Selling an app on an L1 visa
 

So we all know the L1 visa is tied to your job and you can't change "employment". No issue with that.


In my spare time I have been working on a phone app. Say for example I sold it on the app store and it made any kind of money. I would file the extra income in my tax return of course.


My question is, would this 2nd income count as another "job", and would it cause me to get in trouble with (or invalidate) my visa?


Many thanks for any advice!
Rich

Re: Selling an app on an L1 visa
 

Found this. Looks fairly damning.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11974243


Sucks :(

Re: Selling an app on an L1 visa
 

Yeah maybe, I was going off the fact that the US would tax world wide income and may class the other income stream as a job. Maybe I should just roll the dice.

Re: Selling an app on an L1 visa
 

You are not allowed to work for anyone else... even yourself. Now... if your real question is more along the lines of "Can I get away with it?" well... yes, you probably could - but that's not quite the same thing.

Ian

Re: Selling an app on an L1 visa
 

I guess I just find it hard to make the distinction as I make an app as a hobby, if it happened to make any money that would count as passive income in my mind. Just like if I rent a house in the UK and take income from that. The US taxes it but it doesn't count as me having a second job being a professional landlord ;-)

Re: Selling an app on an L1 visa
 

The IRS is pretty specific on what it defines as passive income, namely "rental activity or trade or business activities in which you do not materially participate". The fact that you are developing the app as a "hobby" is moot as to whether the income you derive from it is passive or not.

Re: Selling an app on an L1 visa
 

Well shoot. Fair enough.

Re: Selling an app on an L1 visa
 

well at this point maybe a spouse with an EAD would come in handy?