Diogenes
Nemo me impune lacessit
Moscow Musk denies having worked illegally in the United States in the 1990s.
“I was in fact allowed to work in the US,” Moscow Musk claimed on X, the platform he bought in 2022, in a post at 12:40 a.m. Eastern time Sunday.
He later claimed to have possessed “a J-1 visa that 'transitioned' to an H1-B.”
The J-1 Exchange Visitor visa allows foreign students to obtain academic training in the United States. The H1-B is a visa for temporary employment.
Moscow Musk did not say when he transitioned from a student visa to the temporary work visa.
The facts:
Six former business associates and shareholders said Moscow Musk confessed he was on a student visa around the time his status became a concern for the company, Zip2.
A board member of the company, who later became its CEO, said Moscow Musk’s status “was not what it should be” in order “to be legally employed in the U.S.”
Upon learning that Moscow Musk lacked the legal status he needed, investors scrambled to help him secure a visa over concerns that the matter would have to be disclosed in a securities filing if the company were to go public.
“We don’t want our founder being deported,” said Derek Proudian, the Zip2 board member, who later became chief executive.
According to the federal immigration regulations that were in effect in the mid-1990s, foreign students with a J-1 visa were allowed to work only in limited circumstances if they were in “good academic standing” and pursuing a “full course of study.”
Moscow Musk did not attend classes at Stanford when he arrived in Palo Alto in fall 1995. He was working instead.
“There are work options during studies, while engaged in a full course of study, and also after the completion of studies,” said Adam Cohen, author of “The Academic Immigration Handbook”, an attorney who specializes in employment visas. “But dropping out of school does not allow for work authorization. So there is a quite a gap there.”
The J-1 allows visa holders to work in pursuit of academic training, but only during one’s studies or following the completion of studies, Cohen pointed out. This also requires being in good academic standing and receiving written approval in advance from the school for the duration and type of academic training.
“I was in fact allowed to work in the US,” Moscow Musk claimed on X, the platform he bought in 2022, in a post at 12:40 a.m. Eastern time Sunday.
He later claimed to have possessed “a J-1 visa that 'transitioned' to an H1-B.”
The J-1 Exchange Visitor visa allows foreign students to obtain academic training in the United States. The H1-B is a visa for temporary employment.
Moscow Musk did not say when he transitioned from a student visa to the temporary work visa.
The facts:
Six former business associates and shareholders said Moscow Musk confessed he was on a student visa around the time his status became a concern for the company, Zip2.
A board member of the company, who later became its CEO, said Moscow Musk’s status “was not what it should be” in order “to be legally employed in the U.S.”
Upon learning that Moscow Musk lacked the legal status he needed, investors scrambled to help him secure a visa over concerns that the matter would have to be disclosed in a securities filing if the company were to go public.
“We don’t want our founder being deported,” said Derek Proudian, the Zip2 board member, who later became chief executive.
According to the federal immigration regulations that were in effect in the mid-1990s, foreign students with a J-1 visa were allowed to work only in limited circumstances if they were in “good academic standing” and pursuing a “full course of study.”
Moscow Musk did not attend classes at Stanford when he arrived in Palo Alto in fall 1995. He was working instead.
“There are work options during studies, while engaged in a full course of study, and also after the completion of studies,” said Adam Cohen, author of “The Academic Immigration Handbook”, an attorney who specializes in employment visas. “But dropping out of school does not allow for work authorization. So there is a quite a gap there.”
The J-1 allows visa holders to work in pursuit of academic training, but only during one’s studies or following the completion of studies, Cohen pointed out. This also requires being in good academic standing and receiving written approval in advance from the school for the duration and type of academic training.