Paying yourself as a non-resident alien?

I want to open a Delaware C corp to sell some apps. I do not live in the US nor have work authorization to do so.

All of my research confirms that it's perfectly fine for absolute foreigners (non-resident aliens without work authorization - no SSN) to own and "operate" a business in the US. Stripe Atlas and a bunch of other companies are offering incorporation services for reasonable prices.

But, I don't just want to be the owner of the C corp. Probably initially I would not be paying myself, but hopefully if things go well, I would expect receiving some sort of payment from the company.

One way of doing it is through dividends, but the IRS dislikes dividend-payments when a company has no employees. There's supposedly a 60/40 rule where the IRS expects you to pay 60% of those payments as non-dividend (i.e. wages) and 40% as dividends with the 30% tax.

But! This is the tricky part! I wouldn't be able to pay the 60% since that requires the company filling out a W-2, which requires a SSN (i.e. work authorization). You can't write an ITIN on a W-2 (from all I've read) as that means you've "employed" someone who has no work authorization, and this is now an immigration issue.

And so, now I'm stuck in this conundrum. I can open the company and can sell a bunch of things online, but can't ever pay myself. So I probably need to employ someone in the US who will actually work for the C corp, and only then I can take out dividend payments.

Does someone have any experience doing this? I could ask accountants, but it could get costly, and I might end up with the same conclusion.

If you do have some experience doing this, could you also answer this question: can those 60% be paid out with the filing of a W8-ECI and 1099-NEC form where SSN is not required. (But then you're not an "employee" if you ask the IRS.)