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I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

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Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#111

Post by newbie12 »

packetslave wrote: post #90
anigbrowl wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IANAL either, but there's no law against making income, there's a alw against accepting employment. If OP can show he created and sold his own product then that should not violate his visa constraints in any way. In any case, I've never heard of anyone having their income confiscated even if they were a candidate for deportation (though not a lawyer I follow immigration law very closely, it's a pet issue of mine).

The (possible) immigration issue and the Paypal-locked-my-account issue are somewhat tangential. The money's (probably) not being held because of a visa issue. It's being held because it looks suspicious. BUT, let's say OP gets a lawyer and starts exchanging nasty letters with Paypal. Any Paypal lawyer worth his salt is going to quickly say "Hmm, you're a student? Does your visa situation allow you to earn money in t…

PayPal doesn't give a shit about claiming the money for the government and they damn sure don't care about his immigration status. They just don't want to get ripped off.

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#113

Post by Centigonal »

nonamegiven wrote: post #92
revelation wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have to use PayPal: regularly transfer any money to an actual bank with actual responsibilities, not some fake holding bank registered in Ireland or whatever PayPal is using today to evade tax and consumer laws. You are not getting interest by letting that money sit with PayPal.

You're also not getting principal by letting that money sit with PayPal.

I think you flipped principal and interest there.

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#114

Post by patio11 »

davidu wrote: post #95
patio11 wrote: post #53

Apply for a TIN - taxpayer identification number. PayPal can use it in lieu of an SSN. This will take you six weeks. In the alternative, consult a local lawyer and have them nastygram Paypal for you.

Incorporation and a TIN takes ~24 hours these days.

I am not sure what the process looks like for legal persons, but from recent experience inquiring about and gathering paperwork to get my wife (a Japanese citizen) an ITIN, I was quoted six weeks by multiple authoritative sources, including my accountant and the IRS.

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#115

Post by therandomguy »

If you are on a student visa you are not allowed to get that money even if you had a SSN. You will be violating the rules of your visa. After you graduate, find a job and go on H1-B you still can't earn any money outside that job. No paypal, not adsense, no stripe. Eventually if you decide to apply for a green card these things will come up and you will have to leave the country.

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#116

Post by dangrossman »

linuxhansl wrote: post #109

It boggles my mind how PayPal can again and again get away with this. The ability of PayPal to be a bank and yet avoid being one legally is interesting. If you hold somebody else's money you are a bank, whether you call yourself that way or not.

Have you read any of the comments here before writing your own? What is PayPal getting away with? How would another bank have acted differently? What regulation do you think applies to banks but not to PayPal in this situation? They are all beholden to the PATRIOT Act, and to the IRS; PayPal is also beholden to 50 different states' Money Transmitter licensing regulations. None of them want to be a conduit for international money laundering.

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#117

Post by packetslave »

newbie12 wrote: post #111
packetslave wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The (possible) immigration issue and the Paypal-locked-my-account issue are somewhat tangential. The money's (probably) not being held because of a visa issue. It's being held because it looks suspicious. BUT, let's say OP gets a lawyer and starts exchanging nasty letters with Paypal. Any Paypal lawyer worth his salt is going to quickly say "Hmm, you're a student? Does your visa situation allow you to earn money in t…

PayPal doesn't give a shit about claiming the money for the government and they damn sure don't care about his immigration status. They just don't want to get ripped off.

As I said, if lawyers get involved Paypal will care very much about his immigration status. If his visa doesn't allow making money while in the US, he's just handed Paypal's counsel a very big stick with which to make him go away.

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#118

Post by smartwater »

sswaner wrote: post #96
bravura wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

legal confidentiality means... IANAL, but I don't believe you have attorney-client privilege until you formally hire the lawyer. So if you are calling ten lawyers and getting advice, there is no guarantee of privilege.

According to the lawyer across the table, privilege starts with the first conversation.

In Massachusetts it starts when you pay any amount of money.

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#119

Post by newbie12 »

readme wrote: post #38
punkbit wrote: post #21

Why do people keep using Paypal ? Paypal is always taking money from people. Always! It's interesting what's going to happen here. If he can't get his money, is Paypal going to have it ? Why is there the assumption this guy is in the US ? Even if this guy was not legally in the US, this is still his money. If you are young and don't have a national insurance number yet, ask them to change your account holder to one o…

Like, we couldn't use a chunk of that 200K here in the US to fix our bulging deficit. This is why we have it.

The full $200,000 would cover, literally, 1.8 seconds of federal government spending.

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#120

Post by mattzito »

edouard1234567 wrote: post #103
sswaner wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the lawyer across the table, privilege starts with the first conversation.

Interesting BUT what if the lawyer has a conflict of interest and learns that during the initial conversation before committing to representing you. Does that mean he/she cannot use the information you provided to defend the interest he currently represents assuming he refused to represent you?

Yes. The lawyer is obligated to keep that information confidential, unless you explicity release confidentiality.

As soon as the lawyer realizes there's a conflict, which will often be fairly obvious, they're supposed to stop and explain the situation to whatever degree appropriate.

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