legal? wife with B1, B2, and B1/B2 visa worked as tour guide in US

[Noah Lot 391]

wife just spoke to her boss at the travel company. According to him: he met with an American consular officer at the Embassy a few years ago and was assured their operations in the USA are legal. The employees they send abroad to the USA are considered "tour leaders" or "translators". The tour company must have--and does have--a partnership with an American company; if the Czech tour group is of a certain size (20 or more, for example, but I don't know) the Czech tour company uses a tour guide from the American partner and an American bus driver. But most of my wife's trips have been with just 10 or so people; she rents a van, drives them around, and acts as "tour leader" and "translator".

Then why did this same company encourage her to just say ...'traveling' rather than telling the border officials the TRUE purpose of her trip?????????????????????????????

[Noah Lot 391]

Exactly, everything I was doing was supervised and co-signed. And I didn't prescribe on my own, that's why I guess you are right and it was considered an observership. Also it's important to clarify that the NIH is a research facility, so it would fit into one of the options for B1.

I thought the key word in 'observership' was...'observe'...in other words, look but don't touch. Not a big deal, but my own experience leads me to believe that a foreign doctor normally requires a J1 visa in order to do a real residency, with hands on/direct patient contact (under the supervision of American doctors) while the observership, common using a B1, was largely making notes on the earlier mentioned clip board (a simplified explanation, I know)...

[doggie 0]

Then why did this same company encourage her to just say ...'traveling' rather than telling the border officials the TRUE purpose of her trip?????????????????????????????

The answer seems fairly obvious: despite the consular official's reassurances, the travel company realizes they're operating within a gray area of the law, one in which most--perhaps even the vast majority--of border officials would permit entry, but a few would deny.

That said, my wife says she's not sure the company ever encouraged her to say "travel"... and if they did, perhaps it was when she did a few trips with just a B-2 visa. At any given time this company has between 1 and 5 employees (with B-1 visas) leading tours in the USA, and according to her boss: they have no instructions on what to say when they enter the USA.

yes, i know: "according to her boss"... and yes, I get it, Harsh: none of this has any bearing on whether or not my wife is responsible for her actions. Of course she--and she alone--is responsible. But I'm not yet convinced that she acted illegally with the B-1 visa.

[Boiler 46,004]

If it is not a B1, what is it?