Sailing Round Immigration Laws

Wall Street Journal (Blog): The use of ships in international waters outside national jurisdictions has a long and often ignominious history. What has generally been on offer has been booze, prostitution, gambling or some combination of all three.

In the 1960s off the coast of Britain pirate radio ships provided a commercial alternative to the B.B.C’s legal monopoly. They were eventually forced off the air by a law which made it illegal to supply or advertise with the stations.

Now, a couple of entrepreneurs are planning to apply the same strategy to beat U.S. immigration laws which which prevent would-be start-up owners heading for Silicon Valley. However, although their intention of setting up a floating incubator might generally be seen as more virtuous than many of its precursors, the challenges often sound familiar.

Ars Technica talked with Max Marty one of the founders of Blueseed which is hoping to raise a venture capital round large enough to buy or lease a ship with room for a thousand passengers. It will be anchored 12 miles off the Californian coast, close to Silicon Valley.

The aim is to get round the shortage of H1-B visas which allow skilled workers to be employed in the U.S.A. The idea is that B-1 visas are easier to get hold of and mean holders can travel in and out of the country for meetings. conferences and training seminars.

As with previous off-shore activities there is a reliance on a degree of on-shore hospitality. The ship’s resident entrepreneurs would, it is intended, be able to take a ferry back and forth for regular meetings. Ars Technica asked Greg Siskind, an immigration attorney with a national employment practice, to evaluate Blueseed’s legal strategy.

There will be “a little bit of uncertainty every time they come in,” Siskind said. Each trip to the mainland would require an inspection by an immigration official who would have discretion to decide who to let into the country. “Depending on what that person had for breakfast may determine the future of your business,” he said.

Residence on the start-up ship is only supposed to be short-term anyway.

Marty tells us that getting permission to enter the United States permanently becomes much easier once a firm grows. “If you have a $5 million-10 million company, there are several avenues and channels you can use to be in the country,” he said. So the Blueseed ship would provide temporary lodgings until a startup grew large enough to move to the mainland.

If the grandiose scheme does come to fruition:

Blueseed estimates that rents will range from $1,200 per month for the smallest rooms to $3,000 for the largest—figures Marty says are comparable to what entrepreneurs would pay for an apartment and office in Silicon Valley.

In other words, it is as cheap to go on a cruise as to rent in the Valley.