Joe Feise

OtisUsenet wrote on 12/09/06 20:25:

> Ah, interesting, so you think they are immigrants, but have acquired
> their Green Cards or citizenships, and that is how they started their
> businesses/companies. I always assumed that wasn't the case. For
> instance, I thought Sabeer Bhatia, the Hotmail co-founder was on H1-B
> when he created Hotmail....
>
> ...I did a few Google searches, and confirmed that:
>
> "Also, people like Vinod Khosla (co-founder Sun Micro), Sabeer Bhatia
> (co-founder Hotmail); the guy who founded i2 Technologies etc
> etc...were all H1-b guys"
> ( from http://blog.meebo.com/?feed=rss2&p7 )
>
> Vinod Khosla is old school, but Sabeer Bhatia is a relatively recent
> history, and I haven't heard of any immigration laws regarding H1-B
> holders and business creation changing since the late 90s, when Hotmail
> was created.

>
> So... how did they/he do it?


And he believe that blog??? Geez. Anybody can put up a page and claim anything...
The H1 didn't even exist until the immigration reform of 1989, introduced by Ted
Kennedy. Care to explain how Khosla could have been on H1 in the early 80ies
when he co-founded Sun, when the H1 didn't even exist?
In these times, it was waaay easier to get a GC, and it took under 6 months...
Sabeer Bhatia most likely wasn't on H1, either. He had already been working for
a number of companies, according to his Wikipedia profile, and in the 90ies,
there was no easy H1 transfer like today, so he most likely had a GC at that time.
Knowing about the history of US immigration laws helps...

> Ok, how about the following, then:
>
> A person on H1-B can start a business, he/she just can't work for it.
> In that case, can this H1-B person with a U.S business simply hire
> somebody else to do all the work? Imagine an H1-B person who is well
> known in his/her field, and thus attracts business/clients just by
> being the owner of the business, but after the initial attraction, all
> work is done by another person, an employee of the company that the
> H1-B person owns.
>
> Is this legal?


The person as owner can of course appoint a CEO to run his company. Indeed,
that's pretty much the only thing a passive investor on H1 can do.

> Add to that - how about if this employee is an American, but living and
> working from abroad?


Where the company CEO is located doesn't matter much. It only matters if the
person is in the US, because then the person has to have work authorization.

-Joe

OtisUsenet

Hi,

Joe Feise (Immigration) wrote:
> OtisUsenet wrote on 12/09/06 20:25:
>
> > Ah, interesting, so you think they are immigrants, but have acquired
> > their Green Cards or citizenships, and that is how they started their
> > businesses/companies. I always assumed that wasn't the case. For
> > instance, I thought Sabeer Bhatia, the Hotmail co-founder was on H1-B
> > when he created Hotmail....
> >
> > ...I did a few Google searches, and confirmed that:
> >
> > "Also, people like Vinod Khosla (co-founder Sun Micro), Sabeer Bhatia
> > (co-founder Hotmail); the guy who founded i2 Technologies etc
> > etc...were all H1-b guys"
> > ( from http://blog.meebo.com/?feed=rss2&p7 )
> >
> > Vinod Khosla is old school, but Sabeer Bhatia is a relatively recent
> > history, and I haven't heard of any immigration laws regarding H1-B
> > holders and business creation changing since the late 90s, when Hotmail
> > was created.
>
> >
> > So... how did they/he do it?
>
>
> And he believe that blog??? Geez. Anybody can put up a page and claim anything...

Sure, but I happen to have heard this (about Sabeer Bhatia) from
several people in the know, even back in the late 90's, and from a few
people from India, who are very proud of Bhatia.

> The H1 didn't even exist until the immigration reform of 1989, introduced by Ted
> Kennedy. Care to explain how Khosla could have been on H1 in the early 80ies
> when he co-founded Sun, when the H1 didn't even exist?

Was there an equivalent to H1-B? I never heard anything about Khosla
before, only Bhatia.

> In these times, it was waaay easier to get a GC, and it took under 6 months...
> Sabeer Bhatia most likely wasn't on H1, either. He had already been working for
> a number of companies, according to his Wikipedia profile, and in the 90ies,
> there was no easy H1 transfer like today, so he most likely had a GC at that time.

That's not what I heard. I also know people who've been in the U.S.
for 1-2 decades, working for half a dozen companies for the last 10
years, and still don't have GCs. (they left the U.S. when their first 6
years were up and came back, for example)

But ok, thank you for this information. Even if he was able to pull it
somehow, you are saying it's not really doable today.

> Knowing about the history of US immigration laws helps...
>
> > Ok, how about the following, then:
> >
> > A person on H1-B can start a business, he/she just can't work for it.
> > In that case, can this H1-B person with a U.S business simply hire
> > somebody else to do all the work? Imagine an H1-B person who is well
> > known in his/her field, and thus attracts business/clients just by
> > being the owner of the business, but after the initial attraction, all
> > work is done by another person, an employee of the company that the
> > H1-B person owns.
> >
> > Is this legal?
>
>
> The person as owner can of course appoint a CEO to run his company. Indeed,
> that's pretty much the only thing a passive investor on H1 can do.

Can the owner hire a non-CEO? A worker that actually does all the
work? (think sole prop)

> > Add to that - how about if this employee is an American, but living and
> > working from abroad?
>
>
> Where the company CEO is located doesn't matter much. It only matters if the
> person is in the US, because then the person has to have work authorization.

The person you are referring to here is the worker/employee, not the
owner, right? (there is no CEO in the situation that I'm trying to
describe here, just the owner, who is on H1-B and in the U.S., and the
employee or an independent contractor, who happens to be American, but
living abroad).

Thanks.

Joe Feise

OtisUsenet wrote on 12/10/06 07:20:

> Hi,
>
> Joe Feise (Immigration) wrote:
>> OtisUsenet wrote on 12/09/06 20:25:
>>
>>> Ah, interesting, so you think they are immigrants, but have acquired
>>> their Green Cards or citizenships, and that is how they started their
>>> businesses/companies. I always assumed that wasn't the case. For
>>> instance, I thought Sabeer Bhatia, the Hotmail co-founder was on H1-B
>>> when he created Hotmail....
>>>
>>> ...I did a few Google searches, and confirmed that:
>>>
>>> "Also, people like Vinod Khosla (co-founder Sun Micro), Sabeer Bhatia
>>> (co-founder Hotmail); the guy who founded i2 Technologies etc
>>> etc...were all H1-b guys"
>>> ( from http://blog.meebo.com/?feed=rss2&p7 )
>>>
>>> Vinod Khosla is old school, but Sabeer Bhatia is a relatively recent
>>> history, and I haven't heard of any immigration laws regarding H1-B
>>> holders and business creation changing since the late 90s, when Hotmail
>>> was created.
>>> So... how did they/he do it?
>>
>> And he believe that blog??? Geez. Anybody can put up a page and claim anything...
>
> Sure, but I happen to have heard this (about Sabeer Bhatia) from
> several people in the know, even back in the late 90's, and from a few
> people from India, who are very proud of Bhatia.


Well, unless you hear it from him directly, I would be *very* skeptical about that.
There is a lot of misinformation in the quite emotional issue of H1 increases.
And of course there is bias from his fellow countrymen.

>> The H1 didn't even exist until the immigration reform of 1989, introduced by Ted
>> Kennedy. Care to explain how Khosla could have been on H1 in the early 80ies
>> when he co-founded Sun, when the H1 didn't even exist?
>
> Was there an equivalent to H1-B?


No. People who wanted to work in the US got a Greencard. That was very quick at
that time, under 6 months.

.> That's not what I heard. I also know people who've been in the U.S.
> for 1-2 decades, working for half a dozen companies for the last 10
> years, and still don't have GCs. (they left the U.S. when their first 6
> years were up and came back, for example)


Spending a year abroad and then coming back on another H1, while possible,
doesn't strike me as overly intelligent.
The H1 limits a person to working for one particular company, and H1 transfers,
while easier nowadays, are still costly. Having a GC renders all these problems
moot.
There are lots of people who have GCs for decades. One prominent example was
Peter Jennings, the ABC news anchor. He became a citizen only a year or so
before his death.

> Can the owner hire a non-CEO? A worker that actually does all the
> work? (think sole prop)


No. The owner would be a passive investor. The owner can not act as CEO. As
passive investor, the owner would not make *any* decision about how the company
is run, about who gets hired, etc.

>>> Add to that - how about if this employee is an American, but living and
>>> working from abroad?
>>
>> Where the company CEO is located doesn't matter much. It only matters if the
>> person is in the US, because then the person has to have work authorization.
>
> The person you are referring to here is the worker/employee, not the
> owner, right? (there is no CEO in the situation that I'm trying to
> describe here, just the owner, who is on H1-B and in the U.S., and the
> employee or an independent contractor, who happens to be American, but

> living abroad).

In the situation you are describing, who would tell the worker what to do?
Instructing an employee what to do is work, and requires work authorization.
There will have to be somebody who runs the company. That person generally is
called CEO, although that's just a title.
As passive investor, the owner can *not* do any work for the company. As passive
investor, the owner can *not* instruct anybody in the company to do work. Only
the person who runs the company can do that, and that person is generally called
CEO.

-Joe

shdhnd

Hi Joe,
Continuing further. I have a question. You said H1B visa holder can only be passive investor.

Can H1B visa holder have more than one jobs? e.g. now a days we have many work from home opportunities like RentACoder.com

Does H1B holder work for such work from home opportunities?

What are the legal implications if person is found doing so. Becuase I know one of my friend who is on H1B working for company X and also doing this home based work on Rent-A-Coder.com

tinaADV5

hi there, my name is Tina.

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tinaADV2

Hello everybody!

My name is Tina, I live in Austin, TX.

I am here to network / interact with other people for sharing knowledge, discussing ideas, seeking advice, find business partners & the like.

Regards,
Tina

evamilL8

Hello everybody!

My name is Eva, I live in Scottsdale, AZ.

I am here to network / interact with other people for sharing knowledge, discussing ideas, seeking advice, find business partners & the like.

Regards,
Eva

hotpennystocks4

Good to be at expatforums.com. I am long on some penny stocks like MOPN because of the BP oil leak. Any other gems to watch that do the oil slick messes?
thx in advance

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