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THE LURE OF a sunny summer in the USA with 20 of your best mates (possibly all sleeping in one room) still holds strong for Irish students.
Despite new restrictions meaning students must have jobs lined up before they can apply for their J1 visa, application numbers are as high as ever, the US embassy says.
According to Mark Schneider, visa chief at the US Embassy in Dublin, the new requirement does not appear to be affecting the number of students planning a summer living and working in the US.
“We’ll have a clearer picture at the end of May, middle of June as to how many people went over there this summer,” Schneider told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland this morning.
But I can say that based on the number of public enquiries and our conversations with service providers that the interest remains as high as it ever has, so we’ll see how that translates into students accepting employment in the United States.
Under new requirements for 2016, students must have an approved seasonal job as part of an effort in the US to tighten up their temporary visa system.
No stripping, no betting
There’s a whole list of jobs you can’t do when you’re in the US. These include (but are not limited to) domestic help, work in the adult entertainment industry, work in a factory or on a construction site or working on the floor of a gaming casino.
Jobs with exposure to dangerous chemicals such as pesticides are also out, in case you were tempted.
So once you have the job in the bag, what else do you need to know?
Well, you should get yourself to the US Embassy as soon as your paperwork is complete.
Schneider is urging J1 applicants who have secured jobs and have their certificate of eligibility to book an appointment now.
“It’s always a mad rush at the end of May,” he said.
Applicants need to bring their passport, visa application confirmation page, DS2019 certificate of eligibility and a 5cm x 5cm photo of themselves on a white background to the interview.
J1 visa holders should also remember they’ll need $800 (€710) minimum in funds upon arrival in the States.
You can hold as many jobs as they like, but you’ll need to remember to apply for a social security number.
And don’t expect to make your fortune over there. According to Usit’s list of FAQs, participants doing a ‘salary only’ job (compared to salary plus tips) are entitled to a minimum wage of $7.25 (€6.40) an hour.
And students working for tips will receive a lower basic wage of not less than $3.65 (€3.23) per hour.
And take note those aforementioned J1-ers who plan on bunking in with 20 fellow Irish students and working with all their mates: according to the terms and conditions of the J1 visa, you must actively participate in ‘American Cultural Activities’ during the programme.
The participant agrees to make a good faith effort to seek out and participate in American Cultural activities and to interact with American Citizens.
Going to the local pub probably covers this.
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€3.23 an hour, the American dream at work.
David, that’s a little misleading..Plus tips …which makes up the vast majority of your earnings, any waiter or waitress in the US makes much more on tips than salary, earnings from tips would be about 80% of what a decent waitress would expect to get. When doing a tax return, the IRS expects that wait staff show much more earnings than tips than salary in their return. Average tips are much higher in the US compared to Ireland.
I was paid $2.50 an hour and often walked home with over $100-200 a day depending on time of year.
I sold beer in a nite club. Paid $1 an hour selling $1 bud bottles. Making $450 tips a night….
Out of curiosity, did anyone here ever do the J1 thing and wish to stay on in the U.S afterwards?
The J1 was a great experience, but I was happy to come home at the end of it. It seems there’s a few more hoops to jump through these days, though. Like everything, things were better/easier in the good aul days – I did it in 1998 and even back then I was pocketing a lot more than a measly €3+ an hour. Jaysus.
Yeah, I often felt a lot of Americans felt that we owed them a sense of gratitude for them being good enough to take us in to the land of the free, at the first opportunity we would get married to secure a greencard and settle down.
I just wanted a fun summer and to get out of there ASAP.
Where did you spend it Emma ?
Lived in New Jersey but commuted to NYC
In on the PATH train il bet….NYC is a great city but you do need money. Ive lived there for a period when I had not much money at the time and it can be touch but it’s a great live learning experience. When you have money go back and experience it.
I came out to California on a J1 3 summers in a row and am out here now having graduated on a 12 month visa.
Better weather, better wages and loads of fun things to do.
I have been back many many times since with work.
But the J1 is different because you are at the very bottom rung of the social ladder and you quickly learn your place in a society that is obsessed with money. (I don’t mean that in a derogatory way.)
It is a great learning experience in hind sight.
Look back with great fondness on my J1. The best summer of my life. It’s a rite of passage and I hope my kids get the chance to do it
I did. When you get a J1 you get a social security card that Doesn’t say “not valid for employment” . This together with an id or drivers licence is all that’s needed to get a job. An American citizen just needs these two pieces of ID. That’s what I showed. Told the employer I was born in New York, no visa was show at all. Stayed working for 10 months. When I left, “lost” my entrance card white card. Now, I’ve no doubt that it’s a lot harder now. This was well before 911.
This is in reference to Emma’s question.
I was in Boston in 98 – great times !
Great to see the negative comments…probably by those who never lived in the US or possibly outside their hometown.
Most J1′s probably won’t get into a pub in the states on age grounds
Plenty of places you wont get carded in the US.
when I went on my J1 my rate was $25 per hour and that was 21 years ago. You can get a job in an office paying better than a shop or pub
I very much doubt that’s true and if it is you were extremely lucky. Not a hope of a J1 student getting a legitimate office job. Nor would they want one.
I’ve run the numbers. $25 21 years ago is worth around $40 in today’s money. Assuming a 40 hour week you were pulling in an annualised salary of over $80k. To give this context, an American graduate accountant starts on around $50k after 4 years of college and probably a masters yet you a pre graduate, Irish temporary worker with a 3 month visa pulled in more. Certainly far from the norm.
Back then the minimum wage was no more then $7 per hour, it hasn’t really increased much since then.
@Guru I was working on microchip design for the summer. Even got a patent in my name while working there. You don’t have to work a low level job. I was worth the money to them as I could do the work and was paid a quarter of the other engineers. I was actually studying to be a civil engineer but knew their cad program and electronics so could do the job. That was inter-cert electronics that was good enough.
I love America but they have a strange way of treating citizens from countries that have historically provided many of their present citizens thru immigration.
Its a joke getting a visa for Ireland if your outside the EU. Its every country looking out for there own people.
Why do some students visit Ireland in order to learn English? Quite a number of natives to not understand the difference between your, you are, you’re, their and there. Through not thru.
the English spoken in Ireland is very high. Don’t mix up poor typing with lack of understanding. I do it myself some times when typing but know the differences. Spelling of words changes with time thru is an informal way to spell ‘through’ and will likely be adopted
Before you criticize what the US does, perhaps you should be informed of what hoops Ireland makes people jump through. http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/migrant_workers/employment_permits/work_permits.html
So do you have to go to a gun range and shout hooaww American culture?
Ted vast majority of J1 students basically do as they would at home. Missed opportunity to experience a different cultures. I lived in a small town and didn’t go to Irish bars. Lots more to the US than people think. I did go to a shooting range though
Great experience for young students to come out here and work in New York but I hate it when they are taken advantage of especially when rent all of a sudden sky rockets in Irish neighborhoods when they know these young students are only coming for a few months and only scraping by
My daughter is doing a J1 in a few weeks to Boston and she wasn’t told by usit that she fecking needs $800 in her account
Seriously? Sending your kid to the states then they should have a minimum 1000 bucks
Well for the bloody price it’s costing to send her for 3 mths, close to €2000, which the majority goes to usit, they should be doing their job properly and tell students that they need to have €1000 in their accounts, they’re getting well paid enough without leaving out important information and btw rehabm she has the funds in her account, my point is the group organising her going over to the US were quick enough to charge her nearly twice as much for flights when she could have got them cheaper, her insurance through them was expensive, when she could have got that cheaper too, but forgot to mention money in her account
Wouldn’t go next or near the kip.gun carrying nuts! The land of opportunity and freedom! Well thats a joke!
And to think the great warm hospitality we afford US citizens when they come here, yet when we go over there we’re treated like sh*te! Paronoid muppits.
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