Creating a Business in the US on an H1-B Visa? 103
GnaGnaGna asks: "I've lived in the US for almost a year now and have a full time position with a major American company under an H1-B visa (work visa for foreigners). Besides this job, I also run an increasingly popular website generating AdSense revenues. I am not sure if I am allowed to create a US company (most likely an LLC), under my legal status, and transfer the Adsense profits to my personal bank account or a business bank account.
Have my fellow readers faced a similar legal situation or know anything about it?"
As I'm sure eveyone else will say (Score:5, Informative)
Simple answer. (Score:5, Informative)
Lots of people do what you are describing, but it is definitely 100% ILLEGAL, and you will most likely be deported and banned if you are caught.
Re:Simple answer. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Simple answer. (Score:4, Informative)
The issue here is that a company with one part-time employee (ie the one you are thinking of registering) may have a hard job getting an H1-B application approved.
I would talk to a lawyer, but you *might* be safe if you register the company in your own country, and not to the US -- Google will pay out to other countries??
Worse... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Believe it or not (Score:3, Informative)
It isn't really so unbelievable. For all the huffing and puffing over illegal immigration, the crime itself is relatively minor. That's one reason I have to laugh everytime a dittohead pops a vein about how illegal aliens are criminals just as bad as murders and rapists.
Overstaying a visa (which is how about 40% of illegal immigrants get here) is not even a criminal offense, not even a misdemeanor, just a civil offense like a speeding ticket. The guys who sneak across the border without ever getting a visa in the first place are only guilty of a misdemeanor.
Re:Simple answer. (Score:3, Informative)
The conditions as I understand them on the H1-B is that if you so much as mow a friend's lawn as a favour, you've just become an illegal immigrant. *ANY* work other than as specified by the visa is illegal, paid or not. It's not likely that you'll get busted and deported for mowing a friend's lawn. However, since you have to report your *worldwide* income to the IRS, the fact that you've just reported income for work that wasn't allowed by your H1-B visa will be a dead giveaway you've been working illegally. If you don't report this income, then not only have you worked illegally, you're now also guilty of tax evasion!
The questioner really ought to ask an immigration lawyer. But at the end of the day, unless he gets permission from the INS to do this work, if he wants to remain legal he should stop making money off his website now.