The J-1 Visa for Work & Travel USA Programs

Your documents will serve as your identification while you are in the U.S. and you will need them to work and to travel. It is important that you understand the purpose of each document and have the proper endorsements.

The J-1 Visa

A J-1 visa is a stamp, placed in your passport, issued by a consular officer at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate in your home country. The J-1 Visa facilitates entry into the U.S. when presented at a port of entry along with any other necessary visa documents (such as an DS-2019 Form). One cannot obtain a visa stamp within the U.S., it must be obtained in your home country. It is generally good for one, two, or multiple entries and usually has an expiration date (which may or may not correspond to your authorized period of stay).

The J-1 Visa (with a DS-2019 form) allows you to:

Work up to 4 months from your date of entry until the date on your DS-2019 form
Obtain a social security number
Apply for a US driver's license

The J-1 Visa does not allow you to work as a domestic, an au pair, a camp counselor, or in the medical field, and it does not all you to extend your work eligibility or program participation.

You should think of the J-1 visa as an Entry visa which allows you to enter the U.S. The dates on your J-1 visa are the dates in between which you are allowed to enter the country. The last date on your J-1 visa is the last date you may enter the U.S. The ECA advises that participants return home at the completion of their visa. J-1 visa extensions are not possible. For certain nationalities, the dates on the J-1 visa may extend past the duration of this program (past 5 months). If this is the case with your J-1 visa, this does not mean that you are eligible to stay in the U.S. past the 5-month period of the InterExchange program. What it does mean is if you wish to participate on another InterExchange program in the future, you do not need to apply for another J-1 visa as long as your current one has not expired.

WARNING: you will still need to return home and reapply to InterExchange in order to obtain a current and valid DS-2019 form, as your J-1 visa is not valid without one! For other nationalities, the last date on the J-1 visa may come before this program's duration (5 months) is over. If this is the case with your J-1 visa, this does not mean that you must leave the country before the 5-month duration of the InterExchange program.

WARNING: it does mean that if you plan to leave the U.S. to travel and then come back to the U.S., you must re-enter the U.S. before the last date on your J-1 visa. If you wish to travel outside the U.S. and re-enter after the expiration of your J-1 visa, you must apply IN ADVANCE for a tourist visa. The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement recommends that you do this 45 days before the expiration of your J-1 visa.

We STRONGLY RECOMMEND that you make and hold any copies of any applications and other materials which you send to INS. Your visa should have been issued as an "M" or "Multiple Entry" Visa. This means that you may travel in and out of the United States as many times as you want up until the last date on your J-1 visa (See WARNINGS previously mentioned). If your visa has a number before the word "entry", this means that you are only allowed to enter the U.S. that many times. If your visa has "1 entry", this means that you are only allowed to enter the U.S. once. Since you are now in the U.S. reading this paper, you have already used your one entry; and you may not exit and enter the country again for the duration of the InterExchange program.

REMEMBER: Regardless of the dates, the J-1 visa on its own does not give you the right to work or stay in the U.S. The J-1 visa is only valid with the appropriate IAP-66 form. DS-2019 The DS-2019form identifies InterExchange as your program sponsor, describes the purpose of the program and states the time period during which you are allowed to work. You are eligible to work ONLY with a valid DS-2019 and only through the dates listed in Item #3 on the pink copy of your IAP 66. Your J-1 visa is only valid with the IAP-66 form. Your IAP-66 should have been stamped by an immigration officer upon entrance to the U.S. The stamp indicates the place and date of your admission to the U.S. and shows the time frame of your authorized stay. The officer should have written the letters "D/S", this means "duration of status". The duration of your status on the InterExchange program is 5 months from the date of your entry into the U.S. The duration of status includes 4 months of being eligible to work (the dates on your IAP-66 form) and 1 month of travel. While this 1 month of travel may seem "invisible" because it is not written anywhere, it is accounted for in the "D/S" of your DS-2019.

DO NOT LOSE YOUR DS-2019 FORM. Keep it in your passport at all times.