US visas: why so difficult?

More doom and gloom from our visa lawyer, I’m afraid.

A few of the recent O-1 applications he’s made have been denied, unfortunately, despite them having strong cases to make; cases as strong as ours will be…

It’s probably to do with the economic downturn – the pressure to defend American jobs is definitely growing as unemployment increases. The technology sector should be relatively solid, but with news like Microsoft cutting 5000 US jobs, I can see the Citizenship and Immigration Services raising the bar a little bit, whether implicitly or explicitly, deliberately or subconsciously.

I suppose they want to give those laid off MS workers a chance to “get first pick” of all the other jobs out there, and ensure that us job-snatching interlopers don’t stage a bloodless coup of the labour market.

Unfortunately, that makes absolutely no sense at all. For people like me and my co-founders, people whose stated purpose is to start a business, create jobs and grow the economy, being denied access robs a country of the potential upside (albeit small in each individual case) and greatly increases our chances of failure. Oh and if we fail, we’ll unfortunately be taking a bunch of US investment capital to the grave with us, further destabilising the situation.

The idea that not letting us do a startup in the US will somehow give American entrepreneurs an advantage is patently bollocks. In fact, lively, varied, cosmopolitan environments – the sort of environment you encourage and nuture by… well, for starters letting people into the country – give rise to fantastic ideas. Fantastic ideas that US industry would benefit from, not suffer.

Not only that, but barring me from your country is not going to make it any harder for me to put my product in front of your residents. I’m not going to be leaving a hole that your own home-grown entrepreneurs will be able to fill. It’s just going to make my life extremely awkward.

It smacks of intellectual protectionism, and is retarded for all the same reasons as economic protectionism, plus a few more.

What’s the thought process here?

So, these people with good degrees, solid work history, ambition and no criminal record want to come to my country to give jobs to my peers? If they succeed, everyone gets rich. If they fail, a small number of wealthy people lose money they knew might be lost?

Not a chance! Go and blight some other country with your presence and tax revenue!

WINchester

I spent last week in Winchester, staying with my friends Rich and Su, after a brief spell in Cambridge with Amir and Kirsty.

I have now recognised my various homestays as a veiled excuse for quality testing group-play video games. It all started in Nicaragua with Lee’s rum-fuelled Guitar Hero III, followed by real-ale and kebab-fuelled WiiTennis against Amir (I absolutely dominated him, BTW, no matter what he says), a cheeky bit of Samba di Amigo with Kirsty (at which she obliterated me), and finally a good few hours of Tangfastic fuelled Guitar Hero World Tour at Rich’s.

Now staying with parents in Bury where group play video games means shouting the answers at VCRed episodes of University Challenge.

I stopped in at my house in Southampton, which is being well looked-after by my tenant, to pick up mail and found I’m now eligible for my freebie Cambridge MA. That means it’s been 10 terms since I graduated – I’ve been out of university longer than I was in it! Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be around to attend the dinner and pick it up… whether that matters I don’t know, but I am definitely going to refer to myself as Mr. James Brady BA MA (Cantab) MBCS at all times from now on. Makes referring to oneself in the third person much more fun.

Frrreezing

The trip back from Costa Rica went off without a hitch. Only two things of note: the first was the delicious hot cinnamon bun I had at San Jose airport, made all the better by the preceeding 2 months of endless beans and rice combinations. The second was the fact that I managed to accidentally smuggle a knife onto two international flights.

My carry-on bag was checked by security normally in San Jose (X-ray machine, cursory search by the man in gloves) and again in Houston (more X-rays, more poking and prodding). It was only after I’d cleared security that I went to get out my phone and realised my Leatherman was in the bag, complete with 3-inch razor sharp blade.

Considering how much of a hassle security is, you’d at least expect them to find a large, lethal block of metal in an otherwise pretty empty bag…

Back in England, I went pretty much straight to my niece’s naming ceremony near Nottingham. A nice little excuse to get the whole family together and see the Welsh contingent who might otherwise have been a stretch to visit. The newly named Bea was very chilled out throughout the proceeding, as all the kids were I suppose. Perfect nap timing by the parents left them all in an angelic daze.

I spent Christmas with the parents up in Bury which was nice and relaxed, although there’s not really too much to do up there any more so I left to come down here to London pretty sharpish.

I’ve managed to wangle a free place to stay in Mayfair, which is pretty sweet. The offices of one of our investors has a spare bedroom which was available over the holidays. It’s actually not particularly convenient as most of my friends are either in Hackney or Canary Wharf – pretty much the other side of town – but I’ve enjoyed mincing down Oxford Street, delivering dismissive snears to as many mono-lingual tourists as possible. I went to Cambridge, dahling.

New Year’s Eve was relatively low-key, compared to some of the craziness of San Francisco, but great fun. I spent the evening in a bar with a bunch of friends and friends-of-friends before heading back to a house party, staying up till the early hours sipping peppermint tea.

My plans for the next few weeks are still pretty unclear. I know I’m going to Cambridge tomorrow, and Winchester after that. Depending on how quickly my lawyer can get the visa application in, I’ll then either go back to Central America – maybe Panama – or head straight back to San Francisco.

Looking forward to leaving this climate! It’s pretty much a 30ºC temperature difference Nicaragua to here, and getting more… -10ºC in London today!