TN, academic job, writing a book chapter, royalties=problem?

[Marc-TN]

My wife is a post-doctoral scholar, working at a US university, on TN.
We are both well aware that only the university can pay her.
However, part of her job is to write professional articles including book chapters, when invited.
What the heck does she do when there are royalties involved (they would be coming from the publisher is the problem). The US needs the best (no sarcasm intended) so we need to know how to deal with this without saying "no-no, you can't do part-of-your-job because you are an alien".

[Steven]

This is a good question, I've run into it myself. If you go into any book store there are shelves of US travel books written by foreigners. Now did they wait until they got home to write it?

As far as the royalties go that is no problem, you could have written it in Canada and got it published in the US so the only people who are going to care are the IRS, just need to put it down on the tax return.

The only legal way for her to do it is for her to be able to plausibly say it's part of her TN-1 work authorization. There's no requirement that the pay come from the university she works for, you can do sub-contracting as TN-1 (e.g. an employment agency hire them, sub-contracts them and pays them). As long as it's part of her TN-1 that's all that matters really.

[Marc-TN]

Thanks for your reply Steven, it is certainly the answer I WANT to hear, as a clear case can be made that it is part of her job. But I when I look at TN information various places it is usually suggested that remuneration is tied to the employer... A TN for Appendix-listed-position "X" is not a license to do job X for any employer. You can imagine that if the language does not make it clear to me, it might be open to interpretation an agent of the IRS and/or DHS. Interpretation at that level can cut against you. Guidance in some sort of publication would sure be nice. I think, perhaps, in your sub-contract example, the pay would always come from the employment agency, AND the TN letter of employment would have also come from the same employment agency. So not the same conflict.

[Steven]

If you want it chapter and verse, read 8 CFR 214.6

There is nothing in there about the source of the remuneration. The only thing it really says is that it must be arm's length. Writing a book could be considered self-employed (and thus not arm's length), but on the other hand it could be part of the job in the situation you describe.

[Marc-TN]

I love it chapter and verse!
What I am just not clear on is if because a payment could occur in-a-way/from-a-source not expressly defined in the Employment Letter (d.3.ii.E), if we are treading into "Request for a change or addition of United States employers" paragraphs i. Or maybe I am just batting at straw here.

-- Thu Apr 02, 2009 3:28 pm --

I guess this comes down to US employment law?
1. My wife's boss gave her an order to write the book chapter.
2. Writing things like the chapter is clearly part of her duties as presented in TN employment letter.
3.??? Just because some money comes from a third party as a result does not mean the third party "employed" my wife ???

[Steven]

I think one and two are sufficient, in essence her TN-1 sponsor is sub-contracting her but she is still working for the sponsor, that is legal to do for sure.