J-1 Visa Sponsors

Deep dive comparison between Cultural Vistas and Intrax.

The Exchange Visitor Visa (J-1) is a non-immigration visa issued by the US Department of State. It enables foreign nationals to enter the US to teach, study, conduct research and gain work experience (i.e. internships). If you are a non-US citizen/permanent resident and doing an internship in the US, you will require a J-1 visa.

The company that you intern for (the host company) does not directly provide you with a J-1 visa. Instead, they work with a J-1 visa sponsoring organization that handles the administrative and legal tasks in coordination with the US Department of State's requirements.

The J-1 visa preparation, which involves coordinating with your visa sponsor to collect your personal information and obtaining a completed training plan from your host company, takes about 4 weeks. However, visa sponsors provide services to expedite this process to 1 week if need be, such as if you got your internship offer late in the school term but your internship starts in the next term.

The J-1 visa approval, which involves the visa sponsor submitting these documents to the US Department of State, getting it approved and obtaining a DS-2019 and SEVIS receipt, typically takes a minimum of 4 weeks. This is dependent on US Consulate/Embassy wait and visa processing times. Make sure to double check with your visa sponsor on their estimated wait times, this could vary widely during times of high visa application volumes and backlogs, such as for COVID-19 related delays.

🌎 Visa Sponsor Process

Typically once you sign your internship offer from your host company, they will kick off the process by getting you in contact with a staff member at the visa sponsor. Be patient, this may take a few weeks for them to email you. Don't worry, you don't need to contact them yourselves.

The 2 main visa sponsors that you'll encounter are Cultural Vistas and Intrax.

The process for both visa sponsors is practically the same.

1. You'll receive an email containing a username and temporary password inviting you to their preliminary, online application. Here, you'll fill out basic personal information (i.e. full legal name, birthdate, address, education history). Once you're done, they will notify you that a staff member will contact you shortly.

2. Next you'll receive an email containing a link to the full application. This is where you'll be required to provide in-depth details and documents:

   • Full educational history: every post-secondary institution you have attended or switched from, undergraduate and graduate

   • Full work history (if applicable) during post-secondary studies: company name, address and phone number, brief description of your role, former manager contact information

   • Unofficial transcript

   • All previous DS-2019, DS-7002, SEVIS receipt from former internships (if applicable)

   • Copy of your unexpired passport

   • Confirmation of personal funds: this is the amount of initial funding you'll have access to during your stay in the US, either from your own savings or from family, recommended minimum is $3000 USD, as this is to ensure you'll be able to financially support your living needs

   • Emergency contact information

Don't rush this section. The visa sponsor will take this information and submit it to the US Department of State and it will show up in your official documents. Although the visa sponsors will be able to email you back quickly about missing documents, for mistakes/typos in your application, the visa sponsor will have to delay processing your application to fix them. Don't risk delaying your visa application and therefore your internship start date.

Cultural Vistas specifically will also ask you to write 4 essays on topics like: what you wish to gain out of your internship, what skills you can obtain from a US company but not from a Canadian one, what cultural aspects do you like about the US, etc. Although this may seem tedious, just write honestly and naturally about these topics. You can't copy-paste previous essays from past internship applications with Cultural Vistas, they'll email you rejecting these essays.

3. Your visa sponsor and host company will work together to prepare your training plan, the DS-7002.

4. The visa sponsor will email you saying that they have performed a final evaluation and are ready to approve your application. They'll attach the DS-7002. Please review this document thoroughly, checking that the program dates and location are correct. Then you'll need to sign it using a certified digital signature or physical signature that has been scanned.

5. Your school will provide you a link to a pre-departure course, which outlines topics like safety, law, culture, and housing in the US. For example, at the University of Waterloo, this course is provided via LEARN. This is actually a required part of the J-1 visa program, failure to complete this could cause a delay in your J-1 visa sponsorship approval.

6. You'll need to wait until your manager/HR contact at your host company has also signed the DS-7002.

7. The visa sponsor will then submit the application officially to the US Department of State. Once it's been approved, the visa sponsor will obtain your DS-2019 (Certificate of Eligibility for Exchange Visitor). Then they'll send you a completed package either to your home address or school address containing: an original DS-2019, DS-7002 and SEVIS receipt.

8. Note that the DS-2019 itself is not a J-1 visa. It's a certificate confirming that you've been approved to enter the US on a J-1 visa. At this point, you're ready to either obtain the J-1 visa at the border (for Canadian citizens) or at a US Embassy (for non-Canadian citizens).

⚖️ Comparison

Cultural Vistas

Cultural Vistas is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that facilitates internships and other professional exchange programs, based in Washington DC, formerly based in New York City. They are typically used by large tech companies, and companies on both the west and east coasts.

1250 H Street NW Suite 300, Washington, DC 20005

🟢 Cultural Vistas is a more established visa sponsor, and are typically preferred by large tech companies, and services companies on both the west and east coasts.

🟢 Due to their size, they have more staffing, and therefore fast response times by email. Your assigned staff member will provide you a phone number to contact them directly during EST work hours. They also have options to contact staff for emergencies outside work hours.

🟢 After your internship, they'll request feedback via a Participant Final Evaluation form. They also provide you with a free Sprintax code for filing your taxes the next year.

🔴 Their web UI for the application is barebones, simplistic and straightforward. But the portal they provide you afterwards upon getting your J-1 visa approved is not very user-friendly.

🔴 Make sure to unsubscribe from their promotional emails. After your internship they will persistently spam you with newsletters, random events/benefits, and requests for donations. This adds a lot of noise especially when you need to sift through your important Cultural Vistas emails.

Intrax

Intrax is a for-profit company that also facilitates internships and other professional exchange programs, based in San Francisco. They are typically used by medium-sized companies and startups on the west coast.

600 California Street Floor 10, San Francisco, CA 94108

🟢 Intrax is a smaller sized visa sponsor, typically preferred by medium sized tech companies and startups, and services companies on the west coast.

🟢 Their web UI is great and polished. When you begin an application with them, they will provide you access to their web portal, where you can view the status of your application, list of documents, and other resources.

🔴 Slow email responses. If you need to get your questions answered urgently, you need to call them directly during PST work hours.

🔴 There's been more reported bad experiences with Intrax, some more serious than others. For example, there's been cases where students have been waiting much longer than the typical 4 weeks for the J-1 visa approval, and it turns out that they never even sent the completed application to the US Department of State until you call them to get an update. However, these cases are rare; mistakes happen.