Online business on H1B visa

[anabayan]

I've some spare time left on my hands, so I'm thinking of starting some kind of online business. To keep things simple, lets take an example of a blog.

I'm on H1B visa now, been here for about a year. Is it legal for me to make money from my blog? with something like say, Adsense? or affiliate marketing? I did ask a few people about it, getting conflicting answers though. Some people say its legal, some people say it isn't.

If it is not allowed, then is there any way out? Like starting a company in India, and paying taxes there, while blogging from here?

Has anyone done such a thing before? Can you share your experience?

[sparkles]

no, while on H1B you can not be self employed (business), you cannot have another income, if you want to do business there is "business visa". Dont jeapordize ur status! Do hobbies in your spare time.

[txh1b]

Plain and simple straight forward answer will be: Illegal.

[immihelp]

You can't do any of such activities while being on H1B. It is illegal.

Don't try to work around the system, else you will jeopardize your H1B status, future GC and everything else.

[Lewis-H]

If you are in the U.S. in H-1B status, the regulations allow you to only work for your sponsor. You can start a business, but you cannot “run” or manage your business since that is considered “work”, and you are not authorized to work for your company. If you still want to work for your company you can use virtual desktop setups. There are many vendors who can help you with a virtual desktop machine. I would recommend you use windows virtual desktop as it is more reliable. In other options you can also try for Citrix virtual desktop as well.