Organizing People to Help a Community while on TN Visa

[mikev]

I guess the gist of my question is whether I can I start a business while I'm on TN?

I ask, not because I want to necessarily start a business, but because I want to pull together some people (on a semi-regular basis) to volunteer their time working with a community/non-profit and I'm afraid that it might be construed as a business. We wouldn't be charging anything, but rather simply be running an event (a workshop in most cases) for the community.

If this is sufficiently different from the definition of a business, then I would also just want to make sure that this would be ok before I proceed.

Any help or clarification would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[nelsona]

Aa long as you aren't making any money, and you are not preventing other people from making money, I don't see how this would be considered a business. No collection, no business ID, no money changing hands, and not competing with another real business.