I have a question regarding employment regulations for international students in the US, and the extent to which they apply.
I understand that as an international student in the US, you are not allowed to work off campus, and not more than 20 hours per week. That much is clear. My question is, does this apply to publishing? In the simplest example, if you have a story/article and want to sell it to a magazine in a freelance capacity (i.e. you’re not employed by them), can you do it? I couldn’t find any solid information about this online. It’s not employment in the traditional sense, but you’re still getting paid. And I know you can sell your used textbooks back, so I’m not sure how this would be different.
If you have knowledge about F1 VISA regulations, I’d appreciate some clarification on the matter.
It’s not just employment that’s prohibited, it’s work. That includes self-employment and work as an independent contractor (such as ‘freelancing’). The federal government WILL find out if you illegally worked as a contractor because whoever paid you is required to report the amount to the government for tax purposes.
While volunteering on an F-1 visa is legal, it is prohibited to work without pay if other people would typically get paid for the work. For example, that means you could legally volunteer to walk dogs for a non-profit animal shelter, but you need a work authorization for an unpaid internship.
It is also prohibited to work remotely for an employer or client abroad while you are physically in the US, regardless of where in the world you get paid.
There’s a bit of a gray area where “work” starts. It’s been mostly defined through case law in a “we know it when we see it” kind of fashion. For example, re-selling your own textbooks is not considered work. But importing books from China and re-selling them for profit in the US is considered work.
The F-1 visa is meant for students whose sole goal in the US is to study. The F-1 visa also allows for limited work authorizations (through CPT and OPT) to help students gain practical experience in their area of study. That system works fine for most careers.
Alas, the system does not work very well in career fields where experience is gained in little chunks a a time. For example, music majors struggle to legally play in concerts in smaller venues every now and then when opportunities arise.
In theory, you could apply to use a few days of part-time OPT to write a freelance piece that you intend to sell. However, every single OPT application costs about $400. It would likely cost you more money than you could hope to recoup.
Fair enough. So if I understood correctly, that means I can’t even submit my work for publication and forgo the payment entirely. That would be an illegal form of “volunteering,” correct?
What about submitting work to magazines or journals that don’t offer payment at all? No one gets paid in those instances anyway.
On this subject, how does all of this apply to developing software? Recently I’ve started to develop videogames in my free time and intend to publish one in the next few months, assuming the launch is successfull and the game keeps selling for a long time, how would that affect the conditions set by the F-1 visa? What if I published the game and once it was finished stopped working on it, but kept receiving benefits from the sales?
I’m guessing it would be exactly the same. If you publish the video game and make a profit with it, it’s probably a violation of your student visa terms, as long as you’re here on an F1.
You can probably publish the game for free, and as long as you don’t make any profits, that should be OK. Or you can wait until you graduate.
Again, I’m not an expert, so you should really consult a lawyer or at least some official from the school you’re going to to clarify the whole situation. My guess is this: you can do whatever your want before moving to the US, as long as it complies with the laws of your country. I don’t think that’s a problem. However if you keep making a profit after you’ve started school in the US, that might be an issue. But honestly, I think you can easily transfer the benefits to your parents or a close friend you trust, so your name is not involved in the whole thing.
Yes I see your point, maybe I can get the info from the embassy when I go to get my visa? Anyway it’s not a problem right now and I can always do as you suggest and have someone else’s name on the profits.
41ADAN, you are allowed to have passive income (e.g. from a game that’s already on the market), just don’t continue to work on the game after you arrive in the US.
That’s fine, and actually quite common.
In all honesty though, these things are hard to enforce when no taxable money changes hands. Odds are you wouldn’t get into trouble if you did publish a piece in a magazine that normally pays its contributors while forgoing the payment.
That equation changes if you may want to stay in the US long-term. Immigration visas and naturalization have a much more thorough background screening process than non-immigrant visas. Any work you have ever included on a resume and anything public with your name attached can come back to haunt you.
B@r!um, thank you for your help. I happened to get in touch with an immigration lawyer yesterday and she pretty much confirmed what you’ve written.
I may consider staying in the US long term so I do want to be careful.
On that end, I have one last question: Can I get in trouble for simply submitting work to a paying market? E.g., if I submit a story to a prestigious magazine just to see if they’ll accept it or not, but not publish it. Could that come back and haunt me in the long run?