From what I can gather from those two links and the original memorandum, you need to show that you are an employee. They are worried about three scenario's:
* founding your own company and hiring yourself (especially if you do that on borrowed money it would make it too easy to immigrate)
* contractors (not sure why)
* job shop employees
The first item is where ownerships comes in. You're not allowed to be in control of the company, because you could prevent it from firing you. So that clearly rules out having >50% ownership.
However, I don't see how it rules out stock options for say 10% ownership? Particularly because, if I understand correctly, stock options don't give you any control until the company goes IPO.
The easiest way to find out: are there any startups that have given out stock option, without jumping through legal hoops?
* founding your own company and hiring yourself (especially if you do that on borrowed money it would make it too easy to immigrate)
* contractors (not sure why)
* job shop employees
The first item is where ownerships comes in. You're not allowed to be in control of the company, because you could prevent it from firing you. So that clearly rules out having >50% ownership.
However, I don't see how it rules out stock options for say 10% ownership? Particularly because, if I understand correctly, stock options don't give you any control until the company goes IPO.
The easiest way to find out: are there any startups that have given out stock option, without jumping through legal hoops?