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Ask HN: anyone here founded a company in the US while on F1 student visa?

11 points by fredliu ↗ HN
We are a group of international students on F1 visa in the US, we've built some android apps that are getting popular. So we'd like to set the legal things straight and found a company (primarily for not messing up our personal finances with app/ads income, and not violating our F1 visa terms)

We are wondering if anyone on HN ever successfully founded a company while on an F1 visa in the US, without any legal troubles (financial, tax, immigration etc.) later on?

We know it's best to ask some lawyers about questions related to this issue, and we are contacting some lawyers too. But it is always good to know if there are any real life examples from the HN community :)

12 comments

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ovi256
A friend of mine has, although he had some American co-founders. Will try to get some more info.
fredliu
Thanks! Ya, our problem is we are all F1 students, from what we learnt, none of us can officially "work" for the company... please do share more about your friend's experience (his role in the company, was he only a "consultant" of the company?). Really appreciate it!
bound008
need a silent business partner / visa sponsor? (i already have an llc and make iphone apps, and am looking for an android dev team) - i have gmail and my name is jkatzer on there. (take that spam bots)
jayzee
I know people who have done this and different people have a different appetite for risk. But what you are thinking of doing is illegal from the USCIS perspective.

On an F-1 Visa you can only work for upto 20 hours only on University related jobs (library etc). Not on your start-up.

An option would be that you can apply for an OPT, get am American/resident co-founder, set up the company and then work on your OPT.

The USCIS considers something as 'work' even if you do not get paid for it as long as the company would have hired and would have paid somebody else to do it. So one way to get around this is to have an American/resident co-founder who can be doing all the 'work' and you can share profits in the concern.

Hire lawyers. Most people find that it is not worth messing up stuff with USCIS.

fredliu
Thanks for your advice. We've heard similar stories before (about how to find an US resident as a co-founder to do all the "work"). Working on our OPT may not be an option for now though, as we are not near to graduation...

But what if we don't found a company at all, just receiving app/ads income from our app to your personal accounts? any F1 students got problems with that before?

jayzee
The question is not if people got in problem for that, the question is, is it illegal. And no, as far as I know, it is not legal. Still I know people who do it and it really depends on if you want to stay in the country and try to become a resident etc. If you do, it could be too risky.

How about starting a company back in your home-country?

fredliu
Ya, starting up a company in our home-country is another option we are thinking, but we are targeting the US market, not sure how complicated the international business thing could get...
mashmac2
In a related note:

Has anyone founded a company in the EU while on a student visa from the US (or elsewhere)?

I'm currently studying in Lithuania and am hoping to come back to Europe post-graduation, but I realize the difficulty in that (for more then 90 days) without a work visa. Founding a company would solve that, and there's more then enough things for me to work on, I just have no experience in European company founding and requirements. Has anyone done this?

rdasxy
It's legal, as long as you fill out the adequate paperwork. It might be as simple as filling out a W-8 instead of a W-9 (for taxes).