This has been covered plenty of times for London (which is where I'm at right now), something like

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9980264

and

https://github.com/tadast/switching-to-contracting-uk

or answers covering the similar concepts is what I'm after.

* How hard / easy is it to incorporate and pitfalls?

* Typical ways the government would try to make things bad for you (e.g., London's IR35 equivalent)

* Is it even worth it, are the rates as significantly higher and / or any tax burdens on dividends etc.? Bonus karma if someone could explain how the whole dividend imputation thing works, since that seems to even everything out to about the current situation in London (i.e., you get shafted for anything above £43k / year here)

* Suggestions for services also welcome, painless accountancies and the like

* Any links to useful information (that's not obviously google-able) welcome as well

From what I could find, the immigrant part shouldn't be a problem. I qualify points-wise, and afaict there are no draconian laws like the H1B in US or similar, at least that I could find, and the points are more about making sure you're not a burden on social services and can actually find work, which as a software dev is obviously not an issue.

Thanks!