Now, how that relates to startups and whether your own corporation can sponsor you - I honestly do not know.
1. You cannot apply for a green card on TN visa 2. It has to be renewed annually, and you have to demonstrate continued strong ties to Canada (bank accounts, family, etc.), so US immigration would no doubt get suspicious if you kept renewing
Actually, you can:
http://www.naftatnlawyer.com/applying-for-green-card-tn-st/
> It has to be renewed annually
There's a 3 year TN now:
http://www.naftatnlawyer.com/nafta-tn-blog/2008/10/16/three-...
If you're Canadian, I suggest subscribing to the Grasmick.com newsletter and poking around the site. Lots of good info there.
Not sure if the newsletter is up to date but I noticed that the most recent items on Grasmick.com's News section dates back to 2001!
The world of immigration into the US has really changed quite a bit since 2001, post-9/11 especially. For a start the INS doesn't even exist anymore and was replaced with the DHS.
So if the rest of his information is from this era and pre-DHS then it's pretty much worthless.
For some silly reason he's basically abandoned the website and what used to be incredibly helpful forums.
However, looking at the green card application process on the TN it doesn't look like it's any easier than it is on an H1B.
The lawyers that I've talked to have told me the backlog is about six to seven years long and have not mentioned any special treatment for Canadians.
I've heard that you can get through faster if you have advanced degrees, but nothing about nationality.
Can you send me his or her info? You can get my contact details from my HN profile page.
Even if you have an employer willing to sponsor your green card application, the preliminary paperwork can take over a year before you're officially in the green card pipeline. How long you have to wait depends on your country of origin. Canadians can expect to wait at least two years, Indians and Chinese five years or more. But the kicker is that if you lose your job or change companies while you're in the pipeline, the whole process restarts! (Unless you're in the final stage, but that's comparatively short compared to the whole process.) That is, if you can find a new job. If you can't, you have to leave the US.
The US is unique among western countries in not have a way for skilled immigrants to get into the country unless they first have a sponsor. The US work visa program effectively creates a class of indentured laborers as their continued residency in the US is entirely dependent on their employers.