Build for the Border - Immigrant Hackathon NYC

About the challenge

Every year, millions of brilliant people try to move to, build in, or stay in the US — and get crushed by systems that feel designed for no one. Immigrant Hackathon NYC is a one-day, in-person sprint for the builders on the other side of that broken system. Founders, engineers, and international students coming together to ship software that actually helps.

Hosted by localhost:nyc (and partners), this is NYC's first immigrant-themed hackathon. It's not a brainstorm — it's a build. You walk in at 10 AM, you form a team, you ship a working prototype by 5 PM, and you demo it live in front of immigration attorneys, immigrant founders, and VCs backing immigrant-led startups.

We're looking for tools, agents, and products that reduce real friction — visa prep, legal navigation, cross-border ops, "first 1,000 days" onboarding. We are not looking for: slide decks, research papers, or projects you prepped before the event.

Get started

This hackathon has two tracks. Pick one and pick a sharp angle inside it.

Track 1 — Founder Immigration Tools for the people trying to build companies in the US while navigating visa and entity complexity.

• An AI agent that builds an O-1/EB-1A evidence packet from your LinkedIn, press, and GitHub
• Cross-border cap table + payroll tooling for founders with distributed teams
• A "visa strategy copilot" that compares H-1B vs O-1 vs EB-1A vs EB-2 NIW based on your profile
• Company formation flows optimized for non-US founders (Delaware C-corp + banking + EIN + stripe)

Track 2 — Learning to be American Tools for the first 1,000 days — everything nobody teaches you about actually living here.

• A credit score builder for people with no SSN history
• A healthcare navigator that explains deductibles, in-network, HSAs in plain English
• Housing + tax prep flows for international students on F-1/OPT
• A cultural copilot that decodes tipping, small talk, workplace norms, lease agreements