The rule for completing visa applications is: answer the questions truthfully. Thus:

• Use of Other Names

You have described using the name “HJDJASD Mahmud” online. This is another name, and you used it to identify yourself. In evaluating your application, the State Department may well seek to look at your online presence(s). If you reveal the “HJDJASD Mahmud” name in your application, the State Department may see whatever you posted under that name…and it will evaluate your visa application based on all your information and circumstances.

However, the State Department undoubtedly has research and investigative resources that allow it to make very detailed enquiries about visa applicants. If you do not include the “HJDJASD Mahmud” name in your application and the State Department discovers you used this other name, then the State Department will immediately see that you did not answer the DS-160 names question truthfully. If that happens, your visa application will surely be denied, and you will be banned for deception under 8 USC §1182.

TL;dr Include the the “HJDJASD Mahmud” name along with whatever information you recall about platforms and dates.

• Employment

The DS-160 asks about your “employment.” You ask if you should mention self-employment and contract work.

US law draws a distinction between working as an employee for a business owned by another, and working as a contractor for a business owned by another, and working as a self-employed person.

However, classification often becomes imprecise and unclear. In some areas (computing one’s earnings for income tax purposes; eligibility for unemployment insurance; et al) the categories overlap, and are not mutually exclusive. To complicate matters, everyday language regarding the words “work,” “employment,” “contractor” et al is itself imprecise, changeable, and sometimes incorrect depending upon the “areas” being addressed, and the expertise and training of the person doing the asking, and the other person doing the answering.

The most prudent approach is to pick the most important of your work endeavors — probably the one that earns the most money — and select this as your “primary occupation.” Other incomes can be added as secondary sources, perhaps in a comment space where you can add additional information.

The State Department employee who reviews your visa application will be interested in how you support yourself, and all sources of your income should be included. If the State Department sees (through its own investigation) income sources that you did not mention, you will fall into the same denied-and-banned-for-deception trap described in the above discussion about usage of multiple names. They will not be impressed with a hyper-legal explanation that you didn’t mention such-and-such contract work because “contract work” isn’t “employment.”

TL;dr Include all your sources of income.

The most important rule for completing visa applications is: answer the questions truthfully. Thus:

• Use of Other Names

You have described using the name “HJDJASD Mahmud” online. This is another name, and you used it to identify yourself. In evaluating your application, the State Department may well seek to look at your online presence(s). If you reveal the “HJDJASD Mahmud” name in your application, the State Department may see whatever you posted under that name…and it will evaluate your visa application based on all your information and circumstances.

However, the State Department undoubtedly has research and investigative resources that allow it to make very detailed enquiries about visa applicants. If you do not include the “HJDJASD Mahmud” name in your application and the State Department discovers you used this other name, then the State Department will immediately see that you did not answer the DS-160 names question truthfully. If that happens, your visa application will surely be denied, and you will be banned for deception under 8 USC §1182.

TL;dr Include the the “HJDJASD Mahmud” name along with whatever information you recall about platforms and dates.

• Employment

The DS-160 asks about your “employment.” You ask if you should mention self-employment and contract work.

US law draws a distinction between working as an employee for a business owned by another, and working as a contractor for a business owned by another, and working as a self-employed person.

However, classification often becomes imprecise and unclear. In some areas (computing one’s earnings for income tax purposes; eligibility for unemployment insurance; et al) the categories overlap, and are not mutually exclusive. To complicate matters, everyday language regarding the words “work,” “employment,” “contractor” et al is itself imprecise, changeable, and sometimes incorrect depending upon the “areas” being addressed, and the expertise and training of the person doing the asking, and the other person doing the answering.

The most prudent approach is to pick the most important of your work endeavors — probably the one that earns the most money — and select this as your “primary occupation.” Other incomes can be added as secondary sources, perhaps in a comment space where you can add additional information.

The State Department employee who reviews your visa application will be interested in how you support yourself, so all sources of your income should be included. If the State Department sees (through its own investigation) income sources that you did not mention, you will fall into the same denied-and-banned-for-deception trap described in the above discussion about usage of multiple names. They will not be impressed with a hyper-legal explanation that you didn’t mention such-and-such contract work because “contract work” isn’t “employment.”

TL;dr Include all your sources of income.