What options exist to make money in the US on a work-restricted visa?
"Income generated from online sales is not considered ""passive income"", so you need to be authorized to work in the U.S. Those without work authorization can acquire passive income (through investments, lending, competition/contest earnings, etc.) In order to sell products on eBay (the description you've given leads me to believe that this is operated as a business), you need to be authorized to work in the U.S., and register a business. See:" Are you planning to not pay taxes? Any time someone has income in the U.S., it is subject to U.S. taxes. You must file tax returns (and pay taxes if necessary) if you have income above a certain threshold, regardless of whether you're not authorized to work or not. If you plan to intentionally not pay taxes, then that's a whole other matter from working without authorization. Working without authorization is an immigration issue. It probably violates the conditions of your status, which will make you to automatically lose your status. That may or may not affect when you want to want to visit, immigrate to, or get other immigration benefits in the U.S. in the future; and at worst you may be deported. It's a complicated topic, but not really relevant for this site.
"No you don't have to be super-rich.  But... the companies do not have to sell you shares, and as others mention the government actively restricts and regulates the advertising and sales of shares, so how do you invest?  The easiest way to obtain a stake is to work at a pre-IPO company, preferably at a high level (e.g. Director/VP of under water basket weaving, or whatever).    You might be offered shares or options as part of a compensation package.  There are exemptions to the accredited investor rule for employees and a general exemption for a small number of unsolicited investors.  Also, the accredited investor rule is enforced against companies, not investors, and the trend is for investors to self-certify. The ""crime"" being defined is not investing in things the government thinks are too risky for you.  Instead, the ""crime"" being defined is offering shares to the public in a small business that is probably going to fail and might even be a scam from the beginning.   To invest your money in pre-IPO shares is on average a losing adventure, and it is easy to become irrationally optimistic.  The problem with these shares is that you can't sell them, and may not be able to sell them immediately when the company does have an IPO on NASDAQ or another market.  Even the executive options can have lock up clauses and it may be that only the founders and a few early investors make money." Yes. Private companies have shares, they're just not liquid and there may be restrictions around selling them; founders get shares when they found a company (not options), as do VCs that invest. An options pool is oftentimes created as a result of a VC financing (when the cap table is being carved up and the existing owners are being diluted, anyway) for the purposes of attracting future employees. "There are only two things you can directly do with the money in an Amazon gift card: you can keep the gift card, or you can put the money into your Amazon account.  There aren't any other options.  You can't deposit the value into a bank account or anything like that.  So, as far as safety, those are the only options you need to consider, because there's nothing else you can do. (Okay, there is one other thing you can do: you could sell the card to someone else, or barter it for something you want.  But you can do that with anything.) The ""gift card"" is basicaly just a string of numbers and letters that you put into your Amazon account and it credits you with the appropriate amount of money.  So yes, it can be stolen.  If you haven't redeemed it yet, someone could find the code by hacking your email or looking over your shoulder or whatever.  If they redeem it, you won't be able to do so. As for your edit: If I don't transfer the balance of the Amazon egift card to my Amazon account, can I transfer the balance to other accounts or use the card to buy other gift cards? If you don't transfer it to your account, you can transfer the balance to another account by giving the code to someone else and letting them deposit it in their account.  You still won't be able to buy other gift cards with it, because you can't buy anything with it until it's deposited in an Amazon account, and once it's deposited in an Amazon account, you can't buy gift cards with it because of their policy. If you don't want the restrictions imposed by Amazon, don't buy Amazon gift cards; instead, just use your actual money to buy things.  If you're worried about the cards being stolen, just deposit them into your account right away and you eliminate the risk of them being stolen.  If, as you say, you bought the cards for yourself, there's no reason not to do this; presumably you bought them so you could buy things on Amazon, and you'll have to deposit them into your account eventually anyway to do that, so just put them in right away. I don't know specifically how Walmart cards work, but I assume they're the same.  In general, anything called a ""gift card"" offered by a particular retailer works the same way: you can't do anything with it except buy products at that retailer. The only thing that really makes Amazon different is that the only way to use your card is to add the money to your Amazon account, because the only way to pay for things on Amazon is with an Amazon account.  There's no way to spend just some of the value; you have to deposit it all into your account.  With gift cards for retailers with physical locations, you can usually use the value up piecemeal, by actually going to a store and spending just enough to buy something.  (I assume Walmart works this way, although I don't know if you can use an e-gift card this way there.)" "From my days in e-commerce they break down like this? The company doesn't know a debit from a credit card.  Got the Visa logo, then it is a Visa through the company's payment gateway.  The gateway talks to the bank and that is where the particulars for money is figured out. When I programmed gateway interfaces, I had the option to ""authorize"" or check for funds (which didn't reserve anything, just verified funds existed), run for batch (which put a hold on the funds and collected them at the end of the night) or just take the money. Most places did a verify during the early checkout stages and then did a batch at the end of the night.  The nightly batch allows a merchant to cancel a transaction without getting charged a fee. The ""authorize"" doesn't mean the money is tied up, although that might be your banks policy.  Furthermore, an authorize can only last for so many days.  This also explains why most of your banks don't report your transactions to you the day of.  There is a bunch more activity on your card than the transactions that complete." Those terms apply for businesses operating in the US, yes. The main takeaway should be to think of whether or not you need access to tons of capital, will have substantial risk of liability, or will operate with a partner. If the answer to all of these is no, you should use the structure which is most convenient/best for your taxes. I would look up sole proprietorships and see if that matches the definition of a sole trader. Answering for US tax only: The bank account makes absolutely zero difference.  If you are not a US national and not resident in the US, but earn income from a US employer/client/customer, generally that income is not subject to US tax (no matter where it is banked). However there are (complicated) exceptions, particularly if you are considered to be operating a 'trade or business' in the US or US real estate is involved. Start at https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/nonresident-aliens and proceed through pub 519 if you have time to spend. I do not know (or answer) about Argentinian taxes. Whether you can find a US bank that wants to open and maintain an account for a foreigner (which is extra paperwork and regulation for them) is a different Q, that is already asked and answered: B1/B2 visas do not allow you to work, but that isn't really in scope of money.SX and belongs over on travel.SX (or expatriates.SX for longer stay);  https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/25416/work-as-freelancer-while-tourist-in-us-for-an-already-existing-us-client seems to cover it. "You have a few options, none of which are trade off free: Apply for a credit card, and live off of that.   Here, of course, you will go into debt, and there are minimums to pay.  But, it will tide you over.  In any case, you are getting unsecured credit, so your rates will probably be very, very high.  You don't want to build up a lot of 20% per annum debt. An alternative to this would be to go to any bank and ask for an unsecured loan.  Having no income, it will be difficult, though not necessarily impossible, to secure some funds.  When I was in between houses, once, for example, I was able to borrow $30,000 in unsecured debt (to help me construct my new house!), just based on my income.  Grant you, I paid it 2 months later, in order to avoid the 10% / year interest, but the point is that unsecured debt does exist.  Credit Cards are easier to get.  Arrange for personal financing through your parents or other relatives. If your parents can send you remittances, the terms will most likely be more generous.  They know your credit and your true ability to repay.  Just because they send you money doesn't mean you have to live with them.  As a parent, I have a stake in ensuring my children's success.  If I think that tiding them over briefly is in their best interest and mine, you better be sure I'll do it. A variation on this is Microfinance - something like Kiva.  Here, if you can write up a story compelling enough to get finance, there are people who might lend you money.  Kiva is normally directed towards poorer countries and entrepeneurs - but local variations exist. UPDATE: Google-backed 'LendingClub.com is far more appropriate to this situation than Kiva.  Same general idea, but that's the vendor. Find freelance, contract, or light employment. Your concern about employment is justified - you don't want to be in a position where you are unable to travel to an interview because Starbucks or McDonalds will fire you if you don't show up for a shift.  (Then again, do you really care if McDonald's lets you go?)  As such, you need to find income that is less bound by schedule.  Freelance work, in particular, will give you that freedom - assuming you have a skill you can trade.  Likewise, short term contract work is equally flexible - usually.  Finally, it may be easiest just to get temporary pickup work in a service capacity.  In any event, doing something will be better than doing nothing.  Who knows, you might want to be a manager / owner of a McDonalds some day.  Wouldn't hurt to say, ""I started at the bottom.""" Sure, they can still vacation in the US. However working in the US requires a seperate visa than a vacation visa which requires that they pay taxes on income earned within the US etc.   I'm fairly certain using complicated intelectual property tax tricks to avoid paying any taxes in the US might be a violation of that visa.   Actually, why can't I owe myself a large amount of money in another country that I'm paying myself back slowly thus zeroing my taxable income?