Anyone got into YC while on F-1 visa? Need visa tips
I’m an F-1 grad student in the US (finishing May 2026) and and I'm looking into YC. I’m trying to understand if YC accepts founders currently on F-1 status and how the visa piece works. If you got into YC while you were on an F-1 visa (or perhaps right after on OPT), I’d genuinely love to hear about your experience. Specifically:
- How did you navigate the visa process for the program and beyond? - Any advice on making it work?
I know there’s general advice out there, like “if you get into YC and grow your startup, you can apply for an O-1 visa for extraordinary ability.” While that’s helpful down the line, I’m really hoping to hear from folks who’ve been in my current position—balancing F-1 restrictions as a student while pursuing YC. I’d deeply appreciate real stories, whether it’s your own journey, a friend’s experience, or even something you’ve closely observed. For example, what steps did you take right after acceptance to stay compliant with F-1 rules? Did you transition to OPT or another visa during/after YC? Any unexpected hurdles or practical tips for making it work as a student founder? I’m all ears for specific, grounded insights and would be so grateful for your help as I navigate this path!
Really appreciate you sharing any insights!
You should check out these threads https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
Any advice you get will be worthless because continuity and consistency do not factor in to this administration's thinking; its driven by expediency and whim rather than procedure or substance. In some policy areas one might expect things to settle down after the disruption of a new administration, but given that immigration is Trump's core policy issue and the one on which his base is most radicalized, where things stand a year from depends entirely on how Trump is doing in the polls. My guess is that the Trump admin will be polling at mediocre or poor levels next year, with 6 months to go before a mid-term election so immigration enforcement will become more draconian in order to drive GOP turnout. If he's doing better than I anticipate, they might roll out some sort of fa$t track for business applicants.
Your options as I see them:
- marry an American and be ready to drop $50,000 on your green card application process/legal fees, assuming you have never, ever done anything wrong including parking or speeding tickets
- commit social suicide and become a MAGA influencer that tweets at least 20x/day in fulsome praise of the president, ideally focusing on some niche where you have expertise. I say social suicide because you will have to prioritize loud political loyalty over rationality, dignity, or other considerations, and you will need to get internet famous and become an enemy of the left/the establishment/some definable MAGA out-group. This will only work if you have the willingness to pursue celebrity/notoriety as a full-time goal while projecting religious levels of devotion.
- start your business now and aim to hire as many Americans (the whiter the better) as possible over the next year. Spend at least 5% of your operating budget on PR, position yourself as job creator #1 (eg almost every photograph of you should depict you surrounded by a team of Americans, all the corporate happy talk should revolve around hiring, growth, opportunity etc., double points if you do it in a red state, triple points if you can do it away from an urban hub). Your PR does not have to be explicitly MAGA, but it will have to be overtly red-white-and blue and generate plenty of media. Again budget a lot for your legal fees.
It sounds cynical, but I believe that for the foreseeable future any application for US residency benefits will be evaluated on optics at least as much as merits.
It doesn't cost $50k to get a greencard as the spouse of a US citizen.