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I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

183 points proberts | 1 comments | 17 Oct 24 16:01 UTC | HN request time: 0.2s | source

I'll be here for the few hours and then again at around 1 pm PST for another few hours. As usual, there are countless possible topics and I'll be guided by whatever you're concerned with. Please remember that I can't provide legal advice on specific cases for obvious liability reasons because I won't have access to all the facts. Please stick to a factual discussion in your questions and comments and I'll try to do the same in my answers. Thanks!

Previous threads we've done: https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=proberts.

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fertrevino ◴[17 Oct 24 18:48 UTC] No.41872559[source]▶
Me and my cofounder are non-US residents and live in Germany. If we get into YC, what would a typical / recommended way to proceed be?

We haven’t established a company in Germany yet, we want to be strategic and make what’s best to succeed.

From what I know we can do the batch with our current tourist visa, so I’d like to know more about the post batch options. Being US based or Germany based is an option for us.

Thanks in advance

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1. Joel_Mckay ◴[17 Oct 24 19:46 UTC] No.41873081[source]▶
Could follow this group of EU business people forming a US entity this year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shWe5dNqUrc

Also, attend a few free AMCHAM webinars to get the details on foreign ownership rules.

Depending on how large your project becomes, some people may just use a brokerage service to localize the Merchant on Record (MoR) like withreach.com for online retailers. However, only US domestic corporations can mitigate liability on sold goods/services etc. Keep aware of the IRS grace thresholds on sales, as even if you owe $0 in federal and state taxes... it can still become a $8k fine for forgetting to file a return in the US.

Best of luck, =3