It’s Not a Startup Visa, but It’s Close

13.5 yrs and still in line for green card. I guess working a regular tech job and enabling the companies to compete and succeed, adding many many millions in revenue, creating jobs etc. is not as sexy as surviving on ramen and raising funds for the next app.

That&#x27;s a pretty slick trick I&#x27;ve started to see industry take advantage of where they use the cap exempt status of universities to hire H-1Bs. The H-1Bs are employees of the university but are directed by the private corporation, which owns all of the work. There is an extra bonus as well because you can really play with the job title in order to pay the employee even less since the government sets the rate for &quot;researches&quot; much lower than a run of the mill software developer.<p>I wouldn&#x27;t be surprised if the folks coming in under this &quot;entrepreneur&quot; based H-1B loophole are being encouraged to work for a select few employers &quot;while they get their startup off the ground&quot;.

There are a few things to note about this parole. I&#x27;m copying this from a post I submitted to HN a few days ago[1]:<p>1. Your startup would have to have raised $345k from &#x27;qualified investors&#x27; or $100k from federal&#x2F;state grants (difficult for bootstrappers to leverage this)<p>2. Should have created 10 jobs for Americans in 2 years<p>3. This parole will be granted for 2 years, and then extended by another 3, but after that there&#x27;s no provision to let founders stay.<p>4. You need to have at least 15% stake in your company (which can be easy initially but could get diluted going ahead, specially with multiple founders)<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=12624180" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=12624180</a><p>(edit: formatting)

Interesting language: &quot;parole&quot;! Usually reserved for prisoners: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Parole" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Parole</a> Makes it pretty clear what the thought process behind it is like.

I&#x27;m Craig, quoted in the article as the executive director of the Global EIR Coalition, which is what Nigel is using and is soon to be in the Bay Area as a visa option.<p>Happy to answer any questions folks have about the cap exemption and the process we&#x27;re setting up.

Doesn&#x27;t the E-2 via already covers that? <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;E-2_visa" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;E-2_visa</a><p>What we need is visa for employees, those who invest in the US can already get the E-2.

I&#x27;m a bit confused here. Does one have to be in the US and start a company to be provided with a parole status as per this rule? Or all of the requirements that are listed here need to be done while being outside the United States after which a parole will be granted if the requirements are met.

Looks like one can get 6 engineers (or persons) and each put up $60K and open shop anywhere in US as startup founders (at lease for 2-3 years), true?<p>The bar is a bit low....