How to move to the United States with your startup: 3 real options for visas, their features and statistics

The Internet is full of articles on the topic of moving to the United States, but for the most part it is the rewriting of the pages of the website of the American Migration Service, which are devoted to listing in general all the ways to come to the country. There are quite a few of these methods, but it’s also true that most of them are not available to ordinary people and the founders of IT projects.

If you do not have hundreds of thousands of dollars that you need to invest in the development of business in the United States to obtain a visa, and the length of stay on a tourist visa is too small for you, read today's review.
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1. H-1B visa

H1-B is a work visa, on which foreign specialists come to the USA. Theoretically, it can be issued for your employee and even the founder not only by Google or Facebook, but also by a regular startup.

In the design of a visa for the founder of a startup, there are a number of features. First of all, it is necessary to prove the relations of the “employee-employer” format, that is, in fact, the company should have the opportunity to dismiss the employee, despite the fact that he founded it.

It turns out that the founder should not have a controlling stake in the company - it should not exceed 50%. There should be, for example, a board of directors who has the theoretical right to evaluate the work of an employee and decide on his dismissal.

Few numbers

There are quotas for H1B visas - for example, the quota for the 2019 fiscal year was 65,000, despite the fact that 199,000 were applied for obtaining such a visa in 2018. These visas are played during the lottery. Another 20 thousand visas are issued to those professionals who received an education in the United States (Master's Exemption Cap).

Lifehacks

There is a small life hack, which from time to time is advised in discussions about the H1-B visa. There are no quotas for universities and for them, as for some other non-profit organizations, they can hire employees on this visa (H1-B Cap Exempt). According to this scheme, the university employs an entrepreneur, he holds lectures for students, participates in seminars and informally continues to work on the development of the project.

Here is a description of the history of the work of the founder on the project as an employee of the University in Massachusetts. Before trying to go this route it is worth consulting with a lawyer for the legality of such work.

2. Visa for talented people O-1

O-1 visa is designed for talented people from different fields who need to come to the United States to complete work projects. Business representatives are given an O-1A visa, while the O-1B subtype visa is intended for artists.

In the case of the founders of startups, the layout is similar to the one we described for the H1-B visa. That is, you need to create a legal entity in the United States - usually C-Corp. The founder’s share in the firm should also not be a controlling one, and the company should have the opportunity to part with this employee.

In parallel, it is necessary to prepare a visa petition, which contains evidence of the “extraordinaryness” of the employee that the startup plans to hire. There are a number of criteria that must be met in order to obtain an O-1 visa:

• professional awards and prizes;
• membership in professional associations, where take extraordinary professionals (and not all in a row who can pay a membership fee);
• victories in professional contests;
• participation as a jury member in professional competitions (clear authority for evaluating the work of other professionals);
• mentions in the media (project descriptions, interviews) and own publications in specialized or scientific journals;
• a significant position in a large company;
• any additional evidence is also accepted.

To obtain a visa you need to prove compliance with at least several criteria from the list. You can pre-assess your chances with the help of a checklist at the end of this white paper on an O-1 visa .

Few numbers

I could not find any recent data on the percentage of approval and refusals for O-1 visas. However, the network has information for the 2010 fiscal year. At that time, the US Migration Service received 10,394 applications for an O-1 visa, of which 8,589 were approved and 1,805 people refused.

How are you today

There is no evidence that the number of requests for an O-1 visa has seriously increased or decreased. It is important to understand that the ratio of approvals and waivers published by USCIS cannot be considered final.

Getting a visa O-1 is a two-step quest. First, your application is approved by the migration service, and then you must come to the US embassy outside this country and get the visa itself. The subtle point is that an officer at the consulate can refuse to issue you a visa, even if the petition has been approved by the migration service, and such cases occur periodically — I know of at least a few.

Therefore, it is well to prepare for an interview at the embassy and without hesitation to answer all questions about your future work in the United States.

3. L-1 Visa for transfer of an employee from a foreign office

This visa may be suitable for entrepreneurs who already have a working and legalized business outside the United States. Such founders can launch a branch of their company in America and move to work at that subsidiary.

It also has its own subtle points. In particular, the migration service will require to justify the need for the company's presence in the US market and the availability of physical employees who come from abroad.

Important facts and statistics

The local office must be open before you apply for a visa. Among the supporting documents, officers of the migration service will be interested in a detailed business plan, confirmation of office rent, etc.

In addition, the employee must officially work in the overseas office of the parent company, coming to the United States, for at least a year.

According to USCIS statistics , after 2000, more than 100,000 L-1 visas are issued every year.

Conclusion

In this material, we listed three types of visas that can be called the most suitable for founders of start-ups who do not have significant resources, but who are going to live in the United States. Investor visas and a B-1 business travel visa do not fit these criteria.

Important final advice: before taking any action related to the move, gather as much information as possible and, ideally, find an immigration lawyer with the help of which someone you know personally has moved to America in the way you want.

My other articles on business management and promotion in the USA:

• Personal experience: as an IT specialist, move to work in the USA, relying only on himself
• Reputation, work and emigration: how to use company promotion tools to solve personal problems
• Pros and cons of doing business in the United States: observations after a year of development of their company
• Personal experience: Five difficulties when starting a business in the US
• How to save money when starting a business in the USA: company registration, office, accounting and promotion
• How to talk for free about your startup in foreign media with a million audience: difficulties and ways to circumvent them
• Promotion of a startup abroad: how to reach hundreds of thousands of English-speaking readers with the help of Medium