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Comment by chrisper | Hacker News Reader

How do you even get permits and such if you are not in the system? If they catch you will be deported and banned from the US for I think 10 years.

A year or two some music artist got banned for 10 years because he was on the wrong visa and was doing business in the US.

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Chippy Nonstop got a 5 year ban from the US about a year and a half ago for a visa violation.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160823205204/http://gawker.com...

The community seems conflicted on whether applying for work while visiting the U.S. vs actually performing work is beyond the scope of a tourist visa.

http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/2157/can-you-searc...

By 'tourist visa' you mean ESTA, right. Lithuanians are eligible for this.

While on the ESTA you can conduct 'business meetings'. I've (tried) to raise VC, interview at YC and conduct job interviews on the ESTA and it's been fine. At least the border patrol people didn't seem to mind.

He means a tourist visa, B-2.

But you're right that the guy im the article is from Lithuania, so he might be using an ESTA.

Is there a reason why someone from a country participating in the US Visa Waiver Program would seek to get a Tourist Visa rather than the ESTA?

ESTA allows you to stay up to 3 months, no change of status allowed. B1/B2 allows a maximum of 6 months, with the possibility to change status without leaving the country.

Straight from border control's mouth: you can't look for work on a B2. I got razzed about this a couple of times when entering the US as a foreign national.

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