Risks in joining a startup?

[subba]

Hello all,
After working for 2 big companies for about 8 years, I am considering joining a startup.
Am currently in the 7th year of H1B, but have another 3 year extension (based on i140 approval - PD 12/05 ) stamped in my passport.

Am trying to understand any risks involved in joining a startup from a immigration status point of view.

I think my H1 can be transferred.
I have a copy of my I140 approval so am hoping I will be able to port my PD.

But in general, what are the ther issues/risks/concerns I should be aware of?

Thanks in advance for your inputs.

Regards,
Subba

[chanduv23]

Originally Posted by subba

Hello all,
After working for 2 big companies for about 8 years, I am considering joining a startup.
Am currently in the 7th year of H1B, but have another 3 year extension (based on i140 approval - PD 12/05 ) stamped in my passport.

Am trying to understand any risks involved in joining a startup from a immigration status point of view.

I think my H1 can be transferred.
I have a copy of my I140 approval so am hoping I will be able to port my PD.

But in general, what are the ther issues/risks/concerns I should be aware of?

Thanks in advance for your inputs.

Regards,
Subba

Startups are not good at handling immigration stuff, they need you for ur skills but they cannot handle tough situations with immigration and their financial status may make things unfavourable, their stability is also questionable unless they are run by progressive entrepreneurs and well funded and constantly bank rolled.

You can join a consulting company and become a contractor at a startup, you are better off doing that than join a startup with h1b transfer.

[whoever]

one with the startup and one with the consulting company. i mean if you do a h1 transfer to a startup and can you still keep your job with the consulting company?

[pappu]

a few risks:
- Check # of fulltime employees
- Check profits. Are the profits more than your salary. or do they have enough cash in bank to pay you.
- How many L1s
- How many H1Bs are sponsored for Greencard
- Is it one person owned or there is external funding and there is guarantee of funding in future.
- Is the owner of thsi startup interested in starting your greencard application?
- make sure you get salary statement and full salary every month.
- Do they have a physical office with someone to answer phone and employees come and work there or it is a home run entity. Basically everything should be legit. Before you accept a job enquire everythng and get details.
- Make sure your job role is well defined and required in this startup. It should not be a gas station, petitioning you as a computer programmer to manage their shop's computer!!

Generally H1B transfers are easy since the parameters are not strict but Greencard processing is a different issue. RFE is a common problem with such small firms. I think I had written some detail about such RFEs in the past and how to overcome it.

[Kalloo dada]

One question:

Can a H1B work as real state agent or as loan officer on partime bases.

[pappu]

Originally Posted by Kalloo dada

One question:

Can a H1B work as real state agent or as loan officer on partime bases.

yes. if you have the needed qualifications on paper and there is a employer ready to sponsor you and pay you salary per market rates. (not comissions). you need a new h1b.

[akhilmahajan]

I am just curious. this question might have been asked earlier also.

Right now i am working full time as a Software consultant with a consulting company.

One of the training institutes, want to hire me for teaching some IT classes.

Am i eligible to do that.

My consulting company has already started my Green Card process. My I140 has been filed.

Can anyone give me an insight on this situation?

Regards.

[GoneSouth]

Folks - you cannot work part time or on the side using your existing H1-B. Each H1-B allows you to work for only one employer. You can, however, concurrently hold multiple H1-Bs. So you could only take the training job or loan officer job IF the training company or bank that will be employing you, sponsors you for a second H1-B.

- GS

[chanduv23]

Originally Posted by akhilmahajan

I am just curious. this question might have been asked earlier also.

Right now i am working full time as a Software consultant with a consulting company.

One of the training institutes, want to hire me for teaching some IT classes.

Am i eligible to do that.

My consulting company has already started my Green Card process. My I140 has been filed.

Can anyone give me an insight on this situation?

Regards.

As long as you go through legal channels and as long as the institute can file ur h1b you can - a H1b can work on any number of part time jobs (ie h1b petition must be filed by the sponsering employer) but to stay in status, you must have at least 1 fulltime job employment.

If the institute has some other arrangement with you for teaching rather than filing for h1b, I am not sure how risky it is, but there maybe ways to get paid.

[msp1976]

Originally Posted by akhilmahajan

I am just curious. this question might have been asked earlier also.

Right now i am working full time as a Software consultant with a consulting company.

One of the training institutes, want to hire me for teaching some IT classes.

Am i eligible to do that.

My consulting company has already started my Green Card process. My I140 has been filed.

Can anyone give me an insight on this situation?

Regards.

Many employers like my employer have an explicit clause in employment contract that I would not engage in employment with another employer. So for me it is out of question.

If you primary employer does not have any problems with the position, I guess you can have the second employer file for another H1 and get it done..The thing is many times it is just not worth the effort for the second employer...

You can take the classes for the second employer but cannot get paid for it on a W-2 unless you have second H1B.
You can do it as a volunteer service....

[clived]

One of the options would be start a company here, with you listed as an owner, dont get regular salary however you can be given bonuses at the end of the year/bi-annually/quarterly. Of course this has to be reported to the IRS. Starting a corp/LLC is one way of working on the side in a legal way.

[akhilmahajan]

Thanks a lot for all the information about holding multiple h-1B's.

First of all there is no point working illegaly, because its not worth it.

Opening an company can be one option, but i dont know much about it.

about the contract, my employer does not have anything like that, So i am not going to worry about it.

I am going to say one thing, after all the different inputs i got from you guys, i think i need to give it a thought.

Thanks a lot.

One more thing, even if i get multiple H-1B's, what effect will it have on my GC which is in process with my current employer.

Can you please give your thoughts on that?

Regards

[sanan]

But those two jobs don't really need specialized skills or do they?
How would you get an H1 for being a realtor/loan officer?

Originally Posted by pappu

yes. if you have the needed qualifications on paper and there is a employer ready to sponsor you and pay you salary per market rates. (not comissions). you need a new h1b.

[gsc999]

Originally Posted by subba

Hello all,
After working for 2 big companies for about 8 years, I am considering joining a startup.
Am currently in the 7th year of H1B, but have another 3 year extension (based on i140 approval - PD 12/05 ) stamped in my passport.

Regards,
Subba

---
Subba:

Pappu and Chandv provide good guidence. I joined a start-up couple of years back.

- One big risk was that your job profile may change. That will mean refiling all the paperwork.
- If there are lay-off that creates an issue with filing of H1-b & GC
- One of my co-workers use to be a contractor, he transferred his H1B to my employer because of higher salary but was let go after few months because of business decisions and cost cutting. Stability is an issue.

On the other hand, working for a start-up will hasten your skill set development compared to working for a traditional company in a similar industry. If you love your job than go for it. Decide accordingly.

[bobby]

Originally Posted by clived

One of the options would be start a company here, with you listed as an owner, dont get regular salary however you can be given bonuses at the end of the year/bi-annually/quarterly. Of course this has to be reported to the IRS. Starting a corp/LLC is one way of working on the side in a legal way.

If you register an LLC without partners, you submit a 1040 schedule C (profit/loss from a business) with your personal tax return. My question is when you submit your tax return that shows a profit/loss from a business (on line 12 of the federal tax return 1040) with your I-485 adj. of status application, will this be a red flag for the USCIS case adjudicator and would USCIS then assume you have worked illegally at a second job or how would you justify this profit/loss?