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Comment by enraged_camel | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

The E-2 Investor Visa allows an individual to enter and work inside of the United States based on an investment he or she will be controlling, while inside the United States. This visa must generally be renewed every five years, but there is no limit to how many times one can renew. The investment must be "substantial". Investor visas are available only to treaty countries,[1] which include countries like Albania and Senegal, but do not include Brazil, Russia, India and China.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-2_visa

Just did a quick search for Canadians, so it might be different for other countries, as stated above.

I believe that the E2 visas require you to demonstrate "non-immigrant intent" (or however they phrase it). They want you to show that you plan to leave the US eventually, and any time spent in the US can't be used towards applying for citizenship, etc.

Confusingly, http://www.peerallylaw.com/en/content/view/517 says that some government departments allow dual intent on the E2...

In summary: maintaining correct visa status in the US can be hard.

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.