We may have a potential project in the USA that requires a team of us to work there for at least 6 months. We are not just sipping coffee at Starbucks and have meetings, we do get our hands dirty from time to time (most of the time actually!). It may become more than 6 months, ie. a permanent branch office or even more.
I understand B1 may not be the optimal choice of visa (or not even an option). It's been years since I had a B1 and I never moved to J1. Things changed after that I believe. Also, spouses and children are involved, while I am sure they'd be fine on a visitor visa for a few weeks/months given that they are just visiting at first.
Does anybody know what options we would have? We have local partners that want us there, in case that makes a difference. But they are not a multinational corporation with plenty of cash to spare, so we can't just throw this at them and say 'get it done' (they will definitely provide support though if they want this to happen).
NB: What we do is unique, nobody else can do that and has ever done that before. So definitely no chance to find local talent in the US.
Thanks in advance for any pointers. I'll of course go read official info, but wanted to ask for some practical first hand info at Geo - the source of eternal knowledge!