Foundations
Owning versus working
The distinction the whole field rests on. Almost every confident wrong answer you have read collapses these two into one word.
published 2 August 2026 · checked 3 October 2026
Revised 3 October 2026. The first version stated which activities count as owning and which as working as if the regulation said so, and gave two steps as instructions. This version labels those lists as our reading and routes the two steps to your attorney and CPA.
The gap, named · our reading of the rule
Asking whether you may "work for your own company" combines two separate legal acts into a single unanswerable question. Owning is holding equity in a corporate legal entity. Working is performing active services or labor for compensation. Immigration rules govern the second intensely, while treating passive equity ownership far more permissively. Collapsing them ensures that any public forum advice you receive will be wrong for one of the two halves.
The Regulatory Framework
Under 8 CFR § 274a, employment authorization attaches to a physical person performing specific services for remuneration. The regulation defines employment as "service or labor performed by an employee for an employer within the United States" (8 CFR 274a.1(h)).
Our reading, and not the regulation's words: holding shares, receiving distributions, being named on state formation documents and attending shareholder meetings look like owning. Managing staff, writing production code, selling to clients and operating a commercial register look like working. No regulation lists either column. Where your facts fall is for your attorney.
How entrepreneurs prepare for this conversation
- Step 1: Audit & Separate Planned Actions: Create an operational ledger. List all intended tasks in two columns: Column A (Owner/Investor: attending annual shareholder meetings, reviewing high-level financial reports, voting on board members) and Column B (Worker/Operator: writing code, managing employees, negotiating vendor agreements, billing customers). The columns are our reading and they differ by status. The B-1 piece, for example, lists contract negotiations among visitor activities under State Department guidance (9 FAM 402.2-5), which answers a different question from work authorisation, so place each task with your attorney.
- Step 2: Ask how money should leave the company to you: Ask your CPA and attorney how money should leave the company to you, given your status. For an H-1B owner the company must pay a wage. For someone without work authorisation, calling a payment a distribution does not make work into ownership.
- Step 3: Ask who should do the work in Column B: Ask your attorney who should do the work in Column B, and what records show it.
What to ask your attorney and CPA
- Given my specific nonimmigrant visa status, do any items in Column B cross into unauthorized labor under 8 CFR § 274a?
- Given my status, how should money leave the company to me, and what does each route mean for the IRS and for USCIS?
What this is not This piece quotes the published rule and says plainly where we are reading it rather than quoting it. It is not legal, tax or immigration advice, it creates no attorney–client relationship, and neither you nor we can apply it to your facts. Rules also move — check the date above, then take the questions in this piece to your own licensed attorney and CPA, who are the only people who can advise you.
Sources · primary law first, our own notes labelled as such
8 CFR 274a — employment authorisation, general framework
USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 2 — nonimmigrant classifications
Own Yourself Now practice note, August 2026
Ownership and work authorisation are treated differently in the rules, and that difference is what this library is about. Everything here is written for people keeping the job that holds their status.
Put a number on it. Readiness Check
Then choose your route. The Immigrant Entrepreneur Cohort is four weeks, while employed, and it starts with exactly this question. See the next run →