Foreign national founders have more visa options than most realize — but each pathway has eligibility requirements, trade-offs, and strategic considerations that affect which one is right. The O-1A is the most commonly used founder visa, based on extraordinary ability. EB-1A is the direct green card pathway. L-1A applies when you’re expanding an existing foreign company. H-1B is possible when structured correctly. NIW works for founders whose work has national importance. The International Entrepreneur Rule provides a parole option for qualifying early-stage companies. We map the full landscape and recommend the right path for each founder.
Viable Founder Pathways
Most Common Founder Visa
Petition Options Available
Top Green Card Path
We compare every available visa option against your specific profile — funding, achievements, company stage, and timeline — and recommend the best path.
We identify both an immediate visa solution and a long-term green card pathway — so founders don’t have to restart their immigration planning every renewal cycle.
We identify both an immediate visa solution and a long-term green card pathway — so founders don’t have to restart their immigration planning every renewal cycle.
Once the right pathway is identified, we prepare and file a complete, compelling petition designed to succeed at USCIS on the first submission.
We know every viable founder visa pathway — O-1A, EB-1A, NIW, L-1A, H-1B, IER, E-2 — and how to assess which one fits your situation best.
We tell founders honestly what they qualify for and what they don’t — so they don’t waste time or money filing petitions that aren’t ready to succeed.
Sharif Silmi personally leads every founder visa consultation and petition — no hand-offs to junior staff.
We sequence visa pathways strategically — for example, O-1A now while building the record for EB-1A later — so each filing strengthens the next.
We advise pre-seed, seed, and growth-stage founders differently — because the right visa at each stage of company development is not always the same.
We serve founders throughout New York, San Francisco, Austin, Boston, and nationwide — wherever they’re building.
