Faced with limited work options, asylum-seekers are starting businesses in Washington state

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s Adriana Figueira tries to get her new business off the ground, she’s also navigating the asylum-seeking process. Figueira, who’s from Venezuela, arrived at the southern border of the United States less than a year ago, asking federal officials for asylum from political persecution.

Since then, Figueira has been living and organizing with other asylum-seekers in the Seattle area, getting to know them and learning about their previous lives. Her business idea is to connect other new immigrants to freelance work opportunities so they too can make a living. The plan is to help people tap into the skills they’ve already got.

“We need to know their talents above all else — what they dedicated themselves to beforehand,” Figueira said.

But legally, Figueira can only set these business plans up for now — she can’t execute them. That’s because she hasn’t received federal work authorization.

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In general, asylum-seekers must wait 150 days after submitting an asylum application to apply for federal work authorization. That leaves them with around five months of not being employable, which often means they can’t pay for rent, food, and other basic necessities on their own. Many wind up living on the streets, depending on mutual aid organizers, nonprofits, and state and local governments for help. And even with work authorization, some say it’s hard to maintain employment without a stable place to sleep.

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Starting a small business is one way asylum-seekers and other immigrants can prepare to make a living as they await work authorization. But for some, the consequences of not having an income outweigh the risks of launching their business before being authorized to work.

Vanessa Gutierrez, deputy director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project in Seattle, said she often has clients who want to take employment or freelance offers before being authorized to work. As a lawyer, she has to advise them not to. But in reality, the risks can be minimal, she said.

“You're not gonna get arrested for working without authorization alone,” she said. “The reality is that a lot of people do work, and there's no consequence to their immigration case.”

Gutierrez said she’s seen immigration cases in which judges have viewed tax filings and employment history as positive factors. She also pointed to the contradiction of the government issuing Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs), federal tax processing numbers, to people who don’t have federal work authorization or Social Security numbers.

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“The government facilitates the paying of taxes even if they know that [someone is] not authorized to work,” she said.

The nonprofit civic empowerment group Latinos en Spokane holds workshops teaching people how to get ITINs, which can be used to register a business. Jennyfer Mesa, the organization’s executive director and founder, said immigrants have been using ITINs to find work for decades. Growing up in the Miami-Tampa area in the 1990s, it was common knowledge that if someone didn’t have a Social Security number, an ITIN number could be enough to get a job and pay taxes, she said.

“One of the reasons why we advise people to take this route of [using an] ITIN is because you can establish yourself — just like a foreign investor — as somebody that's doing business here in the U.S.,” Mesa said.

Many of the people she’s known to take that path are highly skilled, trained as accountants or marketers, she said.

“What is the difference between being a foreign investor and [someone without work authorization]? I think that that comes down to a lot of nationality, racism, and how we perceive immigrants, especially how we perceive immigrants from the South or from other countries,” Mesa added.

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For people who register a business in Washington using an ITIN, starting a sole proprietorship presents the least barriers to entry into the small business market, said business advisor Kenneth Linares. He’s with Growing Contigo, a Seattle-based consultancy that provides coaching and education for small, mostly immigrant business owners like Figueira.

“It's the easiest to manage, the easiest to open, and it's the cheapest option,” he said. “But it's not going to provide you that personal protection…so you're liable for just about everything.”

But for people launching a business with an ITIN, there are limitations beyond potentially jeopardizing their immigration cases.

Doing business prior to receiving work authorization can leave people more vulnerable to being extorted, not paid, or otherwise exploited, labor advocates say.

Even with work authorization, misclassification — when someone works as a contractor but fulfills the role of a full-time employee without receiving benefits, like overtime pay or health insurance eligibility — is also a concern. It’s part of why the U.S. Department of Labor updated its guidance this year on determining whether someone is an employee or a contractor.

“A worker is an employee and not an independent contractor if they are, as a matter of economic reality, economically dependent on the employer for work,” the department said in a recent Q&A about the updated rules.

Moreover, many asylum-seekers don’t qualify for public benefits — like housing resources or unemployment insurance — even with an ITIN. Many of those programs require having federal work authorization and a Social Security number, said Gutierrez with the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.

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And even with help from groups like Growing Contigo or Latinos en Spokane, starting a business takes time, energy, and resources.

The cost of forming a business in Washington state can range from about $220 to $300. Creating a business also requires one to provide a physical address at which to register their business — something an asylum-seeker may not have access to.

For her part, Adriana Figiuera has already established a business, but that’s it. She’s overwhelmed by all there is to learn and doesn’t know whose input to trust. And even with various resources available online, she must decide: “Is it helpful? Or is it more stress?” she said in Spanish.

Linares, with Growing Contigo, said the small businesses started by immigrants are crucial for economies.

“They're a big driver of employment. Underserved communities, like the immigrant community, the BIPOC community greatly need this help,” he said.

But there’s another reason this is important to Linares.

“I come from that — my parents were undocumented,” he said. ” Luckily for me, I was born here so I didn't really have to worry about stuff but I saw them struggle, and eventually they got their documents. But if they had some of this education, it would have made their lives easier.”