J2 Funding Support?....Please Help

[ImagineMe]

Hi guys:

 

I was recently accepted to my top school with a tutition waiver and assistanstship offer. My spouse and minor child will be accompanying me to the US while I pursue my studies. Since my husband will most certainly want to work, I have decided to request forms for the J1 visa. I have noticed however that one of the requirements for issuing the DS2019 form for J2 dependents is proof of financial support for the duration of the Phd program. This seems a little strange. My Phd program will likely take a minimum of 4 years to complete. If the annual cost of living for my dependents is determined by the University to be $20,000.00 am I required to show funds of $80,000.00 for the form to be issued?

 

I emailed the school but have yet to receive a reply. Could any of you please shed some light on this before Iose my mind?

 

Your thoughts/experiences on this would be really appreciated.

[persistent_homology]

Hi I am in the same boat as you. Some offers I received state that funding is guaranteed for 5 years and so if you have one like that then there should be no problem. Some offers I have guarantee funding for the first year and say that they expect to continue to fund all students that make satisfactory progress.

 

In this case when giving the evidence of financial support, I think, if the university is friendly to J1 visas they will extrapolate their offer of first year funding for the purposes of demonstrating financial support for the duration.

 

Some universities are perhaps not so J1 friendly, so you need to contact them as you have done to find out the deal.

 

I think the general idea is that as long as the university vouches for you, you shouldn't have any problems. Good luck to you, I hope someone more knowledge can chip in.

[ImagineMe]

Thanks so much for you response. It helps to know I'm not going through this alone. I honestly thought the hard part of the process was over until I was faced with this dilemma. Best of luck to you!

[TakeruK]

I am also a J1 student and my spouse is a J2 dependent (we have no children though). Yes, the DS-2019 must show funding support for the entire duration of your program. In fact, my DS-2019 shows support for 6 years, because that is the maximum length of time a PhD student can spend in a PhD program here before they must request special permission to extend the program. 

 

I agree with the above posters that schools which are "friendly" to J1 applicants will do the same and extrapolate first year funding to all 6 years. After all, this is how much they will fund you if you continue to do well in the program! 

 

Not all schools are like this though. One school (in Arizona) did not want to issue me a DS-2019 at all! Even after explaining why I would like to be on J-1 status (so that my spouse can work), they refused. Even the people in the department I was applying to did not know that grad students were even allowed to be on J-1 (they only put postdocs on J-1 apparently). I don't know what would have happened if I pushed it further, because after considering all my choices, I ended up going somewhere else, so I didn't want to expend the effort to argue for J-1.

 

The other programs I visited were very supportive of my J-1 request. They knew exactly what to do. My current program was also very helpful in helping us apply for my spouse's Work Authorization so that she could work as a J-2. They had a whole package/checklist, they checked it for completion and even mailed it for us. 

Edited February 8, 2014 by TakeruK

[ImagineMe]

Thanks TakeruK! My assistanship stipend will certainly cover my expenses especially if they extrapolate my first year funding for the duration of my Phd. I can also demonstrate funding for my dependents for the first year ( but certainly not 5 years!). I anticipate that after the first year my spouse would have received work authorisation and secured a job by then. I certainly hope my dream doesnt have to end on this note.

 

I will definitely keep you all posted when the university responds to my request for clarification!

[maiwalker]

Hi, guys! Are you funded by your government or some external fellowship in your home country?

Coz i got accepted in this certain university, but they said they could only issue me an F1, saying that J1 are only for exchange students. How can I beg them to give a J1 so my husband can get a J2 and work?

Im really anxious about this. Thanks in advance!

[TakeruK]

Thanks TakeruK! My assistanship stipend will certainly cover my expenses especially if they extrapolate my first year funding for the duration of my Phd. I can also demonstrate funding for my dependents for the first year ( but certainly not 5 years!). I anticipate that after the first year my spouse would have received work authorisation and secured a job by then. I certainly hope my dream doesnt have to end on this note.

 

I will definitely keep you all posted when the university responds to my request for clarification!

 

Good luck! Actually, I am pretty sure you only need to show financial support for yourself, the J-1, on the DS-2019. Usually if your school is covering tuition plus a decent stipend, there will be no problems. 

 

When your husband applies for J-2, he will have to specify why he needs/wants to work. He will have to certify that his income is not required to support the J-1 (you) [otherwise you would not be eligible for J-1 in the first place], but it is okay for his income to support himself and your child/children. I think you also have to show ability to secure the minimum required health insurance for all your J-2 dependents. For work authorization, most schools suggest that we say something like the J-2 wants to save up money for recreation activities and/or vacations etc. as well to justify the amount of income required. In reality, it's more of a formality--J-1 status is for students who have their own funding (from schools or governments) so they don't want you to have lied about that to get in, and then use the J-2 income to support yourselves.

 

 

Hi, guys! Are you funded by your government or some external fellowship in your home country?

Coz i got accepted in this certain university, but they said they could only issue me an F1, saying that J1 are only for exchange students. How can I beg them to give a J1 so my husband can get a J2 and work?

Im really anxious about this. Thanks in advance!

 

I am on a government fellowship from my home country. This is one way to get J-1 status, but it is not the only way. The main requirement for J-1 eligibility is that the J-1 applicant is supported "mostly" by sources other than personal funds, such as government or private sector sponsorships. A fellowship or stipend from your PhD university counts as this. A fellowship from the US government (e.g. Fulbright) is also okay. You don't need anything from your home government.

 

However, it is up to the discretion of each school to decide whether or not they want to sponsor you as a J-1 instead of F-1. As I mentioned above, one school did not want to sponsor me as J-1 at all. It was the University of Arizona, and they said very similar things to me as you reported here. When they told me this, it really decreased my willingness to attend that school, and eventually I decided to not attend there (for other reasons too). However, if I did want to attend there, I would have fought harder to get them to sponsor me as J-1. My strategy would have been to explain that they are mistaken that J-1s are only for exchange students and showed them the documentation from US government websites. Ultimately though, they might just be unwilling to sponsor J-1s and I don't think they are under any legal requirement to sponsor J-1s if they don't want to. For me, this would have been a dealbreaker and I would not have attended any school that would not sponsor me as a J-1 student.

[maiwalker]

Thank you for your reply.. I'll try to ask again. Unfortunately, this is the only school that has accepted me so far. Would you mind if you could point me to that particular US website which I can show them? Thank you so much in advance.

[TakeruK]

The J-1/J-2 program is administered by the US Department of State (in contrast to the F-1 program, which is administered by the US Citizenship and Immigration Service). The main J-1 website is here: http://j1visa.state.gov/

 

I think the page you want to show is this one: http://j1visa.state.gov/programs/college-and-university-student (you can get to it from the above link by clicking on "Programs" then "College and University Student"). Here, it states what requirements you must meet to qualify as a J-1 exchange visitor in the student program. (Note that J-1 visas are granted to a lot of different types of visitors, as you can see from that long list of programs!)

 

On the right hand side of that page, there is a link to a long list of designated program sponsors. Try to find your University in that list as well and call the number listed. This list is very poorly organized though, I recommend sorting by "State" and then using the links at the bottom to scroll through the pages and finding your school.

 

In order for a school to be a J-1 sponsor, they must have 5 J-1 students per year so if it's a tiny school, this might be why they cannot sponsor us The vast majority of students I know are F-1 because many of them do not have dependents and/or do not want to be subject to the 2-year home residency requirement. I also run into extra issues sometimes at the bank, DMV, and even the Social Security Administration or other government places because they expect me to have a I-20 and are confused when I provide a DS-2019 instead. I have to explain what a J-1 is to them and then they usually have to find a supervisor to figure out how to enter my information. I am telling this story because J-1s are a lot more rare than F-1s so the school employees you are talking to might just not know enough about J-1.

 

Another thing you can do is to look up the websites of International Offices at other schools in the US and find the page made for J-1 PhD students. Maybe showing them this could help. But try to not imply that "other schools do it, so you should too" because as I said above, each school individually decides whether or not to sponsor J-1 students. Here are some links that I found in my search, but you can probably find some more too!
 

For example,

Cornell: http://www.isso.cornell.edu/immigration/j1student/j1student.php

Caltech: https://international.caltech.edu/maintainstatus/j1student

University of Washington (Seattle): https://iss.washington.edu/rules-regulations/j1

 

Again, note that the International Office at each school serves a large population--not just PhD students. They help new professors coming from other countries, post-docs, exchange students, etc. So a lot of the information can be general and some stuff may not apply to graduate students. It might also be possible that a school will only support J-1 programs for profs and post-docs but not grad students. 

[maiwalker]

Oh gosh, thank you so very much for your comprehensive and helpful reply. I appreciate it! So much brand new information. I hope they could help with this. Again, thanks so much!

[geo86]

Hello guys and I am really really glad finding this post cause I've been searching for months the solution to my problem and my mind is going to blow from moment to moment!I am a Geological & Geophysical Engineer and I have been accepted into OLE MISS's Geological Engineering MSc program. My prospective advisor proposed me for a TA award since I had the qualifications as well as the Department was in need for new TAs. And here is where my problem starts. I would like to apply for the j1 visa in order for my wife to accompany me during my stay in the United States, and of course because she needs to work during our stay there (that's why F1 visa is not a choice) since the income from my TA award won't be enough (tough times nowdays ) in order for us to live there. After an unlimited research I did for the j1 & j2 visa issuance I found that I have to demonstrate financial adequacy for myself (which I profoundly have due to the TA award), as well as for my wife. The huge problem is that, if for example my stipend is $1,200/month (I don't know the exact amount yet) and I have to show an extra $600/month amount for my wife, we don't have these extra $600 to deposit ( and which I assume that they want the total amount predeposited, something which makes approximatelly $7,000/year) as financial support for the j2 visa. That's after all why we need her to be able to work during our stay there else we would't care. Is there a way ( a trick, a law,something the university could do, or anything) to overcome this difficulty and to take my wife with me? Please, if anyone knows anything that is able to help in my case and you like to share it with me, please let me know!Your opinions as well as your experiences are highly appreciated! Thank you very much!!!