Immigration/tax issue for someone who worked remotely for a Korean company while in the U.S.
I received wages into a Korean bank account from a Korean company while working and studying in the U.S.
I’m now preparing my tax filing and just realized this could be a potential problem.
Based on my status, I attended elementary through high school on F-2 as a child, so I believe I’d be classified as a Resident Alien. In that case, I need to report worldwide income — I’d like to know if reporting income from the Korean company while I was an F-1 student in 2022 could be a problem, and would appreciate advice. I currently work at a U.S. company in the U.S.
Hello. It looks like you’re weighing both an income-reporting issue and a potential immigration-law violation issue.
As a general rule, any work performed within U.S. territory is treated as work done in the U.S. So you are subject to U.S. tax filing requirements as well.
This is unrelated to your past duration of residence in the U.S.
If you performed work for a Korean company while in the U.S. and earned income, this could fall under an immigration-law violation (working without authorization). However, whether this is discovered, applied, and penalized is a matter for the USCIS examining officer to determine — and since you’ve already been doing this, there’s no way to undo it now. For reference, at the employment-based immigration stage, USCIS does excuse immigration-law violations under 6 months.
Please get more detailed advice from an accountant regarding the tax filing issue.