G-325a : Past work history in the US

[Linha87 0]

My fiance and I are filling out the G-325a for a K-1 visa for myself, the beneficiary, but we have a question about my past work history in the US: When I first arrived in the US I was under a J-1 visa and had a Social Security Number that allowed me to work. Then I changed to a F-1 visa to study in TX and was told by school that I could work only with their permission and then I was told by others that as long as had a Social Security Number I was ok to work. In this time, I moved to another state, MA, and I was going to transfer my F-1 visa to Mass but I decided to leave the US before submitting the transfer paper work. So my question is, was it ok to work in MA while on a F-1 visa? (I was never enrolled to any school, neither in TX nor in MA). Should I only list the jobs I had while in a J-1 visa?

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

A Social Security number is not permission to work. It is simply a number that identifies you for the purpose of paying taxes and receiving benefits from the US government. A non-immigrant needs explicit permission from USCIS to work in the US.

An F-1 may allow for temporary employment if it is related to your field of study. This is called "Optional Practical Training", or OPT. If your I-120 was endorsed for OPT then you could have obtained an employment authorization document (EAD) from USCIS. Unless you had an I-120 that was OPT endorsed, and had an EAD, and had a job that was related to your field of study, then you were not working legally in the US.

F-1 status expires if you leave your studies for five months.

It sounds like you didn't get the proper work authorization. You were probably working illegally. If you stayed in the US more than five months after leaving school then you were also probably out of status.