Ready to found a startup, but my co-founder is on a temporary visa

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4164698

by JWhiteaker • 14 years ago

8 11 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

My co-founder and I have been bootstrapping our startup for a couple of months and things are starting to ramp up. However, we have an impending problem: he is here on a temporary work visa that expires in September.

What are the options for him to stay in the US to continue working on the startup? So far our main thought is for him to apply for a job that would offer a more permanent visa. Then he would continue working on the startup on nights and weekends while I work on it full time, but this is obviously not ideal.

Has anyone had to deal with a problem like this before?

JWhiteaker2• 14 years ago

I'm aware of the startup visa act (http://startupvisa.com/), but that is not going to be available by the time we would need it (assuming it even passes).

canttestthis• 14 years ago

Wikipedia says this bill is awaiting committee review. I'm curious, and I'm not familiar with US Congress stuff, but how long do these things usually take?

israelyc5• 14 years ago

Have him apply to an MBA program that offers CPT courses and give him an "internship" position.

JWhiteaker2• 14 years ago

That's not a bad idea. A student visa in general would at least delay the problem.

israelyc5• 14 years ago

Would work for two years, by then, with funding and you as a co-founder he should lose a controlling stake and your startup would be able to get him an h1b.

eshvk2• 14 years ago

He would be able to do only part time CPT from the get go. This is capped at a max of 20 hours per week. Once 9 months have passed, he can do full time CPT of 40 hours.

israelyc5• 14 years ago

Not true. Some colleges let you take full time CPT classes (3 credit) as part of their curriculum. However, if the total exceeds 1 year of full time work he will not be eligible for a year of CPT with no school after he graduates.

Where are you located?

HistoryInAction• 14 years ago

Yep, lots of founders have to deal with this problem. I'm not a lawyer, btw.

H1-B caps have indeed been reached, and neither Startup Visa nor the Startup Act, with its entrepreneur's visa, are expected to pass anytime soon, though I'm working on that. That's the primary route folks use for hiring foreign talent, so it'd probably be difficult for your cofounder to get a visa until April anyway.

You say bootstrapping, but if you can get $50k+ in capital and your cofounder is from one of the E-2 countries on this list, this could be a viable visa: http://travel.state.gov/visa/fees/fees_3726.html/

It sounds like the startup is either unincorporated or incorporated like usual in DE. If it's incorporated for a year abroad, your cofounder could qualify for an L-1.

I've had a few friends go the route of taking an adjunct professorship in an entrepreneurship program at a county college and using the F or J academic visa to build the startup with the tacit permission of the school, but that requires friends in the school's administration and may not be legal.

Your best bet is to probably try and raise funding between now and September and go for an EB-5 (requires $500k or $1M, depending on where you're located).

There are some other hacks that might be useful once you've decided on which visa to go for in increasing your chances of a successful application that I've written out for founders here: http://www.quora.com/Blueseed/Are-there-any-interim-solution...

If you're still tracking this thread, feel free to email me: craig (at) politihacks which is a dot com

Ready to found a startup, but my co-founder is on a temporary visa

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