Online Rewards when on H1B

[jenani]

I know that folks on H1B visa can't have additional income (like consulting or part-time job) apart from the salary from their own employers.

But, when you play the role of good citizen and report a vulnerability some websites pay you a reward like Google and Facebook (http://www.google.com/about/company/rewardprogram.html and http://www.facebook.com/whitehat/bounty).

Would this income be a legal issue especially during the green card process?

Appreciate your inputs...

[JoeF]

On the face of it, stuff like that looks ok, but of course, the devil is in the details.

Didn't know that some companies pay a bounty nowadays, I discovered and reported security issues without any financial reward ;)

[wiweq]

If the "significant work in USA" was done to earn this money, its OK. You don't do significant work to buy a lottery if you won and earned it's Ok. For Google AdSense you do significant work to build the website, it's not OK on H1b. Now decide yourself about your case.

[wiweq]

"If the "significant work in USA" was done to earn this money, its OK."

=> If the "significant work in USA" was notdone to earn this money, its OK.

[dele]

Best thing is to consult a lawyer (if you graduated from the US, talk to the Foreign Student Affairs department who usually have a lawyer answering these kind of questions)

[wiweq]

Talk to your ombudsperson. Contact your DSO to know more details about them.

[chtummala]

On the face of it, stuff like that looks ok, but of course, the devil is in the details.

Didn't know that some companies pay a bounty nowadays, I discovered and reported security issues without any financial reward ;)

my case i got job