
Hope these helps someone about to go through the same process.
Set out to grow big people.
Most folks would have already known that I’ve moved to Palo Alto to work for Tailored.co. Back in Nov 2011, I was on my virgin flight to San Francisco Airport. What started off as a self funded 3 month study trip, ended with an opportunity to work with an exciting early stage startup. Here’s a little back channel on the How and the Why.
How Did It Happened?
A month into the trip, I made a post on my observations on the Silicon Valley and started wondering what would happened if I become an active participant rather than a passive observer. So my friend Aihui (I owe you one!) whose Love With Food was then at 500 startups was kind enough to refer me to her 500 peers and I started helping and hanging out at 500. The night before leaving for Singapore I was offered a contract gig with Tailored which I gladly accepted since it meant I could continue engaging with the valley from Singapore.
Why Tailored?
After a month of contract work, I was offered to be part of Tailored’s pioneer team. I really loved the way they worked, how the team complemented each other’s strengths and that the product has a solid business model. It then became the next logical step for us to go for a longer term relationship and start considering visas options.
Why Move To The Valley?
Getting a visa was a pain, which I will cover in another post. But I feel that it’s necessary for me to be based there for the following reasons:
Now, moving here does not mean a brain/talent drain, rather it’s an expansion that’s necessary with the current startup climate in Singapore. I’m not saying that everyone should come over but if there’s a nice balance of folks here and back home who’re well connected to each other, we can certainly look forward to interesting things happening in the years to come.
Me thinks big companies are not designed for individual happiness, but rather a kind of collective functional optimism.
Community, productivity or money savers.
Salmon - creamy with medium soft texture
Yellow tail - creamy with super soft texture
Tuna - smooth texture, feels like eating chicken
Swordfish - hard texture, feels like cooked fish
After reading Gushcloud’s heartfelt blog post Crash and burn - MVP for elevator pitch, I realized that I’ve been doing my pitch for Tailored all wrong.
This was the old pitch:
Tailored’s building a recommendation engine for the wedding vertical. Brides usually do not have an idea what they want so we dish out products from our massive inventory of products based on what we think they want from their profiles.
I think that’s too technical and too straightforward to the point of burying our strengths. The words “recommendation engine ” might tickle the geeks but I don’t think that’ll work for 90% of the population out there.
Here’s my new pitch:
Tailored empowers brides to build their perfect wedding by inspiring them to acquire products that they’ve discovered.
I think that’s much more straightforward and gives audiences a much better (arguably more accurate) picture of what we’re trying to do. Would be interesting to try this out with folks in the wild.
So there I was, beer in hand, dishing out my usual rounds of hypothetical questions to a bunch of friends. As we concluded, it became clearer that deep down inside we’re all the same and want similar things. That made me verbalized something that I knew in my heart.
Live a life of principles. Ditch the plans.
As adults, we’re taught to plan our road ahead. While that’s good for navigating roads, it sucks at navigating life - How many times have all the plans that I’ve made, whether it’s career, relationship, music, been thwarted? Countless!
Principles on the other hand is consistent. Like gravity, it never fails unless in exceptional circumstances. As I sat, thinking about what are my life principles, one jumped out at me much louder than the rest.
Create value by helping others
I think that’s consistently true with the results that I’ve been experiencing. Going deeper, it seemed that my decisions are based upon answering the following questions.
A gentle reminder to myself to stand by my principles despite circumstances.
So yesterday I was at Starbucks chatting with an old schoolmate whom I haven’t seen in years. He had been living in NYC for the past 7 years and is now managing his own investment fund operating out of the east coast. He shared with me of his intentions to move back here. When asked why, he said something along the lines of familiarity and bringing his wealth (in finance and experience) back. Sparing the details, we concluded that people go to places for opportunities rather than money, coz the latter will come in time.
