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Content market from an immigration consultant isn’t exactly a great reference, but let’s see what they have to say about permissible ESTA business activities:

Content market from an immigration consultant isn’t exactly a great reference, but let’s see what they have to say about permissible ESTA business activities: > What is the difference between permissible ESTA business activities and employment? > The key points of differentiation are that VWP activity should not deprive a US resident worker of employment opportunity, and that the traveller will not be remunerated from a US-based source. https://www.nnuimmigration.com/esta-business/ https://www.nnuimmigration.com/esta-business/ Your interpretation of the law here is highly novel. People have been legally doing remote work on temporary entry visas for decades. If this was in fact illegal, it wouldn’t be difficult for you to find some case law that supports your interpretation.

pavlov 4y ago
I’m not a lawyer but in my experience it’s common advice given by professionals to non-immigrants in the US that they should avoid all remote employment without American work authorization. I was employed in the US on an L-1 visa, and my wife had an L-2 which allowed her to apply for an SSN and work authorization. The advice given by Deloitte was that she should put her existing remote foreign job on hold while waiting to receive the SSN. When I later switched to an O-1, her work authorization ended (for some reason, O-3 spouses don’t get to work like L-2 spouses do). Another immigration specialist advised us that she should not get paid abroad while on the O-3.
- AmericanChopper 4y ago
  B category visas certainly allow you to remotely carry out your normal work responsibilities while you’re in the country. Just think about it rationally, do you really think business travellers who come to the US to attend a meeting are expected to neglect all non-meeting related responsibilities for the entire duration of their trip? Do you think that it’s illegal to reply to emails while you’re on holiday? Do you think it’s illegal to sit on the beach writing a book while you’re on holiday? The restrictions on work for temporary entrants are to protect job opportunities available to legal residents. Doing remote work for you job back home doesn’t threaten that. There are 10s of millions of people who enter the US on B category visas every year. If any of this was illegal there would be no shortage of case law to support this interpretation.
  - pavlov 4y ago
    > “B category visas certainly allow you to remotely carry out your normal work responsibilities while you’re in the country.” Sure. But if that’s all you’re doing, then you don’t have a reason to be in the country. Entry is granted for a purpose, not as a default right (even under visa waiver programs). That’s why you want to tell immigration officers about the meetings you’re going to have and events you’re going to attend — things that require your physical presence. This applies to other countries too, not just the USA. I know Thailand has become more active in refusing entry to Europeans doing remote work for 3-month periods one after another, with no business contacts in the country. Over the past three years many countries have introduced a so-called digital nomad visa for remote workers. Why would they need a new category if this were already allowed under existing tourist and business visa rules?
    - AmericanChopper 4y ago
      > Entry is granted for a purpose, not as a default right Tourism is a permissible purpose, and it is legitimately the purpose of entry for “digital nomads”. > I know Thailand has become more active in refusing entry to Europeans doing remote work for 3-month periods one after another Many countries, and Thailand quite infamously, have always had strict approaches to the tourist “visa runs”, because it has always been associated with visa and tax fraud, in the form of people working under the table jobs in the country (very frequently as English teachers). This isn’t new. > Over the past three years many countries have introduced a so-called digital nomad visa for remote workers. Why would they need a new category if this were already allowed under existing tourist and business visa rules? It depends on the specifics of the visa. But the most basic form of digital nomad visa is simply a longer duration multiple entry tourist visa. These are created to encourage digital nomads to stay longer than they could on a normal tourist visa, and they are created to capitalise on what the newly emerging digital nomad segment is. Which is simply a highly valuable group of tourists who bring lots of money into the economy without consuming any public services. Other types of digital nomad visa are created to encourage people to shift their tax residence, and sometimes include tax incentives. These visas are created to capture free tax revenue that they would otherwise have no access to, and usually also don’t include any entitlements to public services. They’re not created to allow something that was previously prohibited. They’re created to maximise the benefit that this segment of tourists can provide.

pavlov 4y ago

I’m not a lawyer but in my experience it’s common advice given by professionals to non-immigrants in the US that they should avoid all remote employment without American work authorization. I was employed in the US on an L-1 visa, and my wife had an L-2 which allowed her to apply for an SSN and work authorization. The advice given by Deloitte was that she should put her existing remote foreign job on hold while waiting to receive the SSN. When I later switched to an O-1, her work authorization ended (for some reason, O-3 spouses don’t get to work like L-2 spouses do). Another immigration specialist advised us that she should not get paid abroad while on the O-3.

AmericanChopper 4y ago
B category visas certainly allow you to remotely carry out your normal work responsibilities while you’re in the country. Just think about it rationally, do you really think business travellers who come to the US to attend a meeting are expected to neglect all non-meeting related responsibilities for the entire duration of their trip? Do you think that it’s illegal to reply to emails while you’re on holiday? Do you think it’s illegal to sit on the beach writing a book while you’re on holiday? The restrictions on work for temporary entrants are to protect job opportunities available to legal residents. Doing remote work for you job back home doesn’t threaten that. There are 10s of millions of people who enter the US on B category visas every year. If any of this was illegal there would be no shortage of case law to support this interpretation.
- pavlov 4y ago
  > “B category visas certainly allow you to remotely carry out your normal work responsibilities while you’re in the country.” Sure. But if that’s all you’re doing, then you don’t have a reason to be in the country. Entry is granted for a purpose, not as a default right (even under visa waiver programs). That’s why you want to tell immigration officers about the meetings you’re going to have and events you’re going to attend — things that require your physical presence. This applies to other countries too, not just the USA. I know Thailand has become more active in refusing entry to Europeans doing remote work for 3-month periods one after another, with no business contacts in the country. Over the past three years many countries have introduced a so-called digital nomad visa for remote workers. Why would they need a new category if this were already allowed under existing tourist and business visa rules?
  - AmericanChopper 4y ago
    > Entry is granted for a purpose, not as a default right Tourism is a permissible purpose, and it is legitimately the purpose of entry for “digital nomads”. > I know Thailand has become more active in refusing entry to Europeans doing remote work for 3-month periods one after another Many countries, and Thailand quite infamously, have always had strict approaches to the tourist “visa runs”, because it has always been associated with visa and tax fraud, in the form of people working under the table jobs in the country (very frequently as English teachers). This isn’t new. > Over the past three years many countries have introduced a so-called digital nomad visa for remote workers. Why would they need a new category if this were already allowed under existing tourist and business visa rules? It depends on the specifics of the visa. But the most basic form of digital nomad visa is simply a longer duration multiple entry tourist visa. These are created to encourage digital nomads to stay longer than they could on a normal tourist visa, and they are created to capitalise on what the newly emerging digital nomad segment is. Which is simply a highly valuable group of tourists who bring lots of money into the economy without consuming any public services. Other types of digital nomad visa are created to encourage people to shift their tax residence, and sometimes include tax incentives. These visas are created to capture free tax revenue that they would otherwise have no access to, and usually also don’t include any entitlements to public services. They’re not created to allow something that was previously prohibited. They’re created to maximise the benefit that this segment of tourists can provide.