j1 visa sponsor?

[britstudent 0]

Hey, I have emailed some PR firms about internships in the US. I have had some positive responses, so now I'm looking for visa sponsors. Are there any recommendations? I'm from England and hoping to intern in Nebraska. I am thinking of a non-profit sponsor as I don't want to pay too much. The main concern I have at the moment is the issue of the costs for the employer- I don't think these companies are likely to have had J1 employees before and I am worried that they will back out if they have to pay anything, such as the $250 charge for the site visit that many sponsorship companies seem to charge. Are there any companies that don't charge this fee? I would even be willing to pay it myself if it meant getting an internship.

[sibcita 0]

Hi,

Some companies are familiar with having international interns, and won't have to pay the "visit fee". I would consider asking the companies you are interested in working with if they already had foreign interns, that would make things easier.

For my part, I received 2 J1 for internships: the first one where the company was the sponsor, so I didn't have to pay anything. It's fairly rare, but it exists! (and it was non-profit)

For the second one, I had to work with a sponsor and paid them to issue me the J1 + the insurance fees. They were based in Paris and were working with CIEE, which is one of the biggest agency for the J1s in the US. Check their website out.

Hope this helps,

Good luck

ps: Nebraska, really?? ^^

[britstudent 0]

Thanks! I've had a look at that one but the 'seasonal worker' thing is confusing me. I want to stay for longer than 4 months, and won't go out until august because my graduation is at the end of July. I must admit I've been skeptical about the whole sponsor thing- just seems stupid to me that I have to pay a company loads of money so that i can get a job :|

and yeah...Nebraska probably wouldn't be my first choice but that's where my boyfriend lives!

[KIMCORENE 0]

I used CIEE for my internship- I was approved for 12 months under the "recent graduate" category. The company I worked with did not pay any costs, I did. Also, I was the one who contacted them and offered to intern for free and you know they can't turn anything down with "free" attached to it,