
Starting a business on F1 - unicornication
I have a really great idea, have built a product, and want to start my own business. I&#x27;ve started pitching to investors, and am getting a lot of interest already. Unfortunately, I&#x27;m a student on an F1 visa, still enrolled at a school. How do I go about building and working for my company in a reasonable way?<p>I&#x27;ve looked at the O-1, H1B, EB-5, L-1 options and so far the O-1 and EB-5 options look most promising, unfortunately I don&#x27;t have $500K to invest - so for now, the EB-5 is out and so I&#x27;m left with the O-1.<p>Does anyone have any experience with this entire process?
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kjksf
It depends a lot on particulars of your product and what you think "starting
my own business" means.

The laws are about creating legal entities not actual work.

Do you have a product? Is it a website of software application? Ship it and
keep improving it based on feedback. Working on software in your spare time is
not prohibited and even good products take time to become successful.

Do you want to charge for the product?

That becomes a bit more complicated because for accepting payments you might
need some legal entity (i.e. a company). First try to setup payments (using
PayPal or Stripe) simply in your name, without creating a company. If not
possible, try setting up a company in your own country and use that.

The things that you cannot do is to register one of the legal entities that we
call companies (llc etc.) in US and work for that company. This also blocks
you from doing things that require such entity (like getting funding or hiring
people).

Legal entity is not required to have a successful, income generating product
or needed to work on such product.

In context of the law "work" is "work for recognized legal entity and being
paid for it". You can't work as a cook for a restaurant but you can cook a
dinner for your friend, even though both require the same kind of "work".
Similarly, the law doesn't allow you to work for a startup in US and being
paid for it but doesn't prohibit you from working on an open-source project or
on your own project.

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unicornication
Unfortunately the product I'm looking to build is a large logistical
undertaking as well as a technical one, and I have great (and American!) co-
founders that can help with the funding and hiring.

While I see the merit in the first half of your post - I'm still looking for
outside investment, and I'm unsure a seed/angel investor would be willing to
put a bet on an international company. As well as that "working" for a for-
profit entity, even if it is back home - I believe is violation of status.

Tricky problem :-(

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hashnsalt
I recently finished my undergrad and I am an international. This may not be
the most helpful comment, but hopefully it will make you consider other
options.

I know there is a certain appeal to starting a startup in Silicon Valley and
going through the motions of being an entrepreneur, but you don't have to be
based in the US to be a successful tech entrepreneur. Virtually any big VC
that invests in the US also has an international investment arm. You can hire
remote talent to work on your product, or even talent in countries other than
the US. In fact, I hypothesize that you may be able to find better talent
elsewhere because job hopping isn't as common in other parts of the world.

Canada has an excellent startup visa program and it is the closest thing you
will find to actually doing a startup in the US.

Why do you want to start your company in the US?

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unicornication
You make a good point. Unfortunately, our product is still in its infancy and
we're not looking for VC funding for a while. We're still in seed/angel
territory, and that's the round I'd like to work toward, those smaller
investments typically won't be made in overseas businesses because of higher
risk.

Though, your comment is indeed helpful, thank you very much for it! I'll
consider a strategy that works.

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pbnjay
IANAL, so this is based on my limited research trying to hire a student I
know...

Legally, you can't work while on a student visa in the US. Unless you can
somehow get your school to sign off on it as relevant to your degree. Your
best bet is probably to just launch in your home country, even remotely if
necessary.

If you're still a student, absent any other information about your skillset, I
doubt you'll be able to get anywhere with an O-1. If your home country is in
North America, you may be able to find a NAFTA-related visa although I can't
remember the details on those.

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unicornication
I think I'm potentially on the right track for an O-1, but I think I should
get a lawyer to help clarify the probability of success.

I'm 19, was sought out & contracted to work at Goldman Sachs without a degree
for a year. Have written 10 scholarly papers in AI, 2 published. Have won a
national business competition and semi finalist in an international one. Wrote
an editorial for a big newspaper back home. 1 news article about me winning a
competition. Have built some pretty interesting things with provocative demos,
like a talking AI doctor in your web browser.

