H1B Visa - FTE and Volunteering for Non profit

[h1busybee]

Hi,

 

Can I Volunteer for an Non Profit org in an engineering role , while working as a Full Time employee on H1B for another company?

 

 

[JoeF]

You could only volunteer for a non-profit where everybody else in similar positions volunteers. A classic example is volunteering for a religious organization like a church.

That is very unlikely to be in an "engineering role."

[pontevecchio]

Only if all the workers there do not get paid and are volunteers.

[h1busybee]

The organization is registered as 501©3 nonprofit organization. They develop applications for the good of mother nature.  IMO none of who work there are paid. Most of the volunteers are software engineers and graphic designers. They are raising money on kickstarter though, for some work to be outsourced. 

 

My role would be a software engineer on a website. 100% volunteer position and NO Intent of future employment. 

 

What do you think, Can I go ahead?

[JoeF]

Generally, I think that volunteering for a 501©3 organization is probably ok, provided that everybody who contributes to the development is a volunteer. Having some work outsourced for pay could be a red flag, though.

In the 501©3 organizations I know, in the Open Source space (e.g., the Apache Software Foundation, www.apache.org,) all development is done by volunteers. They may have one paid person for administrative tasks, but that's it.