bigpinkmarshmallow

Hello!

I am planning on doing an internship in NYC next year. I am a 23 year old British Citizen, a graduate, with a couple of years' work experience, and I want to gain some American experience in my field (arts/museum fundraising). I have several contacts in the industry and am willing to work unpaid so I don't anticipate too many problems in being able to secure a workplace willing to have me as an intern.

I have found a couple of paid internships with organisations that would sponsor my J-1 visa that I am going to apply for, but I anticipate these will be very competitive so I would like to explore my options outside of these programmes. I have found other internship positions that say they are happy to have international interns, but prospective interns would need to gain their own J-1 visa.

This is what I have questions about - how would I go about getting my own J-1 visa, and how long would it take? I presume I would need a letter from a host institution saying they have agreed to give me an internship and so on, but would I need anything else? Is there a certain amount of money I'd need to prove I had access to in order to take up an unpaid position?

Also, I have read that J-1 visas normally require you to return to the UK for a certain amount of time before you're allowed back in - would this mean that I wouldn't be able to take up a job/study in the US once my J-1 ran out and stay without having to go back to the UK?

FINALLY (sorry for all the questions!), if I am offered, say, four three month internships in New York, would ONE J-1 visa be enough to cover them all or would I need to apply for a separate J-1 visa for each internship to cover the entire twelve month period? I want to stay in NYC for at least a year so if I don't get a twelve month internship it would be helpful to know if I can take up several back-to-back internships.

Thank you so much for reading this and I hope someone knows the answers to my questions!

N.B. - I would be applying for a J-1 under the 'trainee' and not the 'intern' category as I have been out of graduate education too long to qualify as an 'intern'.

ian-mstm

Not really... no. If you're eligible and apply, you'll most likely get the J-1.


Contact your local US Consulate to get started. It's shouldn't take longer than a few weeks to process.


If you get a J-1 visa with the 2-year HRR, then you must complete the HRR prior to doing anything else in the US. There is a waiver available for the requirement.


If they are with different sponsors, yes. Further, you can't get a visa for the US while you're inside the US.

Ian