* there are no dirty tricks and short cuts, IMO.

* you can apply even now. there is NO limit on the number of applications to be recd by USCIS. Only, if there are more eligible applicants than the limit, there will be a lottery.

* there are consulting companies which specialize in visa workers. talk to them find out whether they can sponsor you. However, if you are not working on the speciality/project that you get your visa approved for, you may be violating the visa conditions.

* approach a attorney specializing in immigration and work visas. the fees are upward of $2500 for the entire process.

* you cannot get visa as a self-employed person. The application has to be sponsored by an existing US company. Sometimes you are even asked to produce tax returns of the sponsoring company for last 2-3 years, if the visa officer suspects you are self-employed etc.,

* you get to know the decision on your application some time b'n july and october. * if approved, your visa will be valid from oct 14.

You could get an E2 visa and be self employed. You need to have funds invested in the start-up usually more than $50,000.

However, with Walsh and Pollard, (20 I. & N. Dec. 60, 63 (BIA 1988)), the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) held that substantial investment of $15,000 was sufficient.

An E2 visa has no route to a green card and usually needs renewed every two years.

You best bet would be to find employment in the US and have them sponsor your visa/GC.

You also need to look like a business in the eyes of the law -- this means getting real office space and whatnot. So you can't plan on a super-lean ramen-profitability period.

Is that for the H1-B visa? Just to clarify: If a company wants to hire me on an H1-B visa starting Oct. 14 it is still possible and will cost upward of $2500 for the entire process?

What are my chances of getting a visa this way?

The $2500 is what I know to be the fees my attorney charged my company for the whole process.YMMV. Some companies, esp those "specializing" in visa workers might ask you to bear the cost.

This year the stampede to file the application is less because of the weak economy. Finding a sponsor is a tougher task here.

If you can manage to find a employer/sponsor + you have good credentials(which you might have, given your UCB pedigree), you have a good chance of landing the visa this year.

This is highly illegal. Don't do this. Don't go through all these shady "consulting" sweat shops. My suggestion is to look for jobs at non-profit institutions such as national labs, hospitals/medical centers (Mayo Clinic etc.)/university medical centers, universities (all state universities), university owned research labs (like ARUP etc.). They will sponsor your H1B (Non-Profit) which has NO quota. Search for more on this.(There's H1B Profit and H1B Non-Profit)

If you're really that desperate, search for jobs at the above entities that are based in the mid-west and south. They need a lot of smart people but not everyone's willing to move to their shitty place. Your immediate goal is to survive in the States as a legal non-resident so don't be too picky on Alabama and the bible belt.

USCIS requires H1B petitions filed for an employee to be paid by the petitioner (employer). All those shady sweat shops who used to take poor Joe Schmoes' money for filing got raided big time in NJ and other areas.

Of course, I'm also not a lawyer.

Let me start by saying that you can't be self-employed. The US immigration service is employment based which means you have to have an employer to sponsor you. There are exceptions to this but you have to be "an alien of extra-ordinary abilities" - I am not sure what that entails but regardless of what anyone tells you here, you should talk to a lawyer and you can always ask him/her about it to see if you qualify.

Furthermore the H1-B is given for a particular alien for a particular skill-set that can only be applied for the position that the H1-B was petitioned for. That means that you can't work directly on and be compensated for anything that the H1-B petition does not cover - naturally that means any and all side-projects.

H1-B's are not handed out in April - the process of applying starts in April - so in theory you can apply for the 2010 H1-B quota starting April 2010 to March 2011. For several years the quota was drying out in less than a month but I don't think that has been true since 2009.

My advice - approach a lawyer to see what your options are - you will potentially have to find a company to sponsor your H1-B but that pretty much eliminate any chance of you working on your projects.

Lastly - the $2500 is made of two parts - the application fees to the USCIS for the H1-B and the lawyer fees. As far as I understand this - this is a cost that has to be incurred by the company that is sponsoring you. You should know this - furthermore this can be a deal breaker for startups because of

a) The cost

b) As FreeJad said - the business needs to prove its own viability and it's need to hire a foreign national. I have talked to several startups where this was an issue since they were just boot-strapping

Good luck.

That reminds me to a funny story. A few friends of mine used to be in an (internationally) rather popular rock band in the 90's (if you're over 30, it is quite possible that you've heard of them). They have stopped playing together since then but now, after many years, they decided to do one last world tour. Given that they're all British citizens, they had to get a US working visa for the concerts in the US. To get the visa, they had to actually prove that the fans wouldn't be exactly satisfied with the performance of a similarly named tribute band (formed by US citizens). I know that this is required to keep foreign "commodity musicians" from playing in bars and restaurants but sill quite funny, considering their (former) popularity.

(In the end, they managed to get their visa.)

For your J-1 are you sure there's no 2 year home residency requirement?

If you're applying for a PhD, chances are that you will get a nice RA position and everything will be covered..You can always leave your academics if you get a job after a year -- which might look extremely bad on you but it's you first and then comes the rest of the world. You can always take part-time classes after you get a job to make up to them.

The o1 is for geniuses. So see if u are eligible.

There are no hacks. Be legitimate. Being an entrepreneur is to be so :)

However, as far as I can tell, there aren't any great loopholes for startup founders.

From the US government's perspective, lean web startups don't even make any sense. Why would you want to move to a foreign country to start a business that has no premises, makes no significant purchases, requires no investment, will likely have few employees for the first few years, and has a 9/10 chance of failing? I know that your reason is "Bay Area culture" and proximity to VC, but that is not acceptable to the US government, and they don't have a huge incentive to help you.

All the options I'm aware of involve a work-for-hire arrangement with an existing US concern or entrepreneur. Then they can use the H1-B, or other employment visas. You can't officially be self-employed, so you can't be an owner. Presumably you want something like stock options instead. You'd have to have an extraordinary degree of trust in your American partners.

The other option is to come in as a business entrepreneur. Likely you will need to prove you're spending at least tens of thousands of dollars and hiring lots of Americans. As I mentioned elsewhere, then the US government is going to want you to have normal business expenses, like for instance, an office.

To work in the US you need a visa but to own a company you do not need one.

I have heard of people doing the following: 1. Create a company with 1 more person. 2. Apply for a H1B to work in that company.

To be able to make a case for getting a H1 in this manner, you might want to get some of the following: 1. Letters of intent to buy your future companies offerings from customers 2. A detailed business plan on how much revenue you will be making out of this company. 3. Proof using the above 2 that your company would be able to support a salary for you.

Its not easy but I've heard of at least one case that has done it. If you use searyc.com I think you'll find the guy who actually managed to pull this off. A story about him was featured here.

There is a much more obvious route but I'm guessing you know that one already.

This is a really difficult thing to do so you really have to try all possible angles and this is one.

What if you already have a company that has has enough revenue to support you from US customers?

I think it's easier for a big company to hire H1-Bs because they already have an infrastructure to handle that (lawyers, immigration experts, etc...). I myself immigrated to the US through that path. Maybe you can work for a big company and do something on the side?

As far as I know, the government issues visas any time of the year. There is a yearly cap, so maybe they already reached the cap for 2010? I don't know, but it's easy to look that up (go to USCIS web site).

A number of countries that do not have same-sex marriage do recognize foreign same-sex marriages for immigration (Israel is one example).

Insider's tip: if you know somebody who is politically active, see if they can ask a US Senator or House Member to make a call for you. As with anything government-related, those guys can make a call and it clears up a lot of red tape and suddenly there are options you didn't have before.

i know many who apply for Canadian permanent residency (same as USA green card) so that they atleast have stability and dont have to go back and forth to/from home country. Canadian PR is easy and fast and you can work from Vancouver (closet to silicon valley on canadian side) and in the mean time keep working on your project and on some kind of visa status in USA.

edit: also once you've PR from Canada, you can go to US on visitors visa as many time as you want, this is good if you want to meet VCs or other project related partners/members. Also you can get Canadian citizenship within 3 to 5yrs after PR.

Do I sound like sales guy for canadian immigration :-) anyway find a lawyer who has knowledge of both countries (USA & Canada), again trust me this will immensely helpful for planning your future and stability.

http://www.ice.gov/sevis/updates_postcompletion_opt.htm

If you're at UCB then perhaps you can frame your startup as a spinoff company, which universities love. You'd be trading capital for a visa.

That's the best idea I have right now.

Otherwise there's always 20% time at google.

I have no problems trading capital for a visa :)

That would be the hope.

I guess that more related your startup is to a field of research at UCB the better your chances.

> What kind of visa would that be then?

J1, although possibly H1B (I believe you can switch if you stay long enough as a researcher).

> I have no problems trading capital for a visa :)

That's my intent. It (probably) can't hurt to ask: http://entrepreneurship.berkeley.edu/resources/bel.html

http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/24/startup-visa-jobs-green-car...