My understanding is that you can own a company (or part of one). However, you most definitely _cannot_ do any work for it or take any salary, because your curre

My understanding is that you can own a company (or part of one). However, you most definitely _cannot_ do any work for it or take any salary, because your current visa is not sponsored by it. (You can only ever work for your visa sponsor). Now, what about quitting your current job and having your own company sponsor you? My understanding there is that you cannot have "control" over the company that sponsors you. I quote "control" because this is where things get fuzzy and I'm not entirely sure how it's defined. But if you want to be "co-founder and c[et]o" of your company, then no... Despite all this, it can be done. You can "game" the system by, for example, having your cofounder be the only (legal) founder and sponsoring you, where you'd be only a "regular" employee. Or hiring and American and claiming that you never do any work (you just have ownership), and that he/she does. Keep in mind that these examples are going against what the law intends (even though only the second is outright illegal), so the government can and will screw you over if they find out. Long story short: sorry, you're in a bad situation. I'm the exact same boat... It's doable, but you'd be playing with fire. Be careful! (Obvious disclaimer: IANAL) Edit: posted prematurely..