About Work and Travel USA Guide
Work and Travel USA Guide is a step-by-step handbook for students on the J-1 Summer Work and Travel program: from the first sponsor search to the last day of the grace period. It is written for the student, in plain English, with the rules quoted from the government pages that set them.
We are a publisher. We do not sponsor visas, place students in jobs or sell programs, and no sponsor or employer pays to appear in an article.
Why it exists
A summer in the US on a J-1 runs on paperwork with hard deadlines: the DS-2019, the SEVIS fee, the visa interview, the sponsor check-in, the Social Security application, the tax return. Most of the rules sit in the Code of Federal Regulations, State Department pages and IRS publications. This guide puts each rule next to the step where you need it, and links to the government page behind it.
What it covers
- Apply: Who can join Summer Work and Travel, how to pick a sponsor, what the season costs, the DS-2019, the SEVIS fee and the J-1 visa interview.
- Arrival: What happens at the airport, how to get your I-94, why you must check in with your sponsor, and how to apply for a Social Security number in your first weeks.
- Jobs: How Summer Work and Travel jobs are found and vetted, which jobs are not allowed, minimum wage and overtime, your rights at work, second jobs and changing jobs.
- Money: Which US taxes J-1 Summer Work and Travel students pay and which they do not, how to file a nonresident return, getting wrong FICA back, opening a bank account and sending money home.
- Living: Housing rules for Summer Work and Travel, the J-1 health insurance requirement, emergencies, US laws students get caught by, driving and getting around.
- Travel: What the 30-day grace period allows, leaving and re-entering the US, the two-year home residency rule, and what you can and cannot do when the program ends.
Who writes it
Vincent Ng edits the guide and works with the Work and Travel USA Guide team, which researches and writes the pages. Before a page goes up, every sentence that states a rule, fee or date is read against the government page it comes from, and the page lists those sources at the bottom with the day each was read.
Each page shows the date it was last checked. When a rule or fee changes, the page is updated and the change is logged on the corrections page. To report an error or a newer rule, write to editors@workandtravelusa.net.
How we work
A fact enters a page only when it can be traced to a source we have read in full. Visa, SEVIS and program rules come from the State Department and 22 CFR part 62; taxes from the IRS; Social Security from the SSA; wages from the Department of Labor. Read the editorial policy.