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Can I sponsor myself for H-1B visa?
By Jim Nolan | September 3, 2009
We often are asked “can I start my company and sponsor myself for H-1B visa”?
I have three answers:
- Nothing specifically prohibits a person from starting his/her own business and sponsoring themselves for an H-1B visa.
- However, a person being sponsored is supposed to be an “employee” of the sponsoring company. Since the owner is not really an employee, in this sense he/she shouldn’t be able to sponsor himself for an H-1B visa.
- But, no questions on the immigration forms ask about the ownership of the sponsor and the person isn’t obligated to disclose it. I have had a number of people do this successfully and were never asked about ownership. Obviously, it helps a great deal if the company name isn’t the same as the person being sponsored.
Topics: Business work visas, H-1B, Practical Immigration Tips, Work Visas | 2 Comments »
Japanese
German
February 13th, 2010 at 5:59 pm
This post is still accurate, but in January 2010 Immigration published a letter explaining its thinking about self-employed people sponsoring themselves for an H-1B visa.
After this memo I think it is even clearer that if Immigration realizes that an owner is sponsoring him or herself for an H-1B visa, it will deny the visa.
Be careful!
June 8th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
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