Internship - IWT

lil_lisa

So, AFAIK, if you are on the internship or any J-1 you have to wait three months out of the US before being able to receive the IWT. And you have to be withing a year of graduating also. So say you are on the Internship, does anyone know if you can apply for the IWT whilst on it and get it before graduation? My internship expires about two weeks AFTER my graduation date.

spideog7

Found it!!

All I can say is what I said over on the other thread, I was told by the Embassy that I didn't even have to go home, I could just roll over from the internship visa to the new visa but I would have to go to a US embassy in Canada to do the interview, wait for them to issue my visa then come back again. This isn't some work around or anything it's just that it'd save me going home.

Unfortunately that's not really the question I asked them, I wanted to know if I could get the IWT just after coming off the internship, but that answer seems to imply that I can. I haven't heard anything about this 3 months craic, although they might start asking some questions if you tried to go straight from one into the other.

Luckily for me my internship expires at the end of May and I graduated in August so I have 2 months, since your's expires after you might be in trouble.

Although I just got informed this morning that I now have to pay FICA (Social Security) and that I'll only get it back if I'm here for less than 183 days (longer than that makes me resident alien for tax purposes but apparently still not eligible for a State drivers licence or ID :mad: ). That's tempting me to leave at the end of my internship, that's gonna be about $600!! Instead of shelling out $1000 for the "privilege" of a new visa!

lil_lisa

I'm already paying FICA All you need for a state ID is proof of address and social security number. Unless there's a different Pennsylvanian law? I was not allowed to get the IWT because of the three month thing:

it is not possible to have two J1 visas running back to back concurrently. US immigration regulations state that there must be a 90-day break between J class visas.

from http://internship.usit.ie/faqs--internship.aspx

Anway USIT wouldnt let me take either until January (my summer visa ran out in October) and Sayit wouldnt let me take the IWT but they allowed me to take the Internship so I don't know. What company are you with?

spideog7

In Pennsylvania your visa has to be valid for a year from the date you apply. So if I applied today my visa would have to be valid until Jan-27-2011. Same goes for state ID. So I have to carry my passport everywhere cause it's the only ID accepted everywhere, although the odd place would take my Garda ID and most places took my Drivers Licence, but rarely if there was security on the door.

Interesting about the J-visa my information was different as I told you, 90 days would rule me out also. Perhaps it's because it's the same class of J1? i.e. they are both internship visas so maybe all you really need is to apply for an extension? I've no idea I'm still not sure if I'll even apply for it, if I can get a job at home maybe I'll head home.