Emmabatten

Hi,

Any advice greatly appreciated as I can't get my head around the rules!

I have applied for a CR-1 visa, currently waiting for interview date so hopefully relatively soon. Planning to move mid April to the States.

My employer want me to stay on for a couple of months after I move, to cover a gap in recruitment, but HR department aren't keen due to all the paperwork. I assumed this was mostly down to me ie. sorting out my tax returns and therefore shouldn't be more work for them. I had assumed I could continue working in the same way, they pay into my UK account and I pay tax and NI? I then sort my US tax out next year with tax returns? They have asked if I will be becoming a non-resident and therefore submit P85 form. Is it possible to not do this?

There is also a chance that my visa won't have come through but I was still planning to go to US on an ESTA and then return for my interview (if it's scheduled for say May) but am I right in thinking I can't work on an ESTA even if it's a UK company?

Many thanks for any help!

Emma

Pulaski

There have been numerous threads on this topic and similar ones. .... Are you talking about working remotely linked to the UK office? ..... Because that is at best totally impractical as you won't owe UK tax and NI, so can't stay on the UK payroll. You would have to become a contractor, bill your services and then pay US income taxes and mandatory payroll taxes (equiv to NI).

There is nothing to stop you either delaying your departure to the US for a couple of months, subject to the validity-window for your CR-1, or arriving in the US then returning to the UK to work for another couple of months.

You can't "work" while in the US on an ESTA/VWP visit, full stop.

Emmabatten

Sorry if I have duplicated, I did a search on the forums but struggled to find the right info. Thank you - a contractor might end up being the best option I think, I will discuss this with my employers as don't think this had been considered

Cook_County

Your employers will want legal advice on the corporate tax implications for them, US Federal & State withholding obligations for them and local US employment law within the United States. Ask them to share this with you.

tom169

If you become a contractor / consultant then this burden will fall on you and so the company will likely be more responsive to this idea.

Steve_

No. You no longer live in the UK thus you're not resident there for tax purposes. The simplest way to do it is to become self-employed in the US and then you invoice them, but that's awkward because of the currency difference. No VAT though. You can invoice them in Sterling but then you're at the mercy of the exchange rate and it makes your accounting tricky.

Nutmegger

She should invoice in US dollars, not sterling. That way the client tells the bank the amount in dollars that should be wired into the OP's US account and it is the client's bank (or accounting dept) that works backwards, as it were.

petitefrancaise

I send out invoices using harvest (getharvest.com) in dollars. Through this you can sign up with stripe or paypal and your client pays you with their credit card straight to your bank account in the USA.