OleOle

Would be great to hear some recommendations and advice:

My Wife will be in USA on H1B visa and myself on H4.
From research I cannot work until we start the Green card process. (Wife's employment will start petition process after 3 years.) From research I cannot apply for a EAD.
I currently work self-employed online performing freelance designs etc. I will be in the US at least 9 months per year.

I will continue to pay UK tax but question is where does the US tax fit in for myself.
Do I apply for a ITIN?

I understand I will need speak to a Tax Advisor but any information would be appreciated.

GeneralPowerpoint

Erm, what earnings are you anticipating paying tax on?

As far as I'm aware you're not able to work whilst in the US on your H-4.

Guindalf

You are performing work, which is illegal, and therefore risking your very presence in the US. The fact that you're working for a UK-based company is irrelevant. It's where the work is performed that matters.

To be in compliance, you have two choices. 1) Move back to the UK and continue what you're doing, or 2) Stop working immediately.

Of course, you could continue to do what you're doing. You may get away with it, but the naivete of your question means you may have already asked the wrong person. The outcome could be a revocation of your visa and the possibility of a long, or even permanent, ban from the USA.

OleOle

Thanks for the quick responses.The idea was to get facts about the H4 visa and potential working options, obviously there is none. The other option I guess is to ask for Green Card petition to be started much sooner.

christmasoompa

3 years does seem a ludicrously long time, 6 months or a year I get but 3?! It sounds like you're still in the UK so what stage of the process are you at, does your wife have the visa and you're moving shortly? Or just beginning negotiations? If so, could you maybe negotiate on the length of time before the employer will petition for immigrant visas for you?

OleOle

Totally agree. I am definitely going to ask for my wife to negotiate because the H4 visa is extremely limited which I am just finding out about now. My assumption was I could apply for the EAD within a couple of months of arrival, only from reading a previous post I realised this is not possible (without approval). We do have time to figure this out which is good. Happy I found this forum.

SanDiegogirl

3 years is not a ludicrously long time if one is on an H1B. The worker has applied for the new job and been offered the job - the employer holds all the cards with regards what he want to do with regard salary, cost of moving and Green card application.
On the other hand an employee who is being transferred on an L1, at the request of the employer, is in a much better position to negotiate as and when the Green card is applied for.

Unlike the L1 the employer HAS to go through the Dpt of Employment and go through all sorts of hoops before the Green card might be given to an H1B holder.

I've know folks on H1B who have waited 5 years or more before employer applies for Green card - and others whose employers never applied for the card.

christmasoompa

I get them never applying for the card, or making the employee wait a year just to make sure they won't disappear and work for somebody else after all the initial expenses, but 3 years I've never heard of. Seems a really odd length of time to me!

Rete

Wondering if the H-1B is a non-cap position or if the OP's spouse had to run the gambit of applying by April and was lucky enough to get her name pulled. Unless you are desperate to find a way into the US, then turn the position down and stay in the UK.

She was the 'promise' of a green card app in the future. Doesn't mean they will do it. They could be in the US for 1 year and be terminated.

sherbert

H4 = visa from hell. Sorry mate :/

sherbert

Talking of H4, anyone here on the H4 EAD? I have been waiting 7 months for my EAD...

Awesome Welles

For the employee/beneficiary - maybe. For the employer/petitioner - not so much. I can think of numerous reasons why the employer would want to maximize the time that the employee is unable to cut and run.

Steve_

I'm afraid I have some bad news for you... https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo...a%20update.pdf

Paragraph at the bottom of page 2.

So basically, no-one is going to get employment authorization on H-4, period.

Steve_

Have a read of IRS publication 519: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p519.pdf

Basically you will become tax resident in the US because you reside in the US, have to file a dual-status return in the first year. You can get an ITIN by filing W-7 with the return.

You will not continue paying UK tax as you will no longer reside there, essentially you're stuffed work-wise. If you're in the UK for 3 months you could be a non-resident self-employed person during those 3 months, you'll have to talk to HMRC about it.

I strongly advise against being a non-resident self-employed person because I spoke face-to-face with an IRS employee about it many years ago: "Oh yeah, that's the rarest filing category, Greg processes those." The odds of an audit are really high because it's such an unusual category. So in the UK there would be only a handful of people doing that. Better to incorporate.

Olly_

Nobody born in the UK would get a H-4 EAD anyway, EB-1, 2 and 3 are current and have been for a while so you can file concurrently and get an EAD as part of the AoS process. The H-4 EAD was really only of use for Indian and Chinese citizens who are stuck in the huge backlog waiting for a visa number.