Switching status (J-1 to B-2). Time sensitive. Please help.

[Brightstar 0]

Hi all,

The situation is I have a sister who entered the U.S. on J-1 visa. She is an au pair. She supposed to stay for one year with her current host family. Her I-94 doesn't expire until later this year. However, things don't work out with her host family and now she is in the process of "rematch" where she has to find another host family within 2 weeks. If she is unable to do so, her condition will be terminated and she will have to go back to her home country.

She currently has a valid tourist visa and used that in the past to come visit me a couple years ago. Everything is jait so sudden and I would like her to at least come visit me before she has to fly all the way back home.

My question, is there any ways she can change her status from J-1 to B-1 while in the U.S? If not, is there anything we can do so that she doesn't have to fly all the way back to her home country? Could she file form I-539? I don't think this will make a different but just in case, I'm a U.S citizen.

Thank you all so much!

[gradtaai 8]

I don't think there is much you can do in two weeks, except finding someone to take her in. I saw that the change of status could take as much as 4 months.

[aaron2020 11,651]

Hi all,

The situation is I have a sister who entered the U.S. on J-1 visa. She is an au pair. She supposed to stay for one year with her current host family. Her I-94 doesn't expire until later this year. However, things don't work out with her host family and now she is in the process of "rematch" where she has to find another host family within 2 weeks. If she is unable to do so, her condition will be terminated and she will have to go back to her home country.

She currently has a valid tourist visa and used that in the past to come visit me a couple years ago. Everything is jait so sudden and I would like her to at least come visit me before she has to fly all the way back home.

My question, is there any ways she can change her status from J-1 to B-1 while in the U.S? No. If not, is there anything we can do so that she doesn't have to fly all the way back to her home country? She has to leave the US. She is not required to go back home. She just have to leave the US. Could she file form I-539? No. I don't think this will make a different but just in case, I'm a U.S citizen. It's a negative that she has a USC sibling. It's not a positive thing.

Thank you all so much!

Seems like she is deperate to stay in the US.