Preamble: As I understand it, it is permissible for a European who works for a US company to visit the US as a "business visitor" on an ESTA in order to visit the company, as long as the visit is not for "work". Various sources list activities that are deemed to be "business" and not "work", such as attending business meetings or attending a trade show, and entering on an ESTA for these purposes is thus acceptable.
Question: What I'm not clear on is whether the business-but-not-work restriction...
1. merely means that the purpose of your visit has to be business-but-not-work, or
2. requires that the visitor refrain from all "work" activities while in the US, even if they weren't the reason for visiting and would have happened anyway.
Concretely: suppose I am a programmer who works remotely from Europe for a US company. I visit the US to meet my colleagues face to face and attend a trade show with them (business, not work), but these activities don't take up 100% of my time. Rather than sit around idly during the downtime between "business" activities, I do some of my ordinary programming work, of the sort I would do back in Europe. Have I broken the law?
Question: What I'm not clear on is whether the business-but-not-work restriction... 1. merely means that the purpose of your visit has to be business-but-not-work, or 2. requires that the visitor refrain from all "work" activities while in the US, even if they weren't the reason for visiting and would have happened anyway.
Concretely: suppose I am a programmer who works remotely from Europe for a US company. I visit the US to meet my colleagues face to face and attend a trade show with them (business, not work), but these activities don't take up 100% of my time. Rather than sit around idly during the downtime between "business" activities, I do some of my ordinary programming work, of the sort I would do back in Europe. Have I broken the law?