H4 business

[ranga9]

Hi,

My wife is on H4 visa. With a dull job market she is not able to get a job. She wants to run a website. Being on a visa she cannot start a business in the United states. So we thought that she could incoporate in India(homeland) and work on the website from here. But we are not clear if H4 visa holders can run businesses even if it was in their home country.

Could you please throw some light on this?

Thanks,
Mani.

[JoeF]

This is a gray area at best. Even lawyers are not clear about this.
The rule that I've seen is that if the business does not have US customers or the goods don't go to the US, it may be ok. All other cases are seen as trying to circumvent the US immigration laws and as such would be prohibited.
In any case, since she is a US resident for tax purposes, she would have to pay US taxes on the business proceeds.

The main issue seems to be that you can only have passive income.