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Using your laptop on the beach might be a big no-no if your visa stamp says "tourist"
Published on: Mon, 05 Sep 2005 12:00:00 GMT
An American who was recently deported from Australia for "intent to work" while on a tourist visa. The evidence of this crime? Well, he had his laptop with him, along with various business documents. Since he owned an (American-based) Internet business operable from his laptop, he was able to travel freely, or so he thought.
In another instance, a woman who frequently visits the US from Canada was taking online courses from an American-based school. When she casually mentioned this to immigration authorities, they told her she would no longer be able to enter the US without a student visa. This is a pretty ridiculous notion, and yet she ended up having to make a choice between her online courses and visiting the States. In the end, they made the choice for her, and despite having quit her courses, she was denied entry because of this "suspicious" status.
A British friend of ours recently had a very difficult time gaining entry to the US to be with his wife, an H-1B holder. He is a screenplay writer by profession, and they suspected that he would be spinning his tales from a computer in the US and then selling them abroad.
Even though one of these incidents took place in Australia and one involved studies instead of work, all three are clearly indicative of how smudged the lines can get with the concept of the "work place" becoming ever more ambiguous.
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