Folks On Student Visas Leave Comment About Your Burning Start Up Urge! - bluishgreen
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bluishgreen
I want to find out if we are the only ones, or if we have company. Basically
myself and a couple of my friends are itching start up. We can't quiet sleep!
We see the products out there, and we get a funny feeling, we feel we can do a
LOT better. But we are International Grad Students, on student visas. We
cannot drop out, even if we want to.( Visa becomes invalid, Currently there
are no start up visas :)) Oh, if only Paul Graham were president!. I felt so
jealous when octopart posted about his/her dropping out of grad school. We
have come to the point, where we are trying to moonlight it. But as moon-
lighters know, sometimes it is very hard. Are there more people like us? Leave
a comment as to how you deal with it (tips!) Or just leave us a comment!

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pg
Sorry, can't be president (born in England). But as far as I know there is no
reason you can't start a company on a student visa. You can't be hired by
someone else's company, but you don't have to be a US citizen or resident to
own a company based in the US.

~~~
bluishgreen
Oh We can definitely own a company alright! But the problem is with time/mind
space. Currently my entire spring break is dedicated (to pretending) to study
for my Qualifier exams! I am hoping it will be better once I finish the
requirements and start on the thesis. But it has to be moonlighting I guess,
the visa has us cornered.

~~~
pg
At Viaweb, two of the three main hackers (Robert and Trevor) were in grad
school the whole time and actually got their degrees. In fact, Trevor got his
a day or so before the Yahoo deal closed, and was the subject of Viaweb's last
press release:

http://www.paulgraham.com/tlbphd.html

I believe some cofounders can still be in grad school, as long as at least one
isn't.

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goodgoblin
I'm working on a startup on the side, and during the day I work with a couple
of really amazing programmers on H1 visas. We get along great, I asked them to
help, and before they started working my co-founder suggested we ask a lawyer,
just in case.

We called the Murthy law firm (http://www.murthy.com/consult.html - experts in
immigration law) for a free consultation and unfortunately were told that not
only could my coworkers not work for us unless they A) got an additional H1
Visa and B) were paid market rates but that they even came by and made the
coffee on a regular basis they could be endangering their Visa status. We
would have to actually put them on the payroll, which in our case would mean
actually having a payroll.

Now, that is probably a bit alarmist but its the kind of thing that might
scare off investors in the future. The sad part is that these guys would do
amazing things for the startup. They have tons of free time, are absolutely
the best programmers I've ever worked with and alot of fun as well.

So I'm no lawyer, just thought I'd share the bit of info I got on the subject.

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anonymous
I've been on an H1-B visa for two years, and have been doing a startup on the
side for a year. If there are no more delays, I'll get my Green Card in about
three months.

~~~
arasakik
I'm going to have an H1-B visa as well soon (currently on TN). I was under the
impression that you're not allowed to work for any other company or start your
own while you have an H1-B/TN. Is that true?

~~~
anonymous
You're allowed to start, and own, a company while on an H1-B. You're allowed
to work for it too, so long as you continue to also work for the company that
sponsors your H1-B.

You are not allowed to pay yourself anything from the new company while on an
H1-B.

If one of your co-founders, or investors, is a US citizen you *might* be able
to arrange a transfer of the H1-B to the new company. This is difficult and
expensive though (at least we found it so). I decided it was more sensible for
me to just wait for the Green Card.

~~~
arasakik
"You are not allowed to pay yourself anything from the new company while on an
H1-B."

What about any revenues that your new company might make? Sorry if that is a
stupid question, I have done almost no research into this issue yet.

~~~
anonymous
As far as I know these revenues have to remain the property of your new
company (you can leave the money in the bank, or the company can spend it on
something). You certainly cannot pay yourself a salary using them.

~~~
arasakik
So essentially what you're saying is that any assets that the company makes
cannot be transferred to me until I am an American citizen? I wonder what the
consequences would be if I am an H1-B holder and revenues from moonlighting
grew to a point where I could quit my day job.

Since I am a Canadian, I also wonder if it would be easier to just incorporate
in Canada instead - this does not seem optimal either, as Canadian taxes are
incredibly high, and the fact that I own a company there would mean that I
would not be able to maintain non-residency status (and thus am not exempt
from Canadian taxes) =(

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jward
I don't know if the visa thing messes it up, but as a generic Canadian you can
own American companies with no issues. I believe the issue is in you paying
yourself a salary or the like from the corp. However you should be able to
collect dividends just fine. It's been a while since I looked into it for
myself, so don't trust me on this. Personally I ended up going for a private
Alberta named limited corporation for several reasons.

The tax rate starts at 16% if you're poor poor poor like me and maxes at 33%
or so total for both federal and provincial. Check into the US corporate tax
rates. If I remember doing my research right, you might be better off being a
Canadian.

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abc
I was on a student visa and then said goodbye to school after 1 year (in ESL
school) and 3 months (college). I would have continued school if I had the
fund while I work on my startup. If you still want to be able to see your
family and visit your home country, the best way is to moonlight it. It is
very hard but you gotta do what you gotta do. ;)

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motivi
I feel you, i really feel you. I have been sitting on 3 implemented ideas, one
of which is really good. Working on a 4th idea. Hoping that once the green
card gets through, I can break out, start a company and hit the road. on
reading this discussion here and this one here
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40253>, I did what I could, I blogged
about it :)

Here it is: [http://crunchnot.blogspot.com/2007/08/capitalism-and-road-
to...](http://crunchnot.blogspot.com/2007/08/capitalism-and-road-to-green-
card-for.html)

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semigeek
You can own a business on an H1-B visa - I would talk to an immigration lawyer
if I were you. I'm in the states on an L1-A right now which allowed me to
bypass the PERM process and qualify for my green card under the EB1
classification; the waiting list under this class is only ~8 months. L1's are
bit more expensive, but if you're in a hurry they're worth looking into.

~~~
pashle
Is a H1-B a student visa, or a work visa? And how are they awarded?

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bluishgreen
H1-B is a work visa, Usually if you get a job in the states, the company
sponcers you, as in pays fees to the govt, and agrees that they will pay you
well so that you do not become a liability for the govt.Usually it is given
for 2 years, after which you have to renew it which is a mess of a hell. Don't
get me started on that.

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inrev
Do you know any concrete case of people on Student Visa (F-1) that joined Y
Combinator? What type of visa do they have? What are the options?

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budu3
I'm on my OPT (Optional Practical Training), can I start a startup and
basically sponsor myself for an H1-B?

~~~
bluishgreen
I don't think this will be possible. But the best people to ask about this
would be the folks at the International Student Center at your university.( As
it turns out they are the ones who do the processing for the OPT in my
university, so they know everything! )

