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Ask HN: Legal Options for a H1B founder to participate in Y Combinator

4 points by suken ↗ HN
What are some of the legal hacks for H1B founders to participate in YCombinator program or similar Accelerator/Incubator?

- Both Founders are on H1B. - Established a LLC (Online forum responses seems divided on whether some on H1B can open a LLC or not. Responses were more inclined toward H1B person legally cannot open LLC, but never the less we decided to jump and create one.) - LLC is not generating any revenue, very less capital mainly to support server expenses and cannot afford to pay to hire full time employee. - Willingness to leave the job and work full time on developing the product if got selected for an Accelerator/Incubator program. (Willing to risk it to get the biscuit)

What are some of the legal options to support H1B employee staying in USA and work full time on startup. (I understand Incubator/Accelerators don't provide enough funding to support H1B, but some should have hacked the legal system and found a way to workaround the system.) Help would be appreciate.

8 comments

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buyfromfarm
As suggested by a Quora user, you can search for answer at Quora.com, having a friend who is citizen or greenholder opens the company for you, you join as a stack holder. (Disclaimer: getting your own attorney). Some guys I know applied O-1 visa successfully to creat their own business.
suken
Thanks for your response, I did a lot of digging but couldn't find a proper answer. B1 might be a better option compared to O1. For O1, company needs an investment from an investor or group of investor plus there are lot of other complications to get approval (Good lawyers can get around those complication). Do you happen to know any one else using any VISA's other then O1 and B1 to come on YCombinator?
induscreep
AFAIK you can establish an LLC on H1B, but you cannot be employed by it, unless your H1B is sponsored by that LLC...
akg_67
This is the right answer. You can establish (own) a US LLC irrespective of any Visa you hold (or don't hold) in US or live in another country. You just can't work for LLC in US if you don't have a Visa that authorizes you to work in US and/or for that LLC. But you can work for LLC in a different country.

Once your LLC has employees/revenue and can convince INS of LLC being legitimate ongoing business and not a shell to get you work authorization, you can have your LLC sponsor you for a work authorization.

Potential workaround: Don't draw a salary from your LLC. Hire contractors to do most of the work and pay them from LLC. Travel to foreign destinations time to time and classify them as business trips for 'working for LLC'.

suken
I totally agree with you. We do have some unpaid interns who are getting good learning experience. We are in process of getting a contractor on board to help us take our coding responsibilities. I do like the idea of travelling to foreign destination for business trip.
neoterics
I think the act of opening an LLC on H1B is not the issue, but if you show any income/profit on it, that's when you will run into legal issues, this will also be vitally important if and when you are applying for your Green Card as you could be in muddy waters regarding your eligibility status during the time you were operating the LLC.

Also if you have even a single founder who is a US citizen or Green Card holder, you could get a relative of yours who is not in the US to be an additional founder for the LLC. This way you (your family) retains control of the company. They will need to apply for an ITIN number in this case. I can vouch for the legality of this option as we had hired a lawyer and I got my dad (non US citizen) to be a part legal owner of the US based LLC that was formed.

suken
When I spoke with the lawyer, he mentioned we can open it but being on H1B, founders cannot work on it unless LLC sponsors H1B visa. We have hired some unpaid interns to work on the product and a director to manage our company. We are kind of Non Managing founders