Travelling On B-1 Visa From Australia And Entering US As Consultant

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The line between work and business can be blurry. You are allowed in for business, but not for work.

  • Say you are in a retail store, you operate the cash register, and for each hour you spend in the store, the store (company) gives you (a human) $8 US less some deductions. Clearly, you're working.
  • Say you run a consulting company and some of your staff will work on a contract for a US firm if you land it. You will not, you're the sales rep. You spend a few days meeting with people from the US firm, discussing the work your firm might do, nobody pays you anything, and then you leave the US. Clearly, you are in the US on business and not working.

See how this has nothing to do with how much time you put in or how difficult it is.

Now, where things are blurry is when you will be (or already are) the person doing the work on the contract. Are you there just to negotiate it? To meet about it (status reports and so on)? Or to do some of it? How many layers of company are there between the cheque the US people write and the increase in your personal bank account? In the past, I've been allowed in to do training when the US client paid a different US firm (a training provider) that paid a Canadian training provider, that paid the consulting firm in which I own shares, that paid me a salary. Part of the important subtleties involved was that my salary didn't depend on my making the trip or on anything I did on the trip.

It is almost impossible to get a clear ruling before you go. So much can depend on the border agent and the extent to which they believe you. But a shorter time spent on business makes it more likely to be business than work. Being part of a company rather than an independent contractor has a similar effect. And take care not to use the word "work" to describe your planned activities. Always call it "business".

Upvote:0

I doubt this can fall under B-1. B-1 is generally for business activities that are part of your work for a foreign company, for which you receive a salary in a foreign country. You don't work for a foreign company and you don't receive a salary. Perhaps you can say that you are self-employed and your "company" has a contract with this U.S. company and you are there to fulfill the contractual obligations on behalf of your "company". But I doubt this will work.

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