Starting Side Business While on TN Status

Mack Sanderson

New Member
Hi everyone,

I'm a Canadian currently working in New York with TN status under the Management Consultant category. My visa is valid until 2018. I have a bachelor's degree in Education with specialization certificates in Public Relations and Social Media Marketing.

A friend and I are thinking of starting a side business while I'm down here. He's a full American citizen and the business would be providing public relations consultation to people and organizations. I would obviously continue working my full-time job that I have the TN visa for.

I've read up on my different options, but what I'm thinking might be my best bet is to register a "partnership" business between the two of us and claim that my involvement is purely financial and the business is nothing more than an investment to me. That would actually be true now that I'm considering the nature of our business relationship.

Does that sound like it could work without getting me in trouble?

Thanks so much!
 
You can be a passive investor in a US enterprise, but cannot exercise any control over the operation, management, etc of such firm.

Any work done on US soil for a US firm (and, in most cases, foreign firms), would require its own status -- in your case another TN status, since you cannot mix statuses .
 
Top