So if I, an Irish citizen, founded a company with Americans employed or on the board I can apply to stay beyond my holiday visa?
Will be pitching like mad at YC NYC if this is the case!:)
Careful. There's a wide range of activities you're not allowed to take part in on a holiday/tourist visa, and so you want to make very sure that there's no appearance that you did business in the US (such as work on a startup) while in the US as a tourist.
Meetings are ok, AFAIK, as long as they are not for productive work, with some further caveats. Not that I want to dissuade you from pitching, but be careful there's nothing there to give the wrong impressions if/when you do decide to apply for a H1B.0
Not a lawyer, but I did get extensive coaching from an expensive immigration lawyer a few years back on what I could do (and how to describe it to US immigrations) while in the US, as I was traveling over every 2 months for meetings while we applied for a H1B, because immigrations understandably started asking more pointed questions when they saw my passport was full of stamps from the same US airport (never had a problem and they were always courteous, just probing more about my reasons for coming).
Not exactly, but broadly yes. You have to go back to Ireland to trigger your H1B. (Also, and I think you aren't suggesting this, but never ever ever overstay your holiday visa, or you'll be banned from getting a US visa for 3-10 years).
Meetings are ok, AFAIK, as long as they are not for productive work, with some further caveats. Not that I want to dissuade you from pitching, but be careful there's nothing there to give the wrong impressions if/when you do decide to apply for a H1B.0
Not a lawyer, but I did get extensive coaching from an expensive immigration lawyer a few years back on what I could do (and how to describe it to US immigrations) while in the US, as I was traveling over every 2 months for meetings while we applied for a H1B, because immigrations understandably started asking more pointed questions when they saw my passport was full of stamps from the same US airport (never had a problem and they were always courteous, just probing more about my reasons for coming).