Startuplifers is partly funded by public funds, and because of that, we are able to provide our services, a visa and a one-way flight free of charge.

It varies between the positions that we offer. Our applicants have from 12 months to 3 years of professional working experience – also count in any relevant business and school projects you’ve done. If you aren’t sure whether you should apply or not, just do it! We’ll give you feedback based on your application.

If you don’t have experience relevant to the position you’re looking for, perhaps you need to re-time your application (we’re being super honest here). If you’re a bit shy and afraid to share not-so-great project results, as is often the case, focus on communicating the tasks you did, the technologies you used and the outcome of it all in a clear way. It’s also worth explaining why you chose to tackle the given problem that way and what you learned in the process.

You’ll need a J-1 visa to go to San Francisco. We’ll connect you with our experienced travel agent and US-based lawyer who’ll help you with your visa application and travel arrangements.

Salary is subject to negotiation and varies across different companies and positions. You should expect a salary of 5000$ a month at the very minimum in San Francisco. However, many get a much higher salary based on their expertise. Also, bear in mind that the salary can be increased over time depending on your performance.

We know that moving to a new country can be scary. Don’t worry! We’ll introduce you to our community members, who will help you get settled in. We recommend that you already get to know the basic facts about the city. It will help you in the beginning and after that, we are sure you’ll do great!

Many startups are looking for people who can stay for at least 12 months. The maximum is 18 months with the J-1 visa. Based on what you and the startup want, you can either apply for another visa or continue working remotely.

It really depends. From the moment you apply or get shortlisted for a specific job position, it takes 1-2 weeks to hear back from us. If you pass this stage, it takes another 1-2 weeks to get introduced to the startup. Following an additional 2-3 weeks of interviews with them, it takes up to 8 weeks for the visa process after accepting an offer from the company. All in all, it takes about 3 months before you get on a flight. Please note that we can’t affect how long the startups and visa officials might take to process your application.

You’ll have to find an apartment by yourself. Many Lifers live in shared accommodation with other members of the community. Some alumni might even leave their room for you when they return back home. In any case, our community will give you plenty of tips on how to get the housing right.

Unfortunately, we don’t have the resources to give individual feedback to all the applicants. However, if you move forward in our application process, we’ll give you feedback, tips, and resources to prepare yourself before getting introduced to the company.

The startups will compare you to the level of applicants in the US, and decide who to interview based on that. If you’re a good match for a position, we’ll shortlist you for it and also put you forward to similar positions at other companies until you get hired by one of them.