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Comment by enraged_camel | Hacker News Reader

What makes me bitter is not having this type of freedom as an H1B worker. For all intents and purposes, I'm a slave to my employer. Sure, I could quit at any time, but that would mean having to go back to my home country, which I have no intention of doing. The USA is just a better place for all sorts of things.

Will I be able to maintain my sanity until I get my green card? I have no idea. I've already become quite bitter and cynical about my job. I don't have anyone to look up to, the work is not challenging and the company is grossly mismanaged.

If anyone has any advice, I'm all ears...

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Start a company on the side. There's never been a better (easier) time.

Can you start a company while you are in the US on an H1B? (Obviously, many people do.) There seem to be two schools of thought about whether this is legal with the IRS - research it, and maybe talk to a street smart immigration lawyer.

What if the company you start isn't actually incorporated, but is a side project allowing you to expand the skills you will need as a startup CEO - funded by the cash flow from your job? Or perhaps your company is incorporated outside the US?

Also, for anyone dissatisfied at work, I highly recommend the test at JOCRF.org. It's well worth the money.

Source: I've been in your shoes, and this is the advice I wish someone had given to the younger me.

Do you have any more specific resources on the matter? I've got a lot of hearsay from researching but it's quite hard to know exactly what's wrong and what's not - it seems like there are more speculation than advices from people who have actually done it. And why would it be a problem with the IRS? I would have thought the main road block would be from USCIS.

I looked into this and it is illegal. Basically the law quite specifically says that while you can start a company, you cannot work for it, because your H1B explicitly prohibits income streams outside of the company that sponsored your visa. So if you start a company, you can only be a completely passive investor (meaning you would need a co-founder to act as managing partner/CEO). At first I thought the "income" part is a potential loophole, but then I asked around and was told that doing the work at no pay (under the guise of "volunteering") is also not allowed.

Trust me, starting a company is my plan when I get my Green Card. Until then, I'm trapped.

You obviously have more concrete experience here than I do, but my instincts say there's a vast gap between "working on a side project you hope to eventually work on full-time" and "form an official registered company with the IRS".

If you go to the IRS / your state's department of commerce and say "hey, we JUST TODAY started a BRAND NEW COMPANY that happens to already have X million users and we want to incorporate", do you know if they'd snoop around and accuse you of having "started" it prior to talking to them?

No, the laws around H1B are pretty clear on this. You can launch something, but can never charge for it legally. So, that rules out B2B. You can of course launch a social app or something, hope that it grows like a wildfire and then try monetizing it later, but that's such a bad idea for a bootstrapper.

How does that make sense? If you create a C corp, you are under no obligation to disclose that on your personal tax returns unless a taxable transaction happens and all the money earned would be inside the C corp which is its own entity.

How about starting a company, and than have that company sponsors your H1B? There would be some grey -ish part during the transition from the old H1B (of the old company) to the new one, and I think you would need a co-founder/ investor such that you can't have control of the company (ie. less than 50%). Would it be feasible to do it that way?

IIRC, when you do the visa transition, the government does a fair bit of due diligence to make sure this isn't what is happening.

This is very, very difficult to pull off. You not only need to prove that your company has the financial standing to reliably and consistently pay you a full-time salary (which, for most startups, isn't always possible), but you also cannot have any controlling interest in the company. This means two things: either own less than 50% of it, or have a board of directors that has the power to fire you.

In other words, a total pain in the ass.

Another option is to find a new employer who is willing to pick up your H1B. I was on the hiring side of that process at a startup a few years ago; it was a bit more of a hassle than the normal hiring process, but absolutely worthwhile.

I looked into that too, but if I switch employers now, then I lose my place in the Green Card queue and have to start that process over, which means losing at least a year and a half. (That is, if my new employer even agrees to file a Green Card petition.)

Start an offshore company, maybe?

I looked into this as well. Basically, depending on where the company is located, accepting online payments becomes a huge issue. A lot of countries (my home country included) just do not have good financial infrastructure to be able to handle online payments.

There's also the administrative overhead and weird tax laws that come into play. Basically, if I start something elsewhere, it would be the opposite of "lean."

If payments are an issue, maybe someplace like Ireland? There are well trodden paths here.

What does it take for a foreigner to own a LLC-like company in Ireland (LLC is a see-through entity so individual just pays standard income tax)? For e.g. how easy is it to set it up compared to a Delaware Corp, which can be done in a single day?

Currently you need a minimum of two directors to setup a company, so it probably isn't great for this. Ireland isn't really a great location for traditional companies, but great for multinationals due to the double taxation loopholes. There are EU countries with lower corporate tax rates, but they don't have the loopholes.

In the UK you can register a company online [0], however you need a UK address. There are various formation agents that will register the company and provide an address for a small fee (<£100) [1]. If you want a business bank account I think you'll need to do it in person though. You will probably want to get an accountant too which will be ~ £1k/year, although you can do it yourself.