It took me 2 years to get a 5 month visa

Yesterday, I received what I thought was a good news: “your visa application has been approved”! The side note was: it’s valid until may 2015.

I started applying for a working visa exactly 2 years ago, to be able to drive an grow Sketchfab in the US. Their are several visa options, and I got plenty of advice. You basically need to pick the best tradeoff between cost, time to get the visa, visa duration etc… then find a lawyer and submit your application. I did a first attempt which failed. Fine. I started a new application from scratch a year ago, submitted it in may 2014, got a “request for more evidence” after 6 months, submitted it, and here is finally the answer: visa approved, for a duration of one year, starting in may 2014.

I worked with two different lawyers, both highly recommended and experts in their field, so I can’t believe they are the ones to blame. I can’t believe my case is uncommon either. I went through TechStars in NYC, I raised $2m in venture capital to grow my business in the US, I created jobs here, I work with major US companies like Adobe… I even have a son who was just born here and is American. And you take 2 years to tell me I can only stay 5 months?

Read the full blog post.