ushagk2000

I am an Indian Passport holder working in Canada on a work-Visa. My
husband has got a job in the US and has got his H1B Visa (and I got my
H4). So, we will be moving to the US.

My Canadian employer has asked me if I can work from home in the US. I
would like to know if this is legally permissible.

(1) I will be working for a Canadian company (freelance contract)
(2) I will be working from home (in the US)
(3) I will be paid via bank transfer (to a US bank) and will pay taxes
in the US
(4) The product I am working on is not sold in the US

My work involves editing of web-content (note that this web content is
provided for free on the web-site).

Could someone kindly advise me regarding this?
Is there an email address or phone number where I can directly ask this
question to an INS officer?

Thanks to all who respond.

Usha

Elvira

What you are proposing is not possible...

dbj1000

I can confirm that any paid work on an H4 visa, regardless of the location of that work, is not allowed.

We looked at all the options with our immigration lawyer (one of the best in the country) when my wife was offered a similar job. Her only option was to leave the US and abandon her H4 visa to do the job. It did not matter that the potential employer was not US based, did no business in the US and would not have hired a US citizen as an employee for the job. It also did not matter that the work would be telecommuting to Europe. The rules of the H4 visa are that no paid employment is permitted, period.

thething

Unfortunately the immigration law for H4's make very little economic sense. It is illegal for an H4 to work anywhere in the world if they reside in the US. Since US residents pay tax on their worldwide income, they would also be avoiding US taxes if they didn't report the income, so it's a double jeopardy situation.

I have known a number of spouses on H4's who continued to do work in their home countries and were paid outside the US, but they were working illegally and took pains to conceal it. Most of these people did consulting or some type of online work that would be very difficult for the USCIS to prove e.g. one was an artist who took commissions over the Internet and the business end was handled by relatives in the UK. Another continued to do work for the family business overseas. If the immigration law was more intelligent, it would welcome this type of work because it provides the US tax revenues but has no impact on the local labor market. But nobody expects immigration law to be intelligent and hence H4's are condemned to sitting at home.

There are some grey areas. For example, an H4 (or an H1 for that matter) receives royalties from intellectual property (book, artwork, patent etc). It's not a traditional employment relationship and I've seen conflicting opinions on the legality of that.

J. J. Farrell

dbj1000 wrote:
    > > What you are proposing is not possible...
    > I can confirm that any paid work on an H4 visa, regardless of the
    > location of that work, is not allowed.
    > We looked at all the options with our immigration lawyer (one of the
    > best in the country) when my wife was offered a similar job. Her only
    > option was to leave the US and abandon her H4 visa to do the job. It did
    > not matter that the potential employer was not US based, did no business
    > in the US and would not have hired a US citizen as an employee for the
    > job. It also did not matter that the work would be telecommuting to
    > Europe. The rules of the H4 visa are that no paid employment is
    > permitted, period.

That's not quite the rule. They also have a rule that any work for
which a worker might usually expect to be paid is "work" as far as
immigration is concerned. Grandparents visiting to look after children
while the parents are working counts as "work" under immigration law,
irrespective of whether or not they get paid in any form. Most work
that receives compensation is "work" under immigration law, but a lot
of work without compensation is as well.

ushagk2000

Thanks everyone - the situation does look rather bleak for me then :-(

JulianB

This is absolutely true, and often misunderstood. However, ignorance of the law is no defence.

Folinskyinla

Hi:

Your question is quite sophisticated. Lets put it this way, it is one that very fine immigration lawyers will debate with no definitive answer -- some will say "no problem" and others will say "no way."

I could argue it both ways. The employment authorization laws were passed literally 20 years ago, and this is one of the grey areas.