The Deal With US Visas

Welcome back everyone. Today I am going to be talking about applying for a J-1 Visa. Now this account is entirely my experience with applying for this visa, my circumstances being a UK undergraduate student completing a sandwich degree in microbiology, working in a lab at North Carolina State University for a period of 12 months as part of that degree. Now with that being said there are probably some similarities with applying for this visa in other places in the USA and the general process will probably be the same.

First of all, what is a J-1 Visa? According to the American embassy website it is a ‘non-immigrant visa category for individuals approved to participate in work or study abroad based exchange visitor schemes’. It can be for up to 12 months and is used for building skills for future careers. In most cases you have to be able to prove you will be returning to your university to complete your degree and you will need a host, also known as a visa sponsor, which in my case is North Carolina State University.

The process is a long and fairly expensive one. First of all, you have to establish a connection with your proposed host (after you have secured the placement of course) and they oftentimes will provide you with the details needed for the various applications and forms that you need to complete. Make sure that you have secured your placement and cleared it with your university before starting the visa process. Of course, this is what NCSU asked of me specifically. Now for me, it took some time to get the information I needed and in the meantime, I attended a talk from an external speaker describing the visa process. Although at the time, it wasn’t clear that these people were an independent company looking to help you get a visa if you didn’t have a host that fit the visa criteria. At this point there were phrases, like visa sponsor, being thrown around that I had never heard of before and being the good student that I was I went and asked some questions. Unfortunately for me this 2 hour presentation and question time ended with me being told that I probably didn’t need to be there and that my host university will be able to help me deal with all the things I asked about. Needless to say, I was a bit hacked off but with that over with I spoke more directly to my supervisor to get the information I needed. So, talk frankly to your supervisor and ask them to put you in contact with someone who can help you with your visa (there should be an office at your host university for international liaison). The application can take a long time so don’t waste time with things that don’t give you the information you need.

One of the first forms I had to sign was the DS-7002 which was completed by my supervisor. This form detailed the dates that I would be in the States for, what my job description is and what my supervisor will be doing for me. It included anything that I will be doing with my time while in North Carolina. For example, my plan details what I will be doing in the lab and opportunities for activities outside of work. This requires signatures from a representative of the international office, your work supervisor and yourself. My DS-7002 took a long time to be completed for various reasons so, make sure you leave plenty of time for the DS-7002 to be completed, with all the edits and delays it took at least a month for me to get this form fully completed.

For NCSU the next step was to apply for the university itself. The application includes evidence of the DS-7002; personal details and transcripts. There were also a number of other things including a recommendation letter and an English attestation to show I knew English well enough to go to an English-speaking university. This application came along with a $400 application fee. After all this was completed the response was pretty quick, although it is worth knowing that if you get your finances from a loan company like Student Finance England it doesn’t count as funds towards your application. As you are required to provide evidence of funding you will have to get a signed affidavit from someone who does have ‘liquid funds’ available. Confirm where your funds are coming from and whether they count as liquid funds because otherwise you need someone to support your application. Even if you don’t need the funds having someone else sign for you is very helpful as it just speeds the whole process up.

After that was completed you have to pay the SEVIS fee. SEVIS is a database for scholars and interns that registers you in the States as working to further your education. It is for safety as well as keeping track of all the interns and students entering the US on a temporary basis. For students on the J-1 visa the fee is $180. Make sure you keep the receipt as they will ask for evidence of you paying the SEVIS fee throughout the rest of the process.

The DS-2019 is a very important form that is to be filled out when you have all the above information and documentation. It is the precursor to you actually receiving your visa and condenses all the necessary information into one document to then be transferred onto your visa document. The DS-2019 is completed by the international office and then posted to you by your supervisor. Make sure all your information is correct when you submit it to avoid having to resubmit your documentation. You need the physical copy of your DS-2019 to be posted to you. Mine was sent from NCSU. The delivery of the DS-2019 can take some time as you require the original document to get through the US border. I waited 2 weeks for this to reach me after which point I applied for the actual visa on the American Embassy website.

Now to be honest, the American Embassy website is not great, so I would recommend saving after every page and saving regularly if you have slow internet as this application also requires many details, many pages, lots of personal questions. This way none of your progress is lost and if the website isn’t working correctly you can just refresh the website, log in and continue. The fee for the visa application is $160 and like all the other fees it is non-refundable and non-transferable so if you aren’t certain you will be accepted I would recommend getting in contact with your supervisor or the adviser at the international office for support. Although if you have got this far you are probably fine.Overall, the form is long but mostly straightforward including contact details and various other details that you have put on all the other forms that you have completed up to this point.

Additionally to the application, you have to book an interview at the embassy. You can go to any American embassy that is the most convenient. For me the closest one was in London, at their new location. The application fee also includes the fee for the interview. The embassy itself was massive and beautiful. It was clean and almost clinical looking and one of my favourite features was that the windows were covered in tiny stars. There was a huge amount of queuing first to do the pre-check in; then on entering the building there is a security check similar to standard airport security; then a massive queue to reach a desk where they give you some stickers with a number on. This number is your number in the queue and when you go upstairs to the official level there are screens which tell you which kiosk window to go to. Understandably, the wait was fairly long but there was air conditioning and comfy chairs so my tip would be bring something to do that only requires half your attention. Also, I would suggest taking professional passport photos with you even if your photo was accepted or taking cash (about £6) to use the onsite photo booth. I was 50p short and a very kind security guard gave me some change as my card wouldn’t work in the machine. Finally, when you get seen by one of the clerks they check your documentation and then give it back to you with another sticker, you wait and then you go to another window where they make conversation about what you will be doing in the US. They keep your documents which include: your passport; DS-2019 and the document you have to bring with you that is emailed to you by the embassy (like an admission slip/ summary document), essentially the visa application information. When you book the appointment they ask you to select a drop off point for you to collect your documents which were all miles away from me. They had a few in London, they all required a 40 min or more drive. The visa itself is a printed sticker which they stick in your passport. My photo makes me look like a serial killer…

The final step is flying out and checking in of which I have not done yet. You can find information on that here. I flew out on 1st August and stayed in Virginia with my friend and penpal, Mary. I am scheduled to check in at NC State on 22nd August 2018 which I will probably talk about that in a later post. The check in has to be done within 30 days of when you arrive. In one of my next posts I will talk about why I couldn’t check in straight away. But suffice it to say I arrived safely in the United States of America.

So, to everyone that has kept in touch and all my family that have been talking to me and especially to Mary and her family, thank you so much! I don’t have enough words to show my appreciation but I will try to keep you updated.

N.B. Sorry for the delay in this post. I have 2 more in the pipeline that will be coming out next week and the week after. I will try to stick to a post every two weeks after that. Thanks guys xx