International student athletes can sign NIL deals under NCAA rules, but federal immigration law makes most of those deals risky or off-limits while the athlete is in the United States on an F-1 or J-1 visa. The NCAA lets every athlete profit from their name, image, and likeness regardless of citizenship. The catch is that nearly everything a sponsor pays an athlete to do counts as work, and student visas do not authorize that kind of work. A few narrow paths exist, and each one has to be built carefully.
Why Your Visa, Not the NCAA, Is the Problem
F-1 student visas limit employment to a short list: on-campus jobs, Curricular Practical Training tied to an academic program, and Optional Practical Training after the first academic year.1U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Students and Employment J-1 exchange visitors can only work when employment is part of their approved program or specifically authorized by their sponsor.2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 7.4.1 Exchange Visitors (J-1)
Immigration authorities read “employment” broadly. Any service performed in exchange for compensation qualifies, whether the payment is cash, merchandise, room and board, or another benefit. Filming a commercial, posting a sponsored social media message, or signing autographs at a paid appearance all count as labor. Because NIL activities involve providing a service for money, they fall inside the definition of unauthorized off-campus work for someone whose visa does not permit it. No immigration regulation currently addresses NIL directly, so university compliance officers tend to default to the most restrictive reading.
Curricular Practical Training is sometimes floated as a workaround. It rarely fits, because CPT requires the work to be directly tied to the student’s academic curriculum and supervised by a training provider. Running a personal brand or appearing in ads almost never meets that standard. The severe economic hardship exception is equally hard to use, since it requires unforeseen financial circumstances and a formal Employment Authorization Document before any work begins.3U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Chapter 6 – Employment
Passive Licensing Income
The safest domestic path is earning passive income that does not require performing services in the United States. The line matters. Active income comes from doing something new (filming a commercial, attending a signing event, creating sponsored content). Passive income comes from licensing something that already exists (your likeness, a photo taken earlier, your name on merchandise). If no new labor happens on U.S. soil, the case for the payment being lawful is stronger.
A video game company paying for the right to use a pre-existing likeness is the clean example: the athlete performs no new work. Royalties for previously created content, or licensing fees for use of a name on products manufactured abroad, can fit the same pattern. The IRS treats royalties as income from intangible property such as trademarks and likeness rights, with the source determined by where the property is used rather than where the owner sits.4Internal Revenue Service. Publication 519, U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens
The distinction is real but fragile. Immigration law does not draw a bright line between “passive” NIL royalties and “active” NIL work, and small actions can tip the balance. Clicking publish on a sponsored Instagram post from a campus dorm is technically performing a service on U.S. soil. Contracts have to be written to characterize payments as licensing fees rather than compensation for services, and the athlete has to avoid any action in the U.S. that could look like fulfilling a contractual obligation.
Doing the Work Outside the United States
F-1 and J-1 employment restrictions only govern work performed while the person is physically in the United States.5Department of State. 9 FAM 402.5 – Students and Exchange Visitors An international athlete who films a commercial, records a podcast, or does a paid signing while home during a break is performing that work outside U.S. jurisdiction. This geographic approach is the most commonly used workaround, and it has the clearest legal footing.
Execution has to be tight. Contracts should state explicitly that all services will be rendered outside U.S. territory. Keep travel records, flight itineraries, and timestamps that prove you were abroad when the work happened. Schedule social media posts so they do not appear to have been created or published from a U.S. location. A single action performed stateside, such as approving final edits to a video while on campus, can undermine the whole arrangement.
The obvious limit: this only works during breaks in the academic calendar. Athletes competing in fall and spring seasons have narrow windows, and brands running time-sensitive campaigns may not want to wait for winter or summer break. For athletes from countries with strong consumer markets, building endorsement relationships back home is still the safest option.
What Happens If You Get It Wrong
The penalties are severe and can be permanent. The most immediate consequence of unauthorized employment is termination of the student’s SEVIS record, which ends legal status in the United States. A terminated record means the student loses all employment authorization and the right to remain in the country.6Department of Homeland Security. SEVIS Help Hub – Terminate a Student From there, the student either leaves and seeks readmission with a new Form I-20 or applies to USCIS for reinstatement.
Reinstatement after unauthorized employment is very difficult. The rules require filing within five months of falling out of status, showing the violation resulted from circumstances beyond the student’s control, and showing no repeated violations. The student must also show they have not engaged in unauthorized employment, which is a catch-22 for anyone whose status lapse was caused by an unauthorized NIL deal.7U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Chapter 8 – Change of Status, Extension of Stay, and Length of Stay
The long-term consequences are worse. Federal law makes a student who violates F-1 terms inadmissible to the United States for five continuous years after the violation.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1182 – Inadmissible Aliens Separately, any period of unauthorized employment creates a permanent bar to adjusting status to lawful permanent resident under most circumstances.9U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Chapter 6 – Unauthorized Employment For an athlete hoping to eventually go professional in the United States on a P-1 visa or build a long-term career here, a single unauthorized NIL deal can close those doors for good.
Taxes on NIL Income
International student athletes owe U.S. taxes on NIL income when the income has a U.S. source, whether the work was done here or abroad. The default federal withholding rate for payments to nonresident aliens is 30%, applied at the time of payment.10Internal Revenue Service. NRA Withholding That rate can be reduced or eliminated if the athlete’s home country has a tax treaty with the United States, and some treaties include specific provisions for athletes and entertainers.
To claim a treaty benefit, the athlete provides a completed Form W-8BEN to the payer before the first disbursement. Without it, the payer must withhold the full 30%. Athletes who do not have a Social Security number (which requires work authorization) need an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number to file taxes and claim treaty benefits, obtained through Form W-7.11Internal Revenue Service. Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TINs) for Foreign Students and Scholars
F-1 and J-1 students who earn NIL income file Form 1040-NR. Income not connected to a U.S. trade or business, such as royalties from licensing, is reported on Schedule NEC. The deadline is April 15 for wages or income with withholding and June 15 otherwise.12Internal Revenue Service. Taxation of Nonresident Aliens Nonresident aliens on F-1 visas in their first five calendar years in the U.S. are generally not liable for Social Security, Medicare, or self-employment taxes, but the exemption only covers services allowed by USCIS for the student’s visa status, so income from unauthorized work does not qualify.13Internal Revenue Service. Foreign Student Liability for Social Security and Medicare Taxes
Reporting the Deal to Your School
Reporting obligations still apply. Division I rules require student athletes to disclose any NIL agreement worth more than $600 within 30 days of signing.14NCAA. Division I Council Approves NIL Disclosure and Transparency Rules The disclosure has to include the parties, the deal terms (services being provided, length, compensation structure), and contact information for any agents. Prospective student athletes who signed deals before enrolling disclose within 30 days of enrollment. Some states impose shorter timelines under their own NIL laws.
For international students, treat disclosure as non-negotiable. Skipping it is not just an NCAA compliance problem; it destroys the paper trail that shows the deal was structured to comply with immigration law. A well-documented disclosure showing a passive licensing arrangement completed abroad is your best evidence if questions come up during a visa renewal.
Agents, Attorneys, and Switching to a Work Visa
Hiring an agent or attorney does not itself violate any visa restriction. International athletes can retain professionals to negotiate licensing fees, review contracts, manage intellectual property, and structure deals to avoid triggering unauthorized employment. Professional oversight is less optional for international students than for domestic athletes. A contract that looks routine to a U.S. player may contain language that puts an F-1 holder’s status at risk. Attorneys familiar with both sports law and immigration law usually build in safeguards, including clauses that prohibit the athlete from performing services on U.S. soil and that characterize payments as licensing fees rather than service compensation.
For athletes with strong enough credentials, moving to a work-authorized visa category is the most complete solution. The O-1 visa requires demonstrating extraordinary ability through sustained national or international acclaim, meaning the athlete must be among the top performers in their sport. Applicants present at least three types of qualifying evidence, such as major awards, published material about their achievements, or proof of a high salary relative to peers.15U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. O-1 Visa – Individuals with Extraordinary Ability or Achievement The P-1A visa is an alternative for athletes competing at an internationally recognized level or joining a professional team in an established league.16U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. P-1A Athlete
Both categories require a U.S. employer, agent, or authorized representative to file Form I-129 on the athlete’s behalf, with USCIS filing fees on top.17U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. G-1055 Fee Schedule These are not realistic options for most college athletes; the evidentiary bar is high and a sponsor has to file the petition. For the small number of athletes who do have legitimate professional prospects, starting the O-1 or P-1A process before the student visa runs out prevents a gap in status that would otherwise force them to leave the country.
An Open Question: Revenue Sharing Under House v. NCAA
The House v. NCAA settlement lets schools make direct payments to athletes through a revenue-sharing model, and no federal agency has issued guidance on whether F-1 visa holders can legally receive those payments. Several members of Congress have asked the Department of Homeland Security to clarify the rules, but as of early 2026, no official guidance exists. The core problem is the same one that shapes individual NIL deals: a direct payment from a U.S. institution for services related to athletic performance looks like employment under immigration law, and it is harder to characterize as passive licensing. Until DHS or Congress fills the gap, international athletes risk being cut out of revenue-sharing pools their domestic teammates can access freely, and schools or collectives that pay international students without authorization could face legal exposure of their own.