Q & A's for Entrepreneurs and Startups

What is the best visa for an entrepreneur/start-up?

It depends. Is there already an established company abroad vs if starting from scratch in the U.S.? Is the applicant the owner vs. employee/manager?

What if there is already an established company abroad?

Then you have a lot more options. You can consider E, L, H-1B or O. 

What if there is no company abroad and a wholly new company will be established in the U.S.?

Then you cannot do L and probably O is out.  And most likely H-1B will be very difficult. But E is definitely an option depending on how much you are willing to invest and spend on the U.S. company.

Could you briefly describe the differences?

It’s difficult summarize and cover all of the requirements, but generally:

• E-2 is an investment visa for certain treaty country nationals.  U.S. startup that is owned by a qualifying foreign national or a foreign company can register as an E company.  If individual owner, then he/she would apply as the principal investor.  If a company is the parent owner, then the executive/manager would apply as an employee. The biggest restriction for E-2 is the amount of investment and nationality.
• L-1A is for an intercompany transferee executive/manager of a multinational company.  The foreign company and U.S. startup needs to share at least 50% ownership. The transferee can be an owner.
• O-1 is for “extraordinary” entrepreneur.  The foreign national can be an owner of the U.S. startup but must show accomplishments as an entrepreneur – awards (grants/investments), publications about his work/business/entrepreneurship, authorship of professional articles, past or future critical role in entities/organizations of distinguished reputation, memberships in distinguished associations, experience judging the work of others, and significant/important contributions to the field.
• H-1B is for a professional level employee of the U.S. startup. The “employee” cannot be an owner of the U.S. startup and the U.S. startup has to show the ability to pay the employee’s salary – there are requirements listed on the DOL website. A wholly-new company in the U.S. with no revenue will need to show funding from foreign parent company and/or investment funds. The most critical challenge is that H-1B is subject to an annual cap lottery and there is about 10-20% chance of making this lottery to even be able to apply for the H-1B visa.