

Ask HN: How to start your own startup when you are on H1b? - oakaz

Hi all,<p>I&#x27;m on H1b and it expires on october. I have bunch of ideas that I implemented as prototypes to present  friends, and they used and loved some of those.<p>I want to try my ideas, but looks like I&#x27;ll have to sacrifice my work visa in US. I&#x27;ll find a country where my budget is enough for living a year (e.g Tblisi)<p>Has anybody else with H1b convinced themself to sacrifice work visa &#x2F; greencard for doing their own things in another country ?
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rjzzleep
i was working for a university, so things weren't quite as easy for me, and i
ended up leaving the country again, because i didn't feel like working for
that place for 6 years to get a green card sponsorship. i did, however, do a
lot of research on that regard.

IANAL, so anything i tell you, you should discuss with an immigration lawyer.

first of all you can get a part time H1B to begin with, and work for that
company. important note is that i think you can't own more than 20% of the
company, since your part time h1b needs to be legally allowed to terminate the
work relationship with you(you're an employee). also there is a little
loophole here that good lawyers may know.

second, you can found as many companies as you want, you're just not allowed
to work for them. theoretically you can work for the second company while your
own thing licenses software that the second one creates, ip can also be held
by a third party.

thirdly, keep in mind that once you have a work h1b which is not exempt(so
unlike mine), you can always switch employers easily. even if you stop working
for the employee you get a commonly accepted 1 month grace period(not defined
by law, but by whoever processes your h1b transfer application). also even if
you lose your h1b you are still exempt from the cap for the rest of your h1b
period.

say you lose your h1b on year 3. a company can still get you for another 3
years even after you left the country without having to wait for the cap.

lastly, and this is probably the most important. once you gain traction with
your startup you may qualify for an alien with extraordinary abilities visa,
o1 or eb1. there's a list somewhere, but basically you have to fit 3
categories of that list.

anyone with more information on this topic feel free to extend/correct
anything i have said.

so the things i'd do immediately is found a company or two, and apply for a
company tax id. if when you say expire it's year 3 and not year 6, i would
immediately apply for a part time h1b. again, double check everything with a
lawyer.

good luck.

