Summer Work and Travel Job Vetting: What Your Sponsor Must Check Before You Start

Vetting is the safety check between a job offer and your first shift. Until it is done, you may not start, even if the employer has already said yes. The jobs hub lists every step of work life on the program.

The short version

1. Wait for your sponsor to vet a job before your first shift.
2. Ask your sponsor to vet a job you find after arrival within 72 hours.
3. Do not start a replacement or additional job until it is vetted.
4. Contact your sponsor before you leave a job.

What does “vetting” mean for a Summer Work and Travel job?

Under 22 CFR 62.32, vetting means your sponsor verifies the terms and conditions of the job and fully checks the host employer. The rule covers initial, replacement and additional jobs, so a second job gets the same check as the first. The sponsor must confirm each placement before you may start work.

The sponsor also has to watch the job afterward. Under 22 CFR 62.10, it must make sure your activities match the category and activity on your DS-2019. It must monitor the physical site of activity and your welfare. It must cooperate with any State Department or Department of Homeland Security inquiry.

When must a job be vetted?

Timing depends on when you find the job.

Orientation and pre-arrival information are part of the process. Before you leave, the sponsor must send details such as employer name and address, duration, duties, work hours, wages and deductions for housing and transport. Compare that list with your job offer.

Do you need a job before you arrive?

It depends on your country. Participants not from a visa waiver country must be pre-placed in a job before entry. The sponsor must provide that pre-arranged, fully vetted job.

Participants from visa waiver countries may arrive without a job. They need enough money to live on during the search. If they cannot find work on their own after one week, the sponsor must make reasonable efforts to secure suitable employment for them. The job you find still needs vetting before you start.

What the sponsor checks about the employer

The host employer must meet conditions that the State Department’s program page lists. It must not have had layoffs in the past 120 days and must not have workers on lockout or on strike. It must not displace domestic US workers at the worksite where you are placed.

Sponsors must also use extra caution with employers in lines of business that are often linked to human trafficking. Which jobs are excluded outright is covered on the prohibited jobs page.

What the sponsor checks about the job

Sponsors may place participants only in jobs that are seasonal or temporary. The sponsor must not place you in a job that has its own J visa category, such as Camp Counselor, Trainee or Intern.

Pay and hours are part of the review. The sponsor must tell participants about federal, state and local minimum wage requirements and make sure pay meets the higher applicable standard. Employers must make good-faith efforts to provide the paid weekly hours named on your job offer. They must also pay eligible participants for overtime under state or federal law. Read pay and wages for the full rules.

Housing and transport are checked too. The sponsor must consider suitable, affordable housing and reliable, affordable transport to work when it approves a placement. If the employer does not provide them, the sponsor must actively and immediately help you arrange them.

The steps one sponsor uses for job approval

Each sponsor runs its own process. These are the steps on CIEE’s page for Irish participants working through CIEE, and they apply to that program only.

1. After an employer offers you a position, a job offer form must be completed.
2. The participant submits the job offer to the agency for vetting.
3. The sponsor contacts the employer to review the job offer details.
4. The employer provides documents before the sponsor can approve the position.
5. If the job is approved, the sponsor issues your DS-2019 form and you can book your embassy interview. State Department-designated sponsors run the program.
6. If it is not approved, the sponsor notifies the agency.

Through CIEE, every additional and later job must be vetted by the U.S. sponsor before you begin work.

Rules you keep once the job starts

Failing to report to your pre-approved job, or not making a good-faith effort to honor your work commitment, may result in program termination under CIEE’s terms. The federal rule is wider: sponsors must tell participants that they will terminate the program of anyone who breaks the listed program rules.

Contact your sponsor before you leave a job. Employers must notify the sponsor promptly when you arrive at the work site. Sponsors must report in SEVIS within ten business days of being told about a change in your US address.

Benefits of a pre-approved job

With a job secured in advance through CIEE, you can travel to the US assured you may start working immediately on arrival. The program itself lets foreign students live and work in the US during their summer break from college or university. That benefit holds only while each job you take is vetted first.

Who can apply

The program is for college and university students enrolled full time at accredited post-secondary institutions outside the US. You must be able to speak English well enough to work in an English-speaking setting. The sponsor must verify your English through a recognized test, signed school documentation or a documented interview.