J1 to F1 visa

[q8dentist]

hi there,

wll i am a dentist from kuwiat, i was offered an intership for one year before i can get into my residency. they offred me a j1 visa for the fisrt year and then an f1 visa for the residency years. i heard that u have to leave the us for 2 years before u can obtain an f1 visa if u were granted a j1 visa,
please help
thanks

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[Foreigner]

hi there,

wll i am a dentist from kuwiat, i was offered an intership for one year before i can get into my residency. they offred me a j1 visa for the fisrt year and then an f1 visa for the residency years. i heard that u have to leave the us for 2 years before u can obtain an f1 visa if u were granted a j1 visa,
please help
thanks

J1 status is tricky. It is not the same for every person. On your J1 visa, it will say either "Two year rule applies" - which means you would have to leave the country for 2 years, before coming back in, or it can say "Two year rule does not apply" - which would mean that you do not have to do that. BUT, even in the first case (2 year rule applies) - you can get it waived. It takes several months, and costs money, but it can be done.

I would assume that if you present your documentation to the embassy where you're getting your visa, and explain to them that you will be continuing with residency, they will probably give you the J1 where the 2 year rule does not apply.

Anyways, try to ask some more relevant people - either at your program, or at the US embassy in Kuwait.

Good luck with that!

 

[f_w]

You might have been given some misleading information. It seems highly unlikely to me that a 'residency' would be done on a F1 visa. The F1 visa is for students who don't get paid for what they do, the J1 visa is for graduate students or residents who get a stipend from the institution during their time here. More likely than not, you would do your residency on a J1 as well.

You might want to shell out the $300 to contact an immigration attorney and not take everything your prospective program tells you at face value. Often, training programs don't have a lot of knowledge about the ins and outs of visas etc.

But getting back to your initial question: Yes, you could change from a J1 to an F1, even if you have the 'foreign residency requirement' attached to your J1. This just excludes you from obtaining H1b (work) L1 (intracompany transferee) visas or a green-card for 2 years.