Musk studied at Queen’s and then Penn. Penn says he left in 1995 and his degrees were formally awarded in 1997. He enrolled at Stanford for graduate work that year and left within days to start Zip2 with his brother. [4][5]
On 26 October 2024, the Washington Post reported that Musk had worked in the United States without authorization when Zip2 began, because a student visa required him to be enrolled. Reuters summarized the report the same day. [1][2]
Musk answered that he had been “on a J-1 visa that transitioned to an H1-B.” Immigration lawyers told CNN a J-1 is an exchange visa that would not by itself cover starting a company, and that Musk gave no dates. [3]
The story landed in the middle of the 2024 campaign, when Musk was backing Trump’s promise of mass deportations. That timing made the report politically explosive, but it does not change the documents either way.
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