On December 4th, a piece of news broke out on Huyue Forum, saying that more than 30 China students in Houston were reported by Chinese restaurant owners for making takeout on WeChat in partnership, and were repatriated by the Immigration Bureau.
The netizen who posted the post revealed that the owner of a local Chinese restaurant hated these international students after learning that they had robbed their own business because of their good take-away business. So I collected the contact information of these international students, as well as screenshots of WeChat advertisements as evidence, and reported them to the Immigration Bureau. The immigration bureau then found the international students engaged in take-away business through these evidences and ordered them to be repatriated. In particular, netizens pointed out that many of these international students are about to graduate and get their degrees, and they are already in the OPT stage (they can practice in the United States to find a job after graduation). be like
Such cases are not uncommon in the United States. According to China Overseas Chinese Network, some overseas students were ordered to be repatriated after being reported for purchasing WeChat. Of course, the international students who do business through WeChat but are not reported must be the majority.
On March 28th this year, Sing Tao Daily reported that China students in California earned their living expenses by selling cooked food through WeChat. JOJO, a 21-year-old Shanghai girl, is studying in the United States. Since the end of 2015, she has been running her own cooked food takeout on WeChat, mainly for students from Santa Monica Community College in California and UCLA. In an interview with Sing Tao Daily, JOJO talked about the idea of making a living and doing business, because when she was in a foreign country with many friends around her, she missed the taste of her hometown very much. Although there are tens of millions of Chinese restaurants in California, they have all been “improved” to a certain extent, which is incomparable with what can be eaten in China. So, with the encouragement of friends, JOJO decided to do WeChat business and develop her hobby into a “career”. The take-away business has been going on for four months, and JOJO revealed that its profit is very considerable, which can not only pay her car loan and rent, but also solve the living expenses. JOJO’s business model is also very simple. It publicizes and takes orders through WeChat, cooks food according to the order, and sends it to guests’ homes after it is done. Soon, JOJO had a group of regular customers.
However, JOJO admitted that she did not have the relevant licenses and licenses for food production and sales. Although she also stressed that the production site of the food she sells is very clean, and the guests have never reported any discomfort after eating it, there is nothing she can do in the face of relevant laws and immigration policies and regulations, because selling cooked food at home in the United States not only violates food safety regulations, but also can be regarded as illegal because it involves identity visas and tax returns. In other words, JOJO broke the law from the day she started to run the “private store business”.
It is understood that California passed the AB1616 Homemade Food Act in 2013, which lifted the relevant restrictions on the sale of homemade food and strengthened the hygiene and labeling regulations of homemade food. The content of the bill stipulates that operators need to inspect the family kitchen through the Los Angeles Health Bureau, and take photos, samples and collect other relevant evidence before obtaining the private business license A or the third-party sales license B to ensure the kitchen hygiene standards. However, this bill only restricts families from selling foods that are free from refrigeration and are not easy to breed bacteria, including bread, dried fruits, potato chips, popcorn, etc., and does not apply to perishable foods such as meat or milk.
“Home cooking” is also called cottage food or homemade food in English. After verification, all states in the United States have basically passed the same type of laws and regulations, but the specific provisions of each state are different. However, first of all, it is certain that as long as it involves the sale of food, the American government requires operators to hold certificates and cook in kitchens that have passed the acceptance and reached the hygienic standard; Secondly, the food allowed to be sold does not include meat; Finally, basically every state stipulates the sales amount of this homemade food, and the annual sales amount is between 5,000 and 50,000 dollars, which varies from state to state.
In addition, because of the special status of international students, the types of visas and relevant regulations on tax returns are also involved in the process of business sales. Lawyer Du Huili of California said in an interview with Sing Tao Daily that the behavior of international students selling cooked food on WeChat is equivalent to commercial behavior and must pay sales tax to the government. In addition, according to the law, students with F-1 visas can only work on campus, and they can work in companies in related fields through CPT during their school days, and they can practice or work in companies after obtaining OPT. However, among the above three identities, international students do not have the conditions to file tax returns through W-2. In other words, it is illegal for international students to do business like this.
In October 2015, Miss Liang, a graduate student at the University of Denver in Colorado, USA, also tried to make a snack at home and operate Sichuan snacks because of her interest. Through the promotion of the local WeChat official account, Miss Liang’s business was particularly prosperous when she first opened. Because of her interest, Miss Liang didn’t go all out to do business as JOJO said before. She told the interface journalist that she only does one, three, five and Sunday every week, takes orders in the morning and makes quantitative production every day. She thinks it’s about time to stop accepting orders. In the evening, it will be delivered at the scheduled time or the customer can pick it up. “Chongqing noodles are 6 dollars a bowl, hot and sour powder and minced meat are 7 dollars a bowl, red oil/clear soup is 5 dollars a bowl, a bowl of five, saliva chicken is 6 dollars, braised duck wings are 3 dollars, and tea eggs are 1 dollar. Guests who order for the first time will be given a beverage can for each order. “
Teacher Liang said, “We are particularly proud. We often go out to play on weekends, and customers often protest. In addition, we only deliver food within 3 kilometers, because these foods are special and can’t be kept for long, so many guests drive all the way and eat directly in the car. Although I only worked for three or four days, I was actually exhausted. In order to ensure the freshness of the ingredients, I had to buy food on the same day, and the wonton soup was in the bag. “As for the profit, Miss Liang, an accounting major, admits that on the surface, it is really impressive.” Because our purchase is not the wholesale price, and cooking in the apartment uses an electric stove, the amount that can be completed every day is limited, so if we have to pay taxes at this price, the profit is very thin.
Because the business is so hot, Miss Liang has also received several calls seeking cooperation or wanting to invest in turning this “private kitchen” into an entity operation. However, local friends reminded her to beware of jealous reports, and Miss Liang suspended her business after two months of operation. After seeing the latest news on the forum, she was glad that she stopped the car in time and that she didn’t have a fever to open a shop. She believes that such channels and ways of doing business can be experienced by international students, but at the same time, it is easy to lose money. In addition, with the widespread use of WeChat in overseas Chinese circles, many local immigrants have also started a “WeChat business”, selling tofu, hot sauce, stewed vegetables, fermented wine and so on. Through wechat. They have more time and more legal status to support business than international students.
At the beginning of this year, three foreign students majoring in entrepreneurship in a university in Florida began to make snacks at home and sell them to their classmates, including beef rice and Dandan Noodles. Because local Chinese food is mainly Cantonese food, Sichuan spicy snacks are quickly welcomed by students, and the business is particularly good through the forwarding and promotion of friends. Good business has brought confidence to several students, so after the end of the semester, they decided to open a small shop, hoping to make real Chinese food as popular as “Xi ‘an famous food” in the United States. They found an inconspicuous shop in the business circle not far from the school, named Panda House, which was simple in decoration, but small and fresh. Just opened, business is as good as ever. But soon, the problem came. Many students report that the weight is too small, the variety selection is limited, and the taste is not very constant. Less than half a year after opening, three people with entrepreneurial passion had no choice but to hand over the store to others. The new boss added sesame chicken and sweet and sour chicken to the menu. …
Because the standardization of cooking in China is not easy to master, and because of the geographical restrictions of international students, there are only a few special dishes that do business through WeChat. When it comes to operating a restaurant, various problems will follow. The reason why “Xi ‘an Famous Food” won the world by meat buns is not only because the founder chose a food with better standardized production as the main product, but also because of accurate target group setting and geographical selection, which is not a simple and impulsive behavior.
A doctoral student at the University of Denver told the Interface News reporter: “I have been here for three years, and’ private cuisine’ has mainly emerged in recent years. Because I am usually busy, I have no time to cook and I don’t know how to cook. Plus, it’s cheap and can be delivered to your door, so I’ve tasted almost all these private kitchens. Basically, these private kitchens are cheaper than Chinese restaurants outside, and I haven’t had a stomachache after eating them. I once ordered a’ bento times’ bento box lunch for a month, and delivered two meats and one dish to my home, with an average of $6 a day. Where can I get this price? Later, I said that the market was not big and there was no profit, so I stopped doing it. Although short-lived, as a pure customer, I am very happy that they exist, which is a kind of benefit! However, there is really no need to be repatriated for this. “