Not a lawyer, so don't take my advises as is. Incorporate in India, then transfer it all to US when you're ready. Develop the code yourself, then have code acquired by your company, or prepare letter of intentions (that when you can do this legally, the code will be owned by the company for your stake increase). And my understanding is that they don't care that much of you writing code for company either paid or free. The government doesn't want everyone to create their own companies and get employed by themselves, getting legal status in US because of this. Your case looks different though.
Ask HN: The curse of the green card: entrepreneurship for immigrants?
11–20 of 22 posts
Re: Ask HN: The curse of the green card: entrepreneurship for immigrants?
#12Hi Steve Smith, There is a little known visa known as an O1, for 'extraordinary persons'. This is the visa that many foreign founders obtain. One is allowed to found and work for a company in the US while one is on it. I think they last 3 years. Generally, PhD level people can obtain it, though it is a pain to do so. I have heard of people straining to get 10 eminent people to write supporting letters for one's visa…
Thanks Dani. I am aware of the O-1 visa. However wait times are about 1-2 years to get it (the same as an EB1 green card). I think I might have a case with my background. Thanks anyway!
Re: Ask HN: The curse of the green card: entrepreneurship for immigrants?
#13I thought that an EAD holder could own a company. Is this not correct? I just received mine, and it supercedes my existing TN visa.
For employment based green cards (EBx) the applicant may use his/her EAD to work in a job that is similar to the petitioners I140 case (this is known as AC21). I can't go from Design Engineer on my H1B to CEO on my EAD :(
Re: Ask HN: The curse of the green card: entrepreneurship for immigrants?
#14Hi Steve Smith, There is a little known visa known as an O1, for 'extraordinary persons'. This is the visa that many foreign founders obtain. One is allowed to found and work for a company in the US while one is on it. I think they last 3 years. Generally, PhD level people can obtain it, though it is a pain to do so. I have heard of people straining to get 10 eminent people to write supporting letters for one's visa…
Thanks Dani. I am aware of the O-1 visa. However wait times are about 1-2 years to get it (the same as an EB1 green card). I think I might have a case with my background. Thanks anyway!
Hmm. It says here that "The O-1 petition and approval process takes approximately 3 to 4 months. U-M can submit an O-1 up to 6 months before the intended start date. If needed, USCIS offers an option for expediting O-1 petitions called “premium processing.” There is a special fee for this service in addition to the normal USCIS filing fee."
http://www.internationalcenter.umich.edu/immig/ovisa/
So it's more like 3-4 months, and if you need it quickly you can expedite it.
Re: Ask HN: The curse of the green card: entrepreneurship for immigrants?
#15For anyone interested, this infographic isn't a bad summary resource:
http://www.reason.com/images/07cf533ddb1d06350cf1ddb5942ef5a...
It summaries the various processes to become a citizen...
Re: Ask HN: The curse of the green card: entrepreneurship for immigrants?
#16I think Loic (seesmic founder) had a post on a similar topic, a while back -- ie, when he moved from france to the bay area to start seesmic.
Re: Ask HN: The curse of the green card: entrepreneurship for immigrants?
#171.Incorporate the company in US.
2.Incorporate another company in India.
3.Outsource work from US company to Indian company.
4.Indian company hires contractor (you) in the US.
Is something like that possible? I'm just guessing really.
Re: Ask HN: The curse of the green card: entrepreneurship for immigrants?
#18As to intellectual property, I would have an offshore entity (Cyamans, BVI) hold everything until an investor makes you restructure it into something else. Then a simple piece of paper signed by all people developing the IP assigns ownership to this offshore entity. For onshore operating, you simply license the IP to your U.S. entity for a small fee. You can get away with this approach for quite a bit.
There is no good answer for how you maintain visas once you quit you day jobs. This part sucks. One "straightforward" option may be to strike a partnership with an IT outsourcing company that manages employees in the U.S. from India and give them a small piece of the company for handling your employment. You may find that such a partnership would work well as such an entity is an automatic HR and accounting department for your growing entity. You focus on creating a great product and your partner focuses on the housekeeping.
Re: Ask HN: The curse of the green card: entrepreneurship for immigrants?
#19I thought that an EAD holder could own a company. Is this not correct? I just received mine, and it supercedes my existing TN visa.
For employment based green cards (EBx) the applicant may use his/her EAD to work in a job that is similar to the petitioners I140 case (this is known as AC21). I can't go from Design Engineer on my H1B to CEO on my EAD :(
[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: The curse of the green card: entrepreneurship for immigrants?
#20I thought that an EAD holder could own a company. Is this not correct? I just received mine, and it supercedes my existing TN visa.
For employment based green cards (EBx) the applicant may use his/her EAD to work in a job that is similar to the petitioners I140 case (this is known as AC21). I can't go from Design Engineer on my H1B to CEO on my EAD :(
Set your title as Chief Design Engineer on your incorporation documents. In practice, no one will probably bother to check, and even if they do, they'll go by what the title is on paper. The reality is, you'll be doing mostly programming work in your company and you have EAD, so you're set. This sounds like a good setup from how understand it, but double check with an attorney. If you need referral to a good immigration attorney, drop me a line.