Work & Travel USA

InterExchange must vet all initial, replacement, and additional jobs based on U.S. Department of State regulations and guidance to verify that participants will be pursuing the purpose of the J-1 Visa program. The lists below are to be used as a guide and do not ensure jobs meet program requirements.

Acceptable Jobs

1. The position offered must be seasonal. Employment is of a seasonal nature when the position is tied to a certain time of the year by an event or pattern and requires labor levels above and beyond existing worker levels.
2. The position offered must provide opportunities to work alongside and interact regularly with U.S. citizens. Participants must be able to experience U.S. culture during both the workday portion of their Summer Work Travel program as well as outside of work.
3. The position offered must not displace domestic U.S. workers
4. The position offered must provide pay and benefits commensurate with those offered to their similarly situated U.S. counterparts and pay eligible participants for overtime worked in accordance with applicable State or Federal law.
5. The location must contain suitable, affordable housing (e.g., that meets local codes and ordinances) and reliable, affordable, and convenient transportation to and from work

Prohibited Jobs

1. Positions that could bring notoriety or disrepute to the Exchange Visitor Program;
2. Sales positions that require participants to purchase inventory that they must sell in order to support themselves;
3. Domestic help positions in private homes (e.g., child care, elder care, gardener, chauffeur);
4. Pedicab or rolling chair drivers or operators;
5. Operators or drivers of vehicles or vessels for which drivers’ licenses are required regardless of whether they carry passengers or not;
6. Positions related to clinical care that involve patient contact;
7. Position in the adult entertainment industry (including, but not limited to jobs with escort services, adult book/video stores, and strip clubs);
8. Positions requiring more than four hours of work between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.;
9. Positions declared hazardous to youth by the Secretary of Labor at Subpart E of 29 CFR part 570;
10. Positions that require sustained physical contact with other people and/or adherence to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Universal Blood and Body Fluid Precautions guidelines (e.g., body piercing, tattooing (including henna), massage, manicure, hair braiding);
11. Positions at businesses that offer body piercing, tattooing (including henna), massage, manicure, hair braiding;
12. Positions that are substantially commission-based and thus do not guarantee that participants will be paid minimum wage in accordance with federal and state standards;
13. Positions involved in gaming and gambling that include direct participation in wagering and/or betting;
14. Positions in chemical pest control, warehousing, catalogue/online order distribution centers;
15. Positions in the mobile amusement and itinerant concessionaires industries;
16. Positions for which there is another specific J visa category (e.g., camp counselor, intern, trainee);
17. Positions in the North American Industry Classification System’s (NAICS) Goods-Producing Industries occupational categories industry sectors 11, 21, 23, 31-33 numbers as outlined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, including, but not limited to: construction (includes specialty trade contractors), mining (includes oil and gas extraction, support activities for mining), manufacturing (food manufacturing, textile mills, apparel manufacturing, wood product manufacturing, printing), natural resources (crop production, animal production, fishing, support activities for agriculture and forestry);
18. Positions through employment or staffing agencies;
19. Positions in kiosks or cart stands at malls;
20. Positions in home-based businesses;
21. Positions in warehouses or factories;
22. Administrative positions handling sensitive/personal information;
23. Positions as an independent contractor (1099 Form employee);
24. Positions in fisheries;
25. Positions in door-to-door sales or canvassing;
26. Positions in industrial style/scale service sector (jobs that involve assembly lines, repetitive movement using heavy machinery, use of industrial size steamers/pressers and dryers, use of industrial chemicals, factory-like atmosphere);
27. Position where an exchange visitor is solely responsible for the safety of others (e.g., as a lifeguard); does not have regular on-site or timely on-call supervision by the host entity and/or would be without reasonable time off for breaks and meals;
28. Positions that are not compensated hourly (e.g. piece wages, stipends, etc.);
29. Placements that employ the exchange visitor as a mover or in any position where the primary work duty is the movement of household or office goods
30. Positions in waste management, janitorial, or custodial positions
31. Position with a host entity that participates in the Summer Work Travel Program on a basis other than seasonal (e.g., for more than two seasons during the year, or that covers a total period of employment longer than eight months in a single calendar year);
32. Locations where telephone and Internet communication is not accessible.