F-1 Work Question

[cy81 0]

Situation:

My wife was on an F-1 visa in the US and engaged in under-the-table work. She is now out of the US in her home country to get her IV. This was done instead of an AOS for certain family reasons.

Questions:

1. Does this work constitute as "employment" as requested under the G-325?

2. Since she is out of the country and this is a marraige IV, will disclosing it cause major issues with getting her IV as she worked quite a bit?

3. Is there any way for USCIS to "know" she engaged in this work?

4. Is USCIS authorized to investigate bank accounts held by the beneficiary for the purposes of adjudicating an IV or I-130?

Thank you for your help. This is a great forum.

[frali 2]

Sorry I don't know the answer.

Wondering if anyone else knows anything?

[Meliss3108 0]

I would highly recommend that you not report the work. Working "under that table" as you put it, for more than 20 hours per week while on an F-1 visa means that your wife was out of status. If she was working under the table, then she likely had no tax forms and was paid in cash strictly so that the government could not track her status.

However, if she was working less than 20 hours a week, on campus (or with a company contracted by the campus, such as catering), this is work that is permitted by her visa status. That type of work I would report. The rest I would not as it is technically illegal.

Even is the government does go into her bank account, if she was paid in cash there isn't much they can do to track it.

Hope this helps- if you have more questions, please PM me (I'm a former international student advisor).

[cy81 0]

Thanks for your reply. Is there any way that the USCIS could learn of this work short of somebody reporting it blatently? Is the fact that her SEVIS record is continuously in good status reason to believe that the USCIS doesn't know anything?

Thank you.