Congratulations, they seem to be happy enough with you that they are not looking forward to the day that your committment is up and they can get rid of you.
If P.A. is indeed the same as P.C., you would buy stock in the corporation and the corporation would employ you and report your income on a W2. This means you can remain an employee for H1b purposes. Now, if you own more than 5% of the corporation (which you would with 4 partners), this can lead to some snags at two levels in the labor cert based greencard process (not so in the NIW process).
- The labor cert level. I don't know the rules for PERM, but in the 'regular' system where the state labor agency does the recruiting (a joke), there can be some questions if you are actually a co-owner of the corp. The problem is that they will be able to say that the position is not open for the general public bc. you are in control of the recruitment etc.
- the I140 level of a labor cert based greencard. There is something called an 'affidavit of support' that one of the other owners might have to provide if you are a co-owner.
This is a tricky area. I remember an AAO decision where an I140 was denied because the beneficiary who was sponsored as 'mental health professional' was holding a PhD and already a partner in the 2 person psychologists P.C. that sponsored her. Talk to a good immigration attorney on how to handle this.
> ...and, by the way, I just work in an underserved area. That
> would probably not qualify me for NIW, right?
If you practice primary care, you will qualify. It comes with its downsides (waiting 5 years), but if you make partner in the group and you plan to stay in the area for 5 years anyway it can be a very good option.
Check out the 'do it yourself NIW' thread on what you need to do. If you feel you are up to it you don't really need to pay big $$s to an immigration attorney. All you have to loose is the $165 filing fee. If you get a weird RFE, you can still hire an attorney on his hourly rate at that point.
Do you have your waiver through conrad30 ? If yes, the first step would be to go back to the state DOH to get a letter stating that your practice in the HPSA is 'in the public interest'. If they gave you the letter for the waiver, they usually will be happy to give you another one (looks slightly different) for the NIW.
Whether they the buy-in they offer is a worthwhile deal is a whole different can of worms. If you have questions on that send a PM, I might be able to give you some pointers regarding the 'traps' and 'slings' in partnership buy-in agreements.
