Work & Travel USA
Work & Travel USA

How it works

You’ll enjoy dedicated support from the moment you sign up.

How It Works

InterExchange connects qualified host employers who want to hire seasonal staff, and international students who are looking for an opportunity to work and travel in the U.S. during their university breaks. Learn more about when students are available.

Meet your hiring needs with our Online Matching System

Our interactive Online Matching System makes it easy to find the right candidates based on your hiring requirements.

  • Choice: Browse applications based on your business needs, view their introductory videos, work experience, education and English level.
  • Convenience: Connect with your participants anytime, anywhere from any device. View real time status updates (e.g., flights, visas, arrivals) on confirmed participants.
  • Ease: Create job listings for participants to review at any time. Add photos and update housing, arrival and business information online.
  • Security: Securely upload documents, update your business profile and digitally sign job offers.

To sign up, please fill out this form

You can interview and hire students from around the world who meet your recruitment needs, all on your schedule, by signing up for an InterExchange Virtual Job Fair. We organize interviews for you to complete in one day, or we can spread it out over multiple days, whatever works best for you!

To sign up for a Virtual Job Fair or to learn more about this event, please fill out our inquiry form.

If you already know who you would like to hire, simply complete and send our Employment Offer to your prospective staff member, and we’ll take it from there! Once InterExchange has received the offer, you will be contacted with the next steps to begin the hiring process.

For more information and step-by-step requirements, please visit the Self Placement Program resources page.

Requirements

All positions must:

  • Be seasonal and entry level, requiring minimal training
  • Provide regular, substantive interaction with Americans
  • Provide opportunities to interact with U.S. citizens, practice the English language, experience U.S. culture while sharing their own cultures with Americans they meet
  • Provide pay and benefits commensurate with those offered to their similarly situated U.S. counterparts
  • Not displace domestic U.S. workers at worksites where they will place program participants; and that host employers have not experienced layoffs in the past 120 days and do not have workers on lockout or on strike

 

Some jobs are not allowed through our program. Please review our list of prohibited jobs before applying.

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.

Costs

InterExchange does not charge program fees to host employers..

You pay participants what you would pay an American employee doing the same job. Participants, in turn, pay their own program and insurance fees, cover flights and other related costs.

Student Availability

Work & Travel USA students visiting the U.S. on a J-1 visa are available to work for up to four months during their summer breaks. Start and departure dates vary according to students’ academic schedules. Availability also varies by country. See our table of work dates below. The following dates are subject to change.

Summer Season

Country Earliest Available Departure By
Albania July 20 October 15
Armenia June 1 August 31
Azerbaijan July 1 September 16
Belarus June 25 September 1
Bosnia and Herzegovina May 28 October 1
Bulgaria May 1 September 30
China June 1 September 15
Croatia June 10 October 10
Colombia May 1 August 30
Czech Republic May 1 September 30
Dominican Republic May 24 September 5
Ecuador January 20 October 1
Ireland May 15 September 15
Italy June 15 September 15
Jamaica April 20 September 1
Jordan June 1 October 1
Kazakhstan May 8 September 1
Kyrgyzstan June 1 August 31
Latvia May 1 September 15
Lithuania May 2 September 15
Malaysia May 25 September 15
Mongolia June 1 September 1
Montenegro June 15 September 15
Nicaragua May 15 September 1
Nigeria June 1 October 1
North Macedonia June 1 September 30
Philippines March 26 September 1
Poland May 25 September 30
Portugal May 24 October 7
Romania June 15 September 30
Russia May 15 September 15
Serbia May 21 October 10
Slovakia May 15 September 15
Slovenia June 1 September 30
Spain May 24 October 7
Taiwan June 1 September 30
Thailand (Spring) March 7 July 7
Thailand (Summer) May 7 September 7
Türkiye May 15 October 1
Ukraine May 6 September 6
Uzbekistan May 20 September 20

Winter Season

Country Earliest Available Departure By
Argentina December 1 April 1
Australia November 15 March 8
Bolivia November 15 March 15
Brazil November 15 March 15
Chile December 1 April 4
Costa Rica December 1 March 31
Malaysia November 25 March 15
New Zealand October 23 February 26
Nicaragua December 15 March 15
Panama December 1 March 31
Paraguay December 1 March 31
Peru December 1 March 31
Uruguay November 15 April 1

Join a Job Fair and Hire for Your Busy Season!

2023-2024 Overseas Job Fairs

We will be hosting in-person hiring events alongside our partners in Spain, Albania, Croatia, & Romania in December and January.

Job Fair Event Dates
  • Spain – December 2
  • Albania – December 5
  • Croatia – December 8

In just one day you can interview motivated, English-speaking international students and fill open positions for your peak season. We’ll cover travel expenses for each host employer hiring 30+ candidates for one country, then 20+ hires per additional country. Recruiting minimums apply per employer representative.

New York City Job Fairs

Visit our offices in New York City and hire qualified candidates from multiple countries via Zoom. We’ll cover travel expenses for each employer hosting 20 or more students through our program. Recruiting minimums apply per employer representative.

Sample Itinerary
  • Day 1 – Arrive in New York City, free time and sightseeing
  • Day 2 – Job Fair interviews, dinner with InterExchange team
  • Day 3 – Depart NYC

Virtual Job Fairs

You can interview and hire students from around the world who meet your recruitment needs, all on your schedule by signing up for an InterExchange Virtual Job Fair. We organize interviews for you to complete in one day, or we can spread it out over multiple days, whatever works best for you!

If you already know who you want to hire, simply complete and send our Employment Offer to your prospective staff member and we’ll take it from there.

Interested in hosting? Contact us today.

International Staff collage