| Hello all, I'm a French student currently legally working in the US for a year on a J-1 visa in a software development company. I also have an interesting side project that I would like to build and I was thinking of contacting angel investors to fund it. Before even dreaming of getting any funds, I was wondering if I could get any type of visa to stay here a least a year to build my start-up. My plans would be like so: - Contact angel investors go get funds during my J-1 - Go back to France and break my J-1 to finally ask for another visa that would allow me to work on my company in the US. After doing some research, I found out that the E-2 visa would allow me to stay if I can get at least 100,000$, but it seems that I must own 51% of the company, so any american investor wouldn't fit. What if I find a French investor living in the US (I found at least 10 french angel investors in SF), would I be able to get the E-2 visa? Can I get funds from US angel investors and build my company in my home country? Thanks for the help! |
That is entirely up to the angel in question. I do however suspect that many people would like the reassurance of being able to see you face to face occasionally. Handing a check to someone about to fly out of the country would understandably make a lot of people nervous.