The mention of ESTA here is brief. If you enter on an ESTA you are limited to the 90 day cap, but you are also allowed to conduct business, such as attend a conference, or a standards meeting, or an activity in a datacenter. But you can't be paid. Thats what the Korean workers tripped over. They were paid.
What is less clear, is how accepting a per diem affects your "no paid work" status. Nobody seems to document what "expenses" mean, for conducting business in the USA as a foreigner. I had to register with the IRS and show them my Australian tax info, so that the Au-US tax treaty can understand this money, which means I also have to declare it as "income" in Australia but .. and this is a very big but, it is NOT income in the sense of "pay" and I do not have a contract of any kind. It's the collision of the word "income" for tax purposes in Australia, which includes (for example) my UK Private pension, which is not income-from-a-job-income, its money I receive from my investment in a UK pension plan.
I don't think this kind of narrow difference is going to be well understood if you are asked at CBP "are you doing any kind of paid employment" and what happens is you say "no" but subsequently your per-diem surfaces into view.
What does an ESTA think about income, which is not employment income? If the question is narrow, it needs to use words which don't have dual meanings. Sure, I received income. I didn't work "for" anyone and I didn't "take up paid work" and I didn't come to the US seeking employment: I'm a volunteer on a 3 day activity in a DC, doing things with an HSM, and I get expenses to cover my meals and accommodation and incidentals.
The rest of this write up: have paper, be polite, don't dress like a slob, and be confident? Rings true.
Show HN: How to be best friends with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol · HackerTrans
What is less clear, is how accepting a per diem affects your "no paid work" status. Nobody seems to document what "expenses" mean, for conducting business in the USA as a foreigner. I had to register with the IRS and show them my Australian tax info, so that the Au-US tax treaty can understand this money, which means I also have to declare it as "income" in Australia but .. and this is a very big but, it is NOT income in the sense of "pay" and I do not have a contract of any kind. It's the collision of the word "income" for tax purposes in Australia, which includes (for example) my UK Private pension, which is not income-from-a-job-income, its money I receive from my investment in a UK pension plan.
I don't think this kind of narrow difference is going to be well understood if you are asked at CBP "are you doing any kind of paid employment" and what happens is you say "no" but subsequently your per-diem surfaces into view.
What does an ESTA think about income, which is not employment income? If the question is narrow, it needs to use words which don't have dual meanings. Sure, I received income. I didn't work "for" anyone and I didn't "take up paid work" and I didn't come to the US seeking employment: I'm a volunteer on a 3 day activity in a DC, doing things with an HSM, and I get expenses to cover my meals and accommodation and incidentals.
The rest of this write up: have paper, be polite, don't dress like a slob, and be confident? Rings true.