On: I’m Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does w...

[aub3bhat]

"cofounder" is a legally meaningless SV term. There are three ways you can be associated with a company

1. Shareholder (anyone in the world, except few countries with sanctions)

2. On board of directors (varies from case to case)

3. Employee (requires immigration status)

[user-on1 → aub3bhat]

Can one be hired as a CEO or CTO?

Does that count as an employee?

If one is a software developer at present in current petition can such person transfer his H1B to a role of CTO?

Are there any challenges in this?

[aub3bhat → user-on1]

A CEO, CTO, CFO, CXO etc. are all "employees", technically an employee is someone who works for the company (unpaid work also counts) the company.

E.g. You can have 100% equity, be sole shareholder, pay money to a manager/employee to conduct work/business. You can even derive a dividend from the said business. however you cannot "engage in business" which means that you cannot write code whose IP gets assigned to the company. You also cannot have day-to-day management responsibilities. If I remember correctly planning a business and/or attending meetings of board of directors is allowed.

At end of the day shareholding pattern trumps everything else.

[user-on1 → aub3bhat]

100% equity would mean A would have 100% control right?

Then nobody can fire A. Hence 49%.

Can A have 100% ownership and incorporate a COMPANY and then assign BOD to COMPANY Where BOD have control over A but no ownership in company?

In this config can A just hire a employee D and pay him minimum wage according to DOL.

https://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/america.htm

Would this setup work?