Move to US with K-1 visa, continue current job home country (working agile now in US)

[D&Wontheroad 3]

Hi all,

We are currently in the 1st steps of the k1-visa-process (waiting on NOA2 now) and I would like to hear other people experience or expertise regarding moving to the US and continue to keep working for my home country (now just agile).

Currently I work within a great multinational and love working here, although I will leave my department, the management team is very supportive and committed to keep me within the organization. Luckily the area in which I will move to, holds down one of our offices. So although I know I cannot be employed before getting my EA with the US office of our organisation, I would like to know if other people have had experience in leaving their job in their home country, and transitioning to another role within the US within the same company t after receiving their K-1, not using any secondment or expat packages.

Another option that the team is considering for the time I will not be able to work in the US, is to actually keeping me working for the Dutch department agile from the US. So being employed in Holland, working for our Dutch organisation, but now already living in the US. I am a little bit of a workaholic and I love this idea. Technically I would just be located in the US, I would just do my Dutch job from my new location. Which is actually something I do already, as I travel a lot for my job currently and work from various locations in Europe/Latin America/US about 20 percent of my time and working agile is for my current role not a problem at all (probebly even benificial as most of my contacts are in the US time zone).

I realize I am extremely lucky to have so much support and the company is committed and going beyondthe normal to keep me within the organisatio throughout this process.

Would love to hear if someone has had any similar experiences or perhaps thoughts/expertise about this?

Thank you!

[SparklePony 238]

I've been doing some research into this, as my situation is somewhat akin to yours, and from what I've seen you're fine to continue to be paid by the Dutch company. Your employer is not American, so you're good.

Let's see what others have to say.

(By the way, if I may somewhat hijack this thread and ask about my situation: I write and receive royalties from American publishers. How does getting a green card affect this?)

[D&Wontheroad 3]

Thats what I am thinking as well, I work for the organization in the Netherlands, get paid in the Netherlands. I wouldnt be crossing any lines here I believe .

Anyone else have any ideas or experiences?

[Teripid 5]

You might run into questions on both sides of this one but honestly it is likely going to be more tax based than anything else.

I worked abroad as a USC and was paid by a US company while overseas for timetables similar to what you might be looking at. Now from a US perspective, they don't care on that one. I'm earning X, have residency and pay taxes to both Federal and State authorities. Ironically USC and Perm Residents have to pay taxes on any income.

The company or government in the Netherlands might have restrictions on how long this is possible for. Basically HR doesn't want to violate any laws either.

Based on the (hopefully fairly limited) timetable you're talking about for this isn't different from working in the US while on a vacation or at a conference but not for a US employer. You don't have tax residency yet unless you've spent quite a bit of time in the US in the last several years (look up Substantial Presence Test).

Now once you get your GC that changes and you have to report that income on your US taxes even if you're still working with the overseas company. You can deduct taxes paid but it can potentially get messier.

[Teripid 5]

For SparklePony: Once you become a permanent resident of the US you're required to pay US taxes on all income (with some exceptions) so the source doesn't actually matter.

This is very often offset by paid foreign taxes and a number of other factors. This might be higher or lower than what you're currently paying on it. There are thresholds for specific amounts

[KayDeeCee 4,893]

~ Moved from K-1 Process to Working & Traveling During US Immigration - topic about working while waiting for EAD and/or green card ~