Getting an Agent if not Legally Allowed to Work?

Even if you were to find an agent tomorrow and a publisher in a few months time, it would be a while before you received any money and you can always have that put into your Irish account. I see no reason why you shouldn't go ahead and start querying given how slow things move in publishing. If good things happen, then consult the experts.

On a side note, are you sure it's a Tourist visa? If it is, you may want to rethink that because it only allows you to be in the US for a certain number of months a year. If you overstay your visa, you may have trouble returning to the US.

I wouldn't think it would matter, if you were conducting your business as if you were still in Ireland. BUT I DON'T KNOW!!!

I'd suggest you poke around in the US Citizenship and Immigration Services site, and if you can't find the answer (I couldn't on a quick search of a few key terms), write to them directly.

You'll also want to investigate what your tax obligations would be if you sold something and got paid while you were still living in the US.

... getting a work visa through publication would be difficult is my guess. There'd be no reason why you couldn't write from where you are, as might be pointed out. Plenty of writers have agents and books being distributed in other countries. Writing for a magazine is a bit different. There was a famous cartoonist who got sponsored by one very large one and escaped the Holocaust thanks to them. But as I said, I'm just guessing. Take Terie's advice and do some research, directly. That would be your best bet.

Something else to consider is whether you want to begin building your literary career in the US if you will eventually be returning to Ireland. Do you want to build relationships with US agents, editors, publishing houses, and readers?

Of course you could publish in both countries--just suggesting some things to consider for the long term.

I would advise against it. From the US government site:

Persons admitted to the United States under a B-2 Tourist Visitor Visa are not allowed to work or receive any kind of payment while staying in the United States. Foreign nationals who wish to work in the United States must apply for a work visa, such as a H-1B or H-2B Visa.- (emphasis added)

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If you receive any payment from a US publisher, it will be on a form 1099-misc. This will be reported to the IRS in February of the year after you receive a payment. Immigration checks visas against 1099-misc payments. (Everybody is on computer these days and cross-checking is easily done.) Your name would pop up and at a minimum, you'd have some fun explaining all this.

Worse case is the immigration officer determines this is work and then you're screwed. Although I think you would prevail in court, do you want to go through the experience?

However, you could delay payment until after you leave. Contracts are frequently designed to avoid tax consequences, including spreading payments into alternative tax periods. Question is whether you really want to go through the hassle.

This is not meant as legal advice, and you should really talk with an attorney familiar with immigration laws in the United States.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

Contact the US embasssy and speak with them, or speak to a lawyer. You really do not want to get this wrong because the US government departments are run by automatons who are unable to understand meat world concepts such as "existing" and who are unable to engage their brains long enough to deal with things which can't be dealt with by putting an x in a box.
Get this even slightly wrong now and you will spend the rest of eternity dealing with it even if it isn't your fault. Get names and copies with every piece of advice you are given.


I am slightly bitter because it took me 8 attempts to get the IRS to understand that the address I put on my tax exemption forms is where I live. It's not like I don't enjoy taxation without representation, I just prefer it when the nation taxing me recognises the irony.

By all means check with a lawyer or something, but it seems to me:

a) It might take you ages to get an agent, and even further ages after that to sell your book, and even FURTHER ages after that to get paid. Getting an agent is not the same thing as getting paid, for crying out loud. Why would you put your writing career on hold when things are slow enough already? Go for it.

b) You aren't moving here, you are just on a long vacation. As long as you get paid to your Irish bank and pay whatever applicable Irish taxes, I don't see what difference it makes.

I have clients who live in and are citizens the US, but their books are published by publishers in, say, Thailand. If they visit Thailand on a tourist visa, even for years, that doesn't make them a resident of Thailand, and no matter where they are staying or vacationing, they don't WORK IN THAILAND even if a publishing company in Thailand is writing checks for their books.

I have clients who are citizens of other countries and are published by US publishers. If one of them were to come on a long vacation to the US, they still wouldn't be a resident of the US, they'd still be bound by the tax laws of their home country.

c) This is all theoretical, anyway, since there is no guarantee that you'll get an agent at all, and even if you do, that your book will sell before you move back. But IF/WHEN it is actually something to be concerned about (like, when you actually get an agent and a publisher is interested in buying your book) you can then ask the publisher, and a good accountant or lawyer, if there are any special forms for you to fill out, etc, so you can do everything correctly.

You can write for profit in the US while on a spouse, student or sponsored employment visa. What visa are you on? Generally royalties are not counted as employment.

On a B-2 visa, you can't get any income, including 1099-MISC income, from a US source, and they will be strict with you about that.

However, if you manage to sell your book and get paid while you're still in the US, I am sure your agent can find a way to manage that--most of the US publishing houses are owned by international conglomerates, so you could conceivably get paid directly to your Irish account from an EU office of one of those conglomerates.

I have never heard of anyone getting a B-2 extended for more than a year, though, so you should definitely speak with an attorney who's versed in US Immigration law before you make plans based on having a B-2 for longer than that. By which I mean "an attorney who specializes in immigration law, and who does not work for your partner's company" as it is my experience that many corporate attorneys don't know as much about immigration law as they think they do.

Be careful because even when sending money to a foreign country, the American company paying out will have to report that on income taxes, meaning there will be a record of the money being sent to you. I also am not entirely certain what the tax laws are, but when I lived in Japan, after the first two years I was required to pay local income taxes on all moneys earned in the country, which might mean that if you received money in America you could be required to pay taxes on it as well. Also, of course, check local tax laws as well because some country will tax income earned in a foreign country (in the US it's if you make over $70k or something like that).

Talking about violating terms of the visa is big stuff. If you absolutely can't get a work visa and find out that you legally can't work (definitely check the fine print!) I'd suggest just holding off on getting an agent and continue working in the meantime.

Also, how long are you talking? Six months? A year? More? If it's only six months, chances are you could work something out, but a year might be pushing it. I mean, I've seen people here manage to pick up agents and sell a book very quickly, and while it might not be common it is possible--and when it's the last thing in the world you want to happen, it increases the odds.

How are you moving to the U.S. on a tourist visa? If you mean a temporary move, you can write all you like, and get paid as much as possible, as long as your home address is still Ireland. If you mean a permanent move, you will have to get a work visa, along with much other paperwork. You can just move to the U.S. and stay forever on a tourist visa. If you intend the move to be permanent, a work visa is the least of your worries. But either way, you can still write and sell.

Writing is not like other work. You can write and get paid while in any country, or while you're on the moon. All transactions will be handled through your home address and bank account in Ireland.

Look at it this way. Say I'm writing a book. During the writing, I decide I'd like to visit Germany for some extended research. While there, I finish the book, send it off to my agent. The agent sells it, and receives the advance check while I'm still in Germany. So what does she do with the money? Not give it to be because I'm not allowed to work in Germany?

Of course not. She mails me the check, or, these days, does a direct deposit into my home bank account.

Taxes, of course, are another kettle of fish, but still nothing at all to worry about. Writers often write in half a dozen countries while holding a tourist vise, and have their books published in many different countries.

And the simple truth is, unless you tell them, no one is going to know where the hell you are or were when writing any part of a book. You don't need any form of SS or ID number, except you one you already have in your home country, you aren't drawing a paycheck made out to any address, no taxes are or ever will be taken directly from the check, etc. The agent receives all checks at her address, and mails your part wherever you want your part mailed.

Definitely get an immigration lawyer. B-2 Visas are typically issued for 6 month periods and pretty much have to be renewed every 6 months. If you fail to get the appropriate paperwork and visas, Immigration is actually ridiculously strict and might not let you back into the country until you have the CORRECT visa, which can take over a year. This happened to my then-fiance (now husband) and he was placed on a no-fly list at the Canadian border and it took us another 18 months to get him into the country.

And that was friggin Canada, our 'sister' country. So please, please please get an immigration lawyer. Even if your paperwork is absolutely perfect, Immigration in the US is constantly 6-8 months behind, tediously slow, and unforgiving.

Jamesaritchie said:

You can just move to the U.S. and stay forever on a tourist visa.

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James, that isn't true.

The other stuff you said isn't accurate, either--zarkia could certainly get paid by an EU company to her Irish bank account without jeopardizing her B2, but if a US company sends money to her Irish bank account, they will generate a 1099-MISC and it is quite possible it could trigger a review of her B2.

I think the information you have about this is quite outdated.

Also, there are so many out-of-status Irish nationals currently in the US that being Irish is, according to people I know who work both on the ICE side and on the immigration activism side, to be under more scrutiny by US immigration than are fellow citizens of many other EU countries. Irysangel's story, above, is the kind of thing I hear a lot, and ICE is not worrying about out-of-status Canadian nationals as a special problem.

zarkia, let me recommend the Irish Immigration Center of Boston as a possible resource to you, even though you're planning to be elsewhere in the US.

Great question. I'd love to know the rights to this, myself.

I was dealing with this a couple of months ago after I moved to Canada from the U.S and was not allowed to work. We moved up last October and I came up here as the spouse of a Canadian citizen.

What I did was simply used all that lovely leisure time to write--- write like the wind!! As much as I could produce over that period when I could do very little but write and hang out. It turned out to be very productive.

Since I was told it would probably take 9 months to a year to get my stuff processed, I began querying in June, figuring it would take at least that long to drum up any interest. I was right. I finally have my immigration interview this Thursday to hopefully get everything approved.

If I were you, I'd just do as much writing as you can while you're in the US. Later on, worry about the querying.

Zarkia - may I suggest that you edit your posts - you are not moving to the US. You are taking a long tourist sebatical in the US, on a tourist visa. No matter how long you are staying, you are not establishing residency and are only visiting, right? That's what I think an immigration lawyer would be stressing with you regarding this situation. No matter what else, and for however long, your visa is a tourists visa - ie, not "moving" to the US, but visiting the US, for however long you visit. and I think an immigration attorney would advise you to be very, very clear, in writing and otherwise, that you understand you are going on a tourist visa as a visiting guest, and not trying to "move" to the US on a turist visa.

~suki

To be honest, everything in publishing moves at a glacial pace anyhow. You could query agents and explain the situation - that you can't officially sell anything while you are in the States. It might take 6 months to revise a book to the agent's specifications, and another 6 for it to sell, and it could take another 6 months after that before a contract was ever hammered out or money went out the door.

I wonder if publishers can delay the payment for you if you happened to fall into this situation? At any rate, it's something that can be discussed with an agent.