I am not an immigration lawyer, but one thing I've heard is you could setup a corporation in Canada, and then sell consulting services to a US startup. That way

I am not an immigration lawyer, but one thing I've heard is you could setup a corporation in Canada, and then sell consulting services to a US startup. That way they don't have to deal with the fact that you're not a US Citizen for payroll purposes, as they just pay you like any other vendor. You can work remotely / travel to the US for periods of a few weeks at a time, working out of their offices - sublet apartments from craigslist for a month or two at a time, then return back to Canada. I believe there is a US visa you need to get to do this, under the guise you are working for a foreign business conducting biz in the US. If the startup takes off, you will be integral enough to the process that they will (hopefully) hire an immigration lawyer to figure out how to get you into the country for longer periods of time and pay you directly. If it doesn't take off, probably best that they didn't issue your VISA after all... I know of a few people who got in from eastern europe to the US that way... again, I am not a lawyer though, and therefore don't know if what these guys did was legal or not, just repeating what I heard...