It's been three years since I had made the leap to move to the US. I had decided to "follow" my husband here to complete his residency training, leaving my well-paid job in the finance industry to pursue work in the non-profit world. The idea was that it was my turn to take the opportunity to go after my dreams while he supported me with his "lucrative" residency salary, as I did for him through medical school.
Excited to embark on my new adventure in the land of opportunity, I neglected to do my research on how a J2 visa could affect my career.
The first thing I did was apply for a work permit. I applied for the I-765, Application for Employment Authorization. Depending on your status, you may be able to apply for this electronically (Further information can be found here). The fees for this application is quite costly in my opinion and can take a while.
The first year, it took 4 months to be approved. The authorization document expires with your DS-2019, which means for my first year, my EAD only lasted 7 months.
In the second year, we received our renewal DS-2019 form very close to the expiry date. I went two months without work authorization, during which I had chose to stay on in the non-profit I was working for as a volunteer. I had included a letter with my application, stating that I was basically working for free and would like to be compensated for my hard work. I am not sure if the letter was the reason that I received my EAD sooner than before, or if it was because it was a renewal EAD.
For the third year, I had hounded the HR department in my husband's hospital to get the DS-2019 form early, and had only went without work authorization for 9 days. I included a letter in this application as well and it took two months from application to approval.
1. If you come into the US on a J2 visa, you cannot switch to a H1-B visa if the J1 visa holder is subject to a two-year home-country physical presence requirement, as you are subject to that requirement as well.
2. Many US organizations are unfamiliar with visa requirements and will only hire Americans or permanent residents. I was lucky to have been working with a non-profit that appreciated my talents and was able to accommodate my situation.
3. I like to say I don't regret this experience, but if I had to do it again, I would probably have asked for a transfer from my company at that time (which is international and has an office in the US) and come in on a L1-visa. I would have had a green card by now, and would be able to "pursue my dreams" three short years later.
Now, I am on a H4 visa and it is even worse than a J2 visa as you CANNOT work under this visa. I am in graduate school anyway, but cannot do any consultation work if I wanted to, meaning, goodbye to those Manolos I was coveting.
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