4 ms·

It is a gray area but I don't see any issue if you release it for free. Getting paid, even if to cover your expenses, is more problematic, however. I wouldn't s

It is a gray area but I don't see any issue if you release it for free. Getting paid, even if to cover your expenses, is more problematic, however. I wouldn't say it's a complete non-starter but it would have to be structured very carefully and properly to avoid crossing any lines.

eb1-qun 5y ago
Is there any documentation you'd be able to point to about how to structure this? Not the OP but in a similar boat. Or would you recommend reaching out to an attorney to do this instead?
- proberts 5y ago
  Really the latter because what's out there is just too general to be really helpful.
  - OJFord 5y ago
    IANAL but could you not just base the business and get paid in the home country? Surely even if US taxes on worldwide income it's just that, tax, not any sort of 'unauthorised US work violation'?
    - umbcorp 5y ago
      No. They check your tax returns every year with some automated process. If you document any income that is not approved youll be in trouble. My college rounded up all the international kids doing business in their own countries and told them to stop immediately.
      - OJFord 5y ago
        Weird, I just don't see why business-related (or even employment) income in other country X should be any different to investment income, rental income, etc. in other country X.
        dotBen 5y ago
        Not wanting to pick on the parent comment but this is were 'lay person opinion led forums' don't work for legal questions. You may not see why, but that's you conveying your opinion based on common sense or your own reasoning vs the law. The law says that your H1B via only covers you to receive income via your W2 employment with the company the visa is attached to. If you are an H1B holder you can't be employed or contracted to work for another company in your home country/another country outside the USA because you would still be performing the work in the US and you are out of visa. Even if it's your own company. If you put this income on your tax return you will be disclosing to the government you are working outside your visa. If you don't put this income on you tax return you are filing an incomplete tax return (and still working outside your visa). The difference here from receiving investment or rental income from abroad (which you still have to include on your US tax return!) is that investment and rental income isn't 'work' covered by an employment visa. A work visa is a permission to take a job out of the US employment pool, and the flaw in the law is that if you are working on your own company (inc side project) abroad, you are not really taking a job out of the US market because you wouldn't have hired anyone anyway. But it's a corner case and the law isn't built around corner cases. (IANAL)
        OJFord 5y ago
        Well I never answered anyone's question, tried to, or claimed to be able to. I said IANAL just as you did. I never claimed to have anything other than an opinion. I think I even made it pretty clear that I'm not in the US and don't know how its visas and taxes work. > A work visa is a permission to take a job out of the US employment pool, and the flaw in the law is that if you are working on your own company (inc side project) abroad, you are not really taking a job out of the US market because you wouldn't have hired anyone anyway. Exactly. Hence 'I don't see why'. Not legal advice. An opinion that it's (assuming true) dumb. I don't see what the problem is with expressing that opinion on these 'opinion led forums'.
        phonebanshee 5y ago
        It's way off topic. The Q-and-A here is are about getting actual legal expertise applied to questions, not opinions about how US immigration law is flawed. You're not wrong to say it, it's just that this isn't the place/time.
safog 5y ago
I would love to know more if you have pointers as well. I always assumed it was a no-go and released a few apps for free over the years.
- proberts 5y ago
  We would need to talk but I evaluate this question - what can I do on the side - by looking at the extremes first to set the parameters. So, for example, ideating or building a product in your garage is clearly fine and getting paid cash for selling something that you created is clearly not. But in between these two extremes there are gray areas. So, for example, is creating something and posting it publicly problematic if people start using and sharing it at no cost? That seems fine, right? What if there's a cost to using this product but the cost is simply to cover and only to cover administrative costs? And does it matter if this is all associated with an individual or with a company created by an individual? And what if this creation is only accessible and used by those outside the US? There definitely are grey areas and potential arguments to be made to allow for certain seeming work-related activities.
  - dawsmik 5y ago
    If it is software, Could he just set a company in his home country that purchases server space in the US?
paxys 5y ago
Every attorney I have spoken to in the past has said that something like this is a clear and obvious violation of H-1B visa terms, so I'm curious what the "gray area" you are referring to is.
- muzani 5y ago
  #444444 as opposed to #808080
- bialpio 5y ago
  IANAL. Can non-citizens run US-based companies? If yes, can't this be done through a company, then OP would just be forbidden from drawing a salary from this entity?
  - ab_testing 5y ago
    Yes . Non citizens can run us based companies as long as they do that from outside the US. If they want to come to the US to run their US based company, then they have to decide on a visa. There is E2 which is a business based visa but only for certain countries. H1-B is essentially a skilled worker visa and it is assumed that you would have a company and a boss who would file for that visa.
    - bialpio 5y ago
      > If they want to come to the US to run their US based company, then they have to decide on a visa. Only if they want to get paid in any way, right? Can a person run their company w/o drawing any profits (i.e. no W-2 needed) and not have to go through the visa process? If I were to look for a way out of the situation ("I want people to pay so that I have money to maintain the infrastructure"), this is how I'd try to approach it ("create an entity that is allowed to accept money from other sources and use that money only to run the infrastructure").
    - epa 5y ago
      Run your work through companies in Canada and Us. You are employee of Canadian consultantcy which happens to own stock and pay you on the payroll. Your quarterly meetings are nothing other than paper work.

eb1-qun 5y ago

Is there any documentation you'd be able to point to about how to structure this? Not the OP but in a similar boat. Or would you recommend reaching out to an attorney to do this instead?

proberts 5y ago
Really the latter because what's out there is just too general to be really helpful.
- OJFord 5y ago
  IANAL but could you not just base the business and get paid in the home country? Surely even if US taxes on worldwide income it's just that, tax, not any sort of 'unauthorised US work violation'?
  - umbcorp 5y ago
    No. They check your tax returns every year with some automated process. If you document any income that is not approved youll be in trouble. My college rounded up all the international kids doing business in their own countries and told them to stop immediately.
    - OJFord 5y ago
      Weird, I just don't see why business-related (or even employment) income in other country X should be any different to investment income, rental income, etc. in other country X.
      - dotBen 5y ago
        Not wanting to pick on the parent comment but this is were 'lay person opinion led forums' don't work for legal questions. You may not see why, but that's you conveying your opinion based on common sense or your own reasoning vs the law. The law says that your H1B via only covers you to receive income via your W2 employment with the company the visa is attached to. If you are an H1B holder you can't be employed or contracted to work for another company in your home country/another country outside the USA because you would still be performing the work in the US and you are out of visa. Even if it's your own company. If you put this income on your tax return you will be disclosing to the government you are working outside your visa. If you don't put this income on you tax return you are filing an incomplete tax return (and still working outside your visa). The difference here from receiving investment or rental income from abroad (which you still have to include on your US tax return!) is that investment and rental income isn't 'work' covered by an employment visa. A work visa is a permission to take a job out of the US employment pool, and the flaw in the law is that if you are working on your own company (inc side project) abroad, you are not really taking a job out of the US market because you wouldn't have hired anyone anyway. But it's a corner case and the law isn't built around corner cases. (IANAL)
        OJFord 5y ago
        Well I never answered anyone's question, tried to, or claimed to be able to. I said IANAL just as you did. I never claimed to have anything other than an opinion. I think I even made it pretty clear that I'm not in the US and don't know how its visas and taxes work. > A work visa is a permission to take a job out of the US employment pool, and the flaw in the law is that if you are working on your own company (inc side project) abroad, you are not really taking a job out of the US market because you wouldn't have hired anyone anyway. Exactly. Hence 'I don't see why'. Not legal advice. An opinion that it's (assuming true) dumb. I don't see what the problem is with expressing that opinion on these 'opinion led forums'.
        phonebanshee 5y ago
        It's way off topic. The Q-and-A here is are about getting actual legal expertise applied to questions, not opinions about how US immigration law is flawed. You're not wrong to say it, it's just that this isn't the place/time.

safog 5y ago

I would love to know more if you have pointers as well. I always assumed it was a no-go and released a few apps for free over the years.

proberts 5y ago
We would need to talk but I evaluate this question - what can I do on the side - by looking at the extremes first to set the parameters. So, for example, ideating or building a product in your garage is clearly fine and getting paid cash for selling something that you created is clearly not. But in between these two extremes there are gray areas. So, for example, is creating something and posting it publicly problematic if people start using and sharing it at no cost? That seems fine, right? What if there's a cost to using this product but the cost is simply to cover and only to cover administrative costs? And does it matter if this is all associated with an individual or with a company created by an individual? And what if this creation is only accessible and used by those outside the US? There definitely are grey areas and potential arguments to be made to allow for certain seeming work-related activities.
- dawsmik 5y ago
  If it is software, Could he just set a company in his home country that purchases server space in the US?

paxys 5y ago

Every attorney I have spoken to in the past has said that something like this is a clear and obvious violation of H-1B visa terms, so I'm curious what the "gray area" you are referring to is.

muzani 5y ago
#444444 as opposed to #808080
bialpio 5y ago
IANAL. Can non-citizens run US-based companies? If yes, can't this be done through a company, then OP would just be forbidden from drawing a salary from this entity?
- ab_testing 5y ago
  Yes . Non citizens can run us based companies as long as they do that from outside the US. If they want to come to the US to run their US based company, then they have to decide on a visa. There is E2 which is a business based visa but only for certain countries. H1-B is essentially a skilled worker visa and it is assumed that you would have a company and a boss who would file for that visa.
  - bialpio 5y ago
    > If they want to come to the US to run their US based company, then they have to decide on a visa. Only if they want to get paid in any way, right? Can a person run their company w/o drawing any profits (i.e. no W-2 needed) and not have to go through the visa process? If I were to look for a way out of the situation ("I want people to pay so that I have money to maintain the infrastructure"), this is how I'd try to approach it ("create an entity that is allowed to accept money from other sources and use that money only to run the infrastructure").
  - epa 5y ago
    Run your work through companies in Canada and Us. You are employee of Canadian consultantcy which happens to own stock and pay you on the payroll. Your quarterly meetings are nothing other than paper work.