Musk "lies" rebutted reports of "illegal labor in the past" in the U.S.

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk has denied media reports that he worked illegally in the U.S. without a status of stay in the country in the past.

"I was allowed to work in the United States," Musk wrote on social media X early on the 27th local time, targeting the Washington Post (WP), which made its first report, saying, "Biden's puppet is lying."

"I was a J-1 visa and then switched to H1-B, and they know this because they have all my records, but losing the election is making them desperate," Musk added to X.

The U.S. J-1 exchange visit visa allows foreign students to gain practical experience in the field of study in the U.S. workplace, and the H1-B visa allows temporary employment.

Musk's stance comes after the Washington Post reported the day before that he entered the U.S. as a student in the 1990s and temporarily worked illegally in the process of establishing a startup, and President Joe Biden criticized Musk in this regard.

Citing business officials, court records, company documents and company documents, including major shareholders of startups that Musk founded in the past, the Washington Post said in its report that the South African-born Musk came to Palo Alto, California, in 1995 to pursue graduate studies at Stanford University, but never enrolled in school.

Musk founded Zip2, a startup, in the same year and sold the company for about $300 million in 1999, four years later.

The Washington Post noted that foreign students studying in the U.S. can get limited part-time jobs, but to do so, they need to enroll in a degree program and maintain their student status, but Musk did not.

During a campaign rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on the day of the Washington Post's report, President Biden criticized Musk's attitude of leading the current administration's criticism of immigration policy, despite his illegal work history.

"This man, the richest man in the world, turned out to be an illegal worker when he was here," President Biden said. "He should have been at school when he came on a student visa. But he was not at school. He was in breach of the law. Is he talking about all these illegal aliens coming our way?"