Can i volunteer for a non profit while waiting for my AOS marriage based?

[deboragch 0]

like the title, it requires 3hours work minimum per week, with no pay, only volunteer work, since i am waiting for my EAD and everything else i would love to be useful in some capacity? is this ok while pending status?

[mbssss 112]

36 minutes ago, deboragch said:

like the title, it requires 3hours work minimum per week, with no pay, only volunteer work, since i am waiting for my EAD and everything else i would love to be useful in some capacity? is this ok while pending status?

It's fine. As long as you receive no compensation at all, you're good. 

[Verrou 1,966]

1 hour ago, deboragch said:

like the title, it requires 3hours work minimum per week, with no pay, only volunteer work, since i am waiting for my EAD and everything else i would love to be useful in some capacity? is this ok while pending status?

you are good to go. no paycheck 

[Co6aka 18]

FWIW... Earlier this year I asked a retired immigration judge about a related issue: Could my wife legally help me as an unpaid volunteer in my own business before she has her EAD?  In short, unless laws have been changed in the past decade, NO.  The issues are: could any present or future benefit be expected or derived, whether directly or indirectly, and is the work something that could possibly be paid work (in my case, even when I can't afford to pay anyone and thus must do it all myself.)  I even have a bunch of personal/household "stuff" to liquidate on eBay, that I don't now have time to deal with myself, but my wife can't legally sell it for me/us because even though it's my personal stuff she would derive some benefit, and unless I liquidated it myself I'd have to hire someone to do that for me.

 

So, if I understand correctly, you could legally do volunteer work if such position is and has been unpaid, and it couldn't possibly deprive a work-authorized person of paid work, and both you and your "employer" have no future expectation or intention of paid work/position.  You couldn't legally work as an apprentice, for example, because there's an expectation of future paid work after you learn skills, but maybe you could argue that future work would only be for a different entity.  It's not so simple as "no paycheck" - you couldn't legally be a unpaid "volunteer nanny" because that's usually paid work, and in the future one would expect to be paid, and you'd be displacing some work-authorized person.  Anyway, how would USCIS ever know if they weren't told, especially when there's no record? 

Edited October 15, 2020 by Co6aka