Short Answer:
Yes, but other legal restrictions would probably make it difficult to control and oversee the corporation in a responsible manner.
Long Answer:
Will this be a paying position? If so, this would be tantamount to working without authorization, because working for a U.S. company earning U.S. dollars while on a B-1 (visitor’s) visa is not permitted. However, if you have a foreign employer, and your business trip to the United States is on behalf of that employer, they may continue to pay your salary in foreign currency.
That is, unless the company here is an affiliate of a company in your home country. If the business you just incorporated here in the United States is the subsidiary or affiliate of an existing business you already have in your home country, you may be eligible for either an L-1A or L-1B Inter-Company Transferee Visa. These can be difficult to qualify for and without knowing more about your businesses in the United States and your home country, it is impossible to say whether you might qualify. At worst, being a part of a foreign company with a subsidiary in the United States would allow you to be paid in the United States through the foreign affiliate.
American Entrepreneur Visas (E-1 and E-2 visas) may or may not be available to people from your country. For an up-to-date list of treaty countries, check the Department of State’s website.
If your country is not on that list, your ability to control a U.S. corporation while stateside is limited. You will be able to come and go on the B-1, but you cannot stay longer than 3 months. Additionally, while you can exit and re-enter, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) will eventually pull you aside and have a conversation with you about what requires your presence so often in the United States. Most business people do not get flagged, but it can become a nuisance should you need to be present in the United States for any length of time.
If you have, at a minimum, a bachelor’s degree in a business related field, you might be able to work for the company you incorporate. However, the numerical limit on H-1B (skilled labor) Visas is currently set at 65,000 per year. Fiscal year 2014 will start on October 1st, and all the H-1B Visas are already used up. You could probably not apply for a new H-1B Visa until April 1st, 2014, at the earliest; that would be for H-1B work, which would start on October 1st of that same year. Furthermore, if you wanted to be president of the company, that would give you great control over the domestic corporation and would probably not be approved by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and a petition structured this way would probably not be approved.
If you need an Immigration Lawyer in Arkansas, call us at (479) 782-1125.
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