Traveling for both Business and Tourism

[HappyBlue]

I have a B1/B2 visa and plan to visit the US for 45 days for both tourism and business. Am currently a contractor/consultant (hybrid role- tech and business) for Indian company A. I do occasionally consult for company B which is a reputed US company and parent of Indian company A. Either ways, I have always only been paid by Indian company A and that won't change for this trip. Purpose of my trip:

1. (mostly) Vacation with family and friends while working remotely on my Indian consulting job and
2. A little business i.e. meetings with clients who are the American

I'm trying to figure out what intent to declare at port of entry so as to minimize my chances of being rejected entry into US.

My concern is that stating my purpose as business may make them scrutinize my application and potentially reject my entry given the current politicized environment (they will fear that I'm taking jobs away from American citizens). To be clear, I get paid only by the Indian entity (company A). So I am not at all receiving any pay by an American company.

Can I say I'm coming for x days of business and a few days of travel/personal vacation? is that allowed? I have a B1/B2 visa

Or is the best option to just say I'm coming for Tourism/vacation. Technically this would be right too. I can simply avoid physically meeting my American clients while I'm in the US. I continue to work for my Indian job, albeit remotely and get paid only by the Indian entity.



If the advice is to say business, what documents should I carry for port of entry. Would this suffice:

• An email from my client in the US inviting me to come there (is it necessary that this email state that they will bear my expenses? is it ok if its just a casual 'Hey x, we would like to invite you to discuss business and technical matters in person')
• A print out of my work email calendar showing future meetings

If it matters, I have a good record of entry/exit into the US. I have travelled once on a B1 a long time ago, left the country on time. I have also spent 2 years as a student in the US and again, left well within my allocated visa duration.

[newacct]

if you enter as a B1 business visitor, you can do visiting for pleasure during your stay without needing to change to B2 status.

[HappyBlue]

Thank you for that. I couldn't find that page despite looking around for the past 2 days.

Would appreciate help with my other question - what documents should I be carrying at port of entry to establish my business intent?

[DeatonG]

I learnt new information from your article.

MyBalanceNow

[shlesongh]

I am in the same situation of yours but the officer in my past interview did not ask about the plan to travel in the USA. The officer thought it was like a hoax.

[shlesongh]

visa was used as if it is mating tool to return to home.

[AdrianEvansgw]

If you have an invitation letter from a client who can give you freedom of movement, you can combine tourism stuff with your business tour. Of course, you cannot combine your business meeting with sportswear for tourists or with beach swim trunks. You have to understand that this trip will have two sides. One side of this trip is conversations with partners and meetings with the business dress code. And the second side is visiting interesting places, walking through tourist attractions. When I was meeting with my consulting partners from https://barkersprocurement.com/procurement-consultancy/, I didn't miss the opportunity to visit an unfamiliar city in my spare time and take lots of pictures.