What options are available for a H1B visa holder to earn money?

August 11, 2009 5:19 AM

What are the options available for a H1B visa holder? Is it legal to earn money online?

For a H1B visa holder in US, what options are available to earn money, other than working for his/her employer? Are they allowed to earn money online, say with Google adsense or affiliate marketing? What if they start a site, it becomes popular, and they would like to monetize it? Is it allowed?

If anyone is doing it, could you post your experience?

posted by raghuram to work & money (3 comments total)

You can only work for your petitioning employer. That said, if you're starting a site now with AdSense or similar you're probably not going to make enough to cash it out, never mind attract attention from USCIS.

If this is a site you think could make you a lot of money and you don't want to delay, you need to talk to your immigration lawyer, your current employer and, a tax attorney about starting a company as an H1-B visa holder. It is possible for you to own a company, and even participate in setting strategic direction, etc. you just can't work for that company. If you hire someone else to run the business for you and it becomes successful then you could turn that into an E-visa for yourself down the road. If the company does really well from the get go you could have it take over your H1 and sponsor you for your greencard. Tread carefully with all those options though and get advice from your immigration attorney.
posted by IanMorr at 9:46 AM on August 11

My non-lawyer understanding: Nothing is allowed. (Any income that is taxable qualifies, and as far as the IRS is concerned, all income is taxable.)
That leaves taxable income that is not taxed (ie under-the-table earnings). As with anyone else working under-the-table, if you're under the radar you're ok, but if any agency takes a hostile (or even neutral) interest in you, for whatever reason, and something like that comes up, you'd be handing them the perfect excuse to hang you out to dry.
posted by -harlequin- at 3:14 PM on August 11

Actually, I think the interest accruing in your bank account isn't held against you, so my absolutist position is a simplification. But your examples (adsense, etc) would be interpreted in the context of you putting your time or labor into the project, and would violate the visa.
posted by -harlequin- at 3:23 PM on August 11