"honorarium"

[megaptera]

I wrote a few pages worth of something for a book to be published by Routledge. The book is about to be published and they wanted to pay me honorarium. (I'm on a nonimmigrant visa and cannot accept active income.) I brought up the issue that this honorarium may not be considered passive income and in that case I can't accept such money. However, someone higher up in that department insists that there is no problem because it's merely "honorarium" and they've paid nonimmigrants in the past with no problem. I find both of these arguments very weak. But is there any guideline I can use to determine whether one time payment of honorarium ok to accept?

 

[megaptera]

Thanks - but this case, Routledge is a for-profit publisher and I am afraid that I won't be able to accept their payment. I wonder what they mean when they said they paid honorarium to so many foregin scholars and we didn't have problems...