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How do international students start businesses in the US?

12 points by unicornication ↗ HN
Referring to TechCrunch article "How international students are keeping US colleges afloat and powering the tech industry" <https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/19/how-international-students-are-keeping-us-colleges-afloat-and-powering-the-tech-industry/>

"Specifically, nearly one-quarter of U.S. unicorns had a founder who first came to America as an international student, which shows their path to success often begins on U.S. college campuses."

How do they do it?

I'm currently on an F-1 visa and looking to start a business when I'm on OPT. How do these other founders do it and then get the right to stay?

H1B where their employer is their board? But it's still a lottery

O-1? But it's supposedly a very hard visa to get?

EB-5? But you need $500K-1M

NIW?

4 comments

[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 21.3 ms ] thread
eshvk
> H1B where their employer is their board? But it's still a lottery

I don't understand how you plan to start a business when you are being employed by someone else? As in I don't think you can be listed as a founder in the company that is offering you a H1B

> O-1? But it's supposedly a very hard visa to get?

Yes

> EB-5? But you need $500K-1M

Yes.

Ultimately, it is not easy and only a few can work (not start a business) in the U.S. YMMV and you should probably talk to an Immigration Lawyer.

brudgers
I fear the conclusion about colleges may not be justified by its antecedent. Off the top of my head, my impression is that some of the tech leaders who came to the US as students came as children with their parents, e.g. Sergey Brin was six when his parents emigrated from Russia.
atria
You want us to render advice that covers several legal specialties which converge between state, federal, tax, business, and immigration law, which if wrong, could result in a denial of a visa and untold aggrivation to your business partners? In addition, you want us to tell you the secret on how to found a company that will become a unicorn?

You are an F-1, so you are forbidden from working as statatory employee (immigration law + employement law), except as OPT. You are forbidden from forming a single-member Sub S corporation (tax law). However, there isn't any reason why you can't act as a sole proprietor or single member LLC (depending on state law regarding LLCs). While this violates the spirit of the law, as long as you declare your income on a Schedule C the IRS (tax law) won't care. You will not be able be an employee of the company, but you should be able to take a draw or distribution. If you go this route, should should reserve 30% of everything you make to pay taxes and be prepared to pay estimated quarterly taxes.

If you plan on holding accounts overseas, you need to find a CPA that understands the requirements for reporting foreign holdings. You really need to be asking a good attorney along with an even better accountant, and be prepared to pay for their advice.

whack
Judging from the other comments posted thus far, I don't think you're going to find any useful answers here.

The following link seems a lot more informative:

https://www.quora.com/Is-there-any-legal-way-for-internation...

If I had to guess: The OPT is extremely flexible - I know of people who literally sat at home unemployed the whole time. So I suspect it should allow you to found a company as well. If that goes well, and if you're able to raise VC funding, that should allow your startup to then hire you on a H1B, or extend your OPT for an additional 1.5 years.

But my main advise is to do a variety of google searches around the above keywords. That should give you a better idea of what your potential options are. Once you understand the problem space a little more clearly, find an immigration lawyer who's willing to do a consultation for ~$200/hour, and have them give you specific legal advise for your situation. Good luck.