{"id":59617,"date":"2023-12-06T19:05:13","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T19:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/06\/ask-sophie-does-the-h-1b-visa-require-founders-to-give-up-equity-and-control-techcrunch\/"},"modified":"2023-12-06T19:05:13","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T19:05:13","slug":"ask-sophie-does-the-h-1b-visa-require-founders-to-give-up-equity-and-control-techcrunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/06\/ask-sophie-does-the-h-1b-visa-require-founders-to-give-up-equity-and-control-techcrunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask Sophie: Does the H-1B visa require founders to give up equity and control? | TechCrunch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div class=\"article__featured-image-wrapper breakout\">\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article__contributor-byline-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"article__contributor-byline\">\n<div class=\"contributor-byline__contributor\">\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"byline__author-name\">Sophie Alcorn<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"byline__author-title\" style=\"display: block;\">Contributor<\/span>\n\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"contributor-byline__bio\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Sophie_Alcorn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sophie Alcorn<\/a> is the founder of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alcorn.law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alcorn Immigration Law<\/a> in Silicon Valley and 2019 Global Law Experts Awards\u2019 \u201cLaw Firm of the Year in California for Entrepreneur Immigration Services.\u201d She connects people with the businesses and opportunities that expand their lives.\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"contributor-byline__more-articles\">\n\t\t<span class=\"more-articles-title\">More posts by this contributor<\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"more-articles-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/11\/29\/ask-sophie-whats-the-fastest-green-card-if-we-are-from-india-or-china\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ask Sophie: What\u2019s the fastest green card if we are from India or China?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/11\/22\/ask-sophie-i-work-at-openai-on-an-h-1b-how-can-i-explore-immigration-independence\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ask Sophie: I work at OpenAI on an H-1B. How can I explore immigration independence?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\"><span class=\"featured__span-first-words\">Sophie Alcorn, attorney<\/span>, author and founder of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alcorn.law\/techcrunch-welcome\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alcorn Immigration Law<\/a> in Silicon Valley, California, is an award-winning Certified Specialist Attorney in Immigration and Nationality Law by the State Bar Board of Legal Specialization. Sophie is passionate about transcending borders, expanding opportunity, and connecting the world by practicing compassionate, visionary, and expert immigration law. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alcorn.law\/techcrunch-welcome\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Connect with Sophie<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/sophiealcorn\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LinkedIn<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Sophie_Alcorn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>TechCrunch+ members receive access to weekly \u201cAsk Sophie\u201d columns; <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/subscribe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">use promo code ALCORN to purchase a one- or two-year subscription for 50% off<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><strong>Dear Sophie,<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>I\u2019m currently in the U.S. working for my employer on an H-1B. I\u2019ve been wanting to start my own company, but I\u2019ve been working on boosting my accomplishments for the O-1A because I\u2019ve read in your past columns over the years that transferring an H-1B to a startup comes with a lot of downsides for startup founders, including giving up control and equity. How has that now changed?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2014 Future Founder<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Hey Future!<\/p>\n<p>The future is now! I appreciate your entrepreneurial spirit and your great question! In October, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.federalregister.gov\/documents\/2023\/10\/23\/2023-23381\/modernizing-h-1b-requirements-providing-flexibility-in-the-f-1-program-and-program-improvements#print\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">proposed rule<\/a> that removed the downsides of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alcorn.law\/what-we-do\/h-1b_speciality_occupations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">H-1B<\/a> specialty occupation visa for startup founders that you mentioned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf more entrepreneurs are able to obtain H-1B status to develop their business enterprise,\u201d the proposed rule states, \u201cthe United States could benefit from the creation of jobs, new industries, and new opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After reading this column, I urge you and others to make your voice heard about the rule. The DHS is accepting public comments on the rule through December 22, 2023. After the comment period closes, the DHS will go through the comments, possibly make changes to the rule based on the comments, and then issue a final rule and effective date, which I\u2019m anticipating will be in place in time for the next H-1B lottery in March. You can submit a comment at the top of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.federalregister.gov\/documents\/2023\/10\/23\/2023-23381\/modernizing-h-1b-requirements-providing-flexibility-in-the-f-1-program-and-program-improvements#print\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">proposed rule<\/a> by selecting the \u201cSUBMIT A FORMAL COMMENT\u201d link.<\/p>\n<p>Comments must be made in English. However, business owners and non-citizens are eligible to comment. You can even file a comment anonymously!<\/p>\n<h2>Retain control and equity<\/h2>\n<p>As you know, an employer sponsor must file an H-1B petition on behalf of an employee as is the case with all work visas. There\u2019s no self-sponsorship available for work visas, and your H-1B is tied to the employer who sponsored you and the job and location specified in the petition.<\/p>\n<p>The clarification in the DHS\u2019 proposed rule provides more flexibility to founders by already eliminating the need to reduce their majority stake in their startup and the freedom to grow their startup without limitations on their ability to do so (without the need for a future regulation on this point).<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/12\/06\/ask-sophie-does-the-h-1b-visa-require-founders-to-give-up-equity-and-control\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sophie Alcorn Contributor Sophie Alcorn is the founder of Alcorn Immigration Law in Silicon Valley and 2019 Global Law Experts Awards\u2019 \u201cLaw Firm of the Year in California for Entrepreneur Immigration Services.\u201d She connects people with the businesses and opportunities that expand their lives. More posts by this contributor Ask Sophie: What\u2019s the fastest green [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-59617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}