I want to clarify this income is not through employment or self employement .

In this scenerio is the answer YES or NO

Sounds like homework.

Income is income..or it wouldn't be income.

Income is normally from employment or self employment. If you go on the street and collect bottles and sell them, that is self employment.

Please describe how the income is obtained.

It is possible to realize income which is not from employment (self-employment or otherwise). For example if you sell property you inherited, the amount received less the value of the property at the time you inherited it (basis) would be income. The basis would not be.

Why the need to be hypothetical? Just tell us what it was for.
There are many kinds of 1099s.
Anyone, student or not, can get a 1099 for a variety of reasons.
Perhaps this was money for study abroad?
https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/16...r-study-abroad

Income infers work but "create" is an interesting term. Interest and dividends from investments, capital gains, winnings from a lottery "create" unearned income, typically shown in a variety of 1099 forms.

It actually dawned on my they may be asking this question due to the fact they might be on a student VISA and aren't allowed to be working and were thinking of a way to circumvent the legal restrictions?

1099 forms are used for all sorts of income, including dividends (1099-DIV), interest (100-INT) and sale of property (1099-B), among others. So the answer is yes.