Background: I am from India. I have a PhD in engineering (Berkeley) and a steady full time job at a tech company in the valley. I work on an H1B visa and my green card application has been filed (EB2, pending AOS, received EAD).
Problem: I’ve been hacking at a startup concept for a few months now. We (my "co-founders" are also immigrants) are now at a point where we have a well functioning product and eager customers. The only thing that is preventing us from going live is incorporation (which gives us the ability to accept payments, liability protection, IP, etc). Being temporary immigrant workers on an H1B we can incorporate and "own" a company ... but CANNOT WORK for it.
o How do immigrants handle such a quandary?
o Yes, I can own a large % of equity, but I can’t write a single line of code... because that would technically be "working" for the company and could increase the value of my equity
o Some say "find someone (e.g. US citizen) to run the company for you". How does one entrust the running of a whole company to someone else while being a passive shareholder? Remember, if I send a single email to one of our customers, I’d be "working" and violating my H1B
o With the expected green card wait time of 3-5 years for an Indian citizen, I am getting frustrated by the day. Does anyone else here share my frustration? How do you deal with it?
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