Implications on working without authorization on student visa status
What happens when a student works without authorization because they have no choice as they need the money to support their school or because they did it unintentionally?
If you work without authorization on purpose, it is important to understand the implications. One is your violation of status which is much easier to fix and the other one is if you lie about it in any immigration proceeding. The first one, lets say you are close to getting an H-1B and you have three months or six months or even a year of working without authorization. In a worst case scenario you will have to go outside for H-1 visa stamping. You will not get your change of status. Make sure there is no history of misrepresenting your work status to the government. The moment you prevaricate or you lie about your situation to gain an immigration benefit you have committed a felony which is punishable by five years and also it is a permanent bar from entering the US. Make sure you understand that lying about work authorization or working without authorization is much worse than actually doing it.
But what happens when you do it inadvertently?
For ten days you work without authorization not realizing you don't have the authorization, then it is a very small violation. The government might ignore it and let it go. It is called de minimis. It simply means it is a minimal problem. Hence the point is if you have violated the law inadvertently and unknowingly by mistake you have several options. First of all disclose it when you file the H-1B and if you have fallen out of status talk with your DSO and act upon their advice. They might tell you to apply for reinstatement which should be readily given.
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Note: Unless the context shows otherwise, all answers here were provided by Rajiv and were compiled and reported by our editorial team from comments, blog and community calls on immigration.com. Where transcribed from audio/video, a verbatim transcript is provided. Therefore, it may not conform to the written grammatical or syntactical form.
I wanted to take this opportunity to write about my experience with in regards to the interaction with Mr. Rajiv Khanna's Law firm. I consulted with Mr. Rajiv and explained my situation to him.
Scenario My case was complicated in nature , in the sense, that my attorney who applied for my GC was fired from my company and when priority date became current, I could not proceed without the I-140 Physical copy which was needed to fill out the various immigration forms. As a applicant caught in between an attorney and my company, I was basically left in the lurch and was told that without I-140 physical copy, I wont be able to apply for my I-485.
After waiting for 10 years in line, this was not what I wanted to hear.
Hence I got in touch with immigration.com and spoke to Mr. Rajiv. I want to say this, in the first 5 minutes of the conversation, I knew I can apply for the i485 with all the documents that I have and could request I-140 through FOIA. Mr. Rajiv talked to me in such a manner that I got my confidence back which I had lost with my own attorneys from my company.
I was told about the process and Mr Rajiv, explained to me how to deftly (Practically and Kindly) to handle the attorneys of the company to get what I wanted from them without ruffling feathers (AKA Ego's).
I made notes while have the consultation and I executed what I was advised.
The wealth of information and the confidence he gave me are the only reasons why I was able to handle the stress that I was going through that day.
All in All, It worked out and I got what I wanted.
For all of that, I am humbly grateful.
Om Sai Ram, Vijay