I am not a lawyer, but I am an immigrant in the US. As FraaJad said there are no short-cuts and no tricks.
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
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.
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.