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Consider a person comes to the US with an F-2 visa status and has a plan to get his/her green card in the next year, but at the moment he/she likes to start a commercial website or mobile app but for free, up to he/she could get his/her green card.

Is it legal for him/her and won't cause a problem for him/his green card in the future?

PS: By a free commercial website/mobile app I mean something like websites/applications those offer a free access for a period of time(Free trial), or offer a free access to some basic utilities(and charge users for money for premium access). Or games those are free but charge users for money for extra coins/points/etc.).

Can an F-2 visa holder start the business for free, then after he/she gets his/her green card/ he/she starts the post trial/premium part of the business as well?

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An F-2 visa holder is free to create and publish online content, but can’t profit off of it since F-2 holders are not allowed to work, even for themselves. That being said, an F-2 holder could provide the funds for someone else to create online content as long as the visa holder acts strictly in an investor capacity and does not actually “work” on anything.

An F-2 visa holder would be allowed to create online content without monetizing it, and then once that person has changed their residency status, they could begin monetizing their work, even if it was created while they were under an F-2.

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  • That's great, thank you. Also if you know any references or sources that you used to answer please let me know, because I want to make sure about it. Thanks!
    – user37953
    Jul 8, 2021 at 3:38

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