[nirvana]

The netherlands and america have a treaty called the Ducth American Friendship Treaty. Under it, you can get residency in the Netherlands by putting something like 10-12k Euros into a bank (or starting a business with that much value, you'd need a lawyer to navigate the details.) At any rate, as an american citizen you have a sort of inroads to getting residency in the Netherlands. Under this treaty, so long as you maintain that business in the netherlands you can be a resident (and you can work towards citizenship if you were so inclined.)

As a resident of the netherlands, you can live and work in germany visa free because it is part of the free trade zone. I am pretty sure this is the case, but again, I'm not a lawyer and haven't run this idea by a lawyer.

But that's one option that might work for you.

If you'd like to keep in contact with me, I'm interested in corresponding with people doing these kinds of global startup adventures because there's always tips we can share with each other. (Email and twitter in my profile.)

[waqf]

Hmm, does this work the other way too? Can any EU citizen claim residency in the Netherlands, then use this to get U.S. residency for a small deposit?

If not, isn't this a somewhat unequal treaty?