Elon Musk: I Was Never an Illegal Worker in US

Elon Musk says he's no illegal worker, as President Biden indicated over the weekend. Biden said Musk was in the US on a student visa in the 1990s, but instead of attending school, he worked. A Washington Post investigation found that Musk failed to enroll in any classes for the graduate program he was supposed to be attending at California's Stanford University, but instead worked on a startup and thus, according to experts who spoke to the Post, had no legal basis to remain in the US. But in a post on X early Sunday, Musk disputed that, the Post reports.

"I was in fact allowed to work in the US. The Biden puppet is lying," Musk wrote. In a separate post, he continued, "I was on a J-1 visa that transitioned to an H1-B. They know this, as they have all my records. Losing the election is making them desperate." Per the Post, a J-1 Exchange Visitor visa is for students, while the H1-B visa covers temporary employment. The startup in question, a software company called Zip2, sold in 1999 for $300 million, Reuters reports. Six of Musk's former business associates and shareholders from that company say Musk was still on a student visa until, due to investors' concerns, he transitioned to the appropriate visa before the company went public. (More Elon Musk stories.)