5 years ago I impulsively moved from my home country in Brazil into the US . It was the craziest decision I ever made.

I landed in NYC with no plans, no money, no friends and just one goal: to build a new life that I actually felt excited about.

This is my #immigrantstory

This impulsive move was motivated by the darkest period in my life: I lost everything I built, my friends & relationship were terrible & I had been depressed for years.

I just wanted to restart my life from scratch... and moving to NYC seemed like a good way to start.

Now it was not easy at first... specially since NYC is one of the most expensive cities in America.

I had to do pretty shady under the table gigs to make ends meet, some pretty scary. After a few months of that, I “upgraded” into building Wordpress websites for $4/hr.

But here is the thing about losing everything: you have nothing to lose!

All of a sudden I started to consider paths I always felt were beyond my reach... & the feeling of despair slowly got replaced by the feeling of overwhelming possibility.

That's when transformation begins

I learned about immigration law & began to form a strategy to live & work legally in the US.

I would have to go to college against my will for a F1 visa (I dropped out twice before), finish it fast with no debt & somehow build a notable career in 1 year to apply for a O1. Yikes!

(The O1 is the most desired of the work visas. It can be renewed pretty much indefinately, but it's only awarded to "Individuals with Extraordinary Ability" that have received national and internatonal recognition)

Now the problem with attending a US university is that my bills would get WAY higher & immigrants get no financial aid. I had to pay or I'd get kicked out of the country.

This meant that I had no time to attend my classes. I worked all day+night and only showed up for exams.

This felt terrible. I was paying so much for an education yet I had to teach everything to myself through YouTube.

I picked a Computer Science degree as a course, mostly because it felt like the most multidisciplinary skill I could learn - great for an indecisive kid like me.

As time went on, I started to develop an interest for Virtual/Augmented Reality. It felt new & really exciting.

I stopped looking at coding as something reserved for technical folk, but as a means to make magical creative things.

Now I needed a way in. But I had no connections!

So I reached out to the founder of a VR studio and told them my story. I asked for an opportunity to be in the same room as them and for 3 months I became their unofficial intern.

That's where I tried VR/AR devices for the first time - and that's when I knew I found my passion.

When the "internship" was over, I did something crazy: I bought myself a $3500 Hololens for Christmas to force myself to learn VR/AR development.

This is money I really needed, so either I would find a way to learn and make money off of this thing...or I'd be in deep trouble.

I quit building websites & went all in. 3 months later, I published my first app ever - a Hololens chemistry app named MyLab.

Somehow it was seen by thousands & people started hiring me as a VR/AR dev.

This was perfect. I was finally being paid to learn what I wanted to learn.

For the rest of the year I kept working as a VR/AR dev, learning and paying off my tuition.

I found out about programs like CLEP/DSST, which would let me take paid tests for college credit.

After 2 years, I had graduated with no debt... But I only had $20 left.

Here is when luck stroke again. In my last months of college I started building @WhereThoughts.

@BoostVC learned about it, loved it and offered me some investment to complete it.

Somehow, I was now in Sillicon Valley working on a groundbreaking VR art piece.

Now with financial stability for the first time in my life, I had one year to build a "notable career".

Why? The O1 visa I wanted required me to win awards, have news articles written about me and for me to be invited to speak at major industry conferences.

Tick tock, Lucas.

So I built @WhereThoughts, learned how to publish & make press kits, I applied to every conference I could as a speaker ran for every VR award I could as a creator.

I almost died, but somehow it all worked and fell into place. In 2019, I applied for my O1 and finally got it.

This is what it took for me to have the privilege of simply being able to legally have a job here.

To be a US immigrant is to do everything you can to stay when everything is designed to kick you out. And the only ones who make it are the ones with endless persistance + luck.

So if you meet someone with a work visa in the US, assume they there is a story behind - one filled with sweat, strategy, sacrifice and expenses - all just to have what most people here have by default.

Would love to share tips, so feel free to ask questions & tell your story!