This was not too long ago and I've had first hand experience with this. Companies will readily hire foreign interns if they are interested. In my case, they hired me while I was out of the country and they paid for my visa and relocation. This is more prevalent with larger companies with the resources to do so, so you might not see the same possibilities with startups.

If you feel like you're competent enough to be hired as a full-time software developer, why do you feel like you should be looking for internship positions?