Students may work anywhere on the UMass Amherst campus and must report assistantships, fellowships, scholarships, and on-campus employment to ISSS.
While you may have multiple jobs on campus, employment is limited to 20 hours/week (including assistantships) during the Fall/Spring semesters, and +20 hours/week during vacation periods (Winter Break, Spring Break, and Summer).
Employment at the Five College World Language Center is considered on-campus employment. Please submit the Five College Work Authorization Request for ISSS approval.
Employment Authorization:
- Is employer and date specific
- If you are authorized to work at Dining Services for August 27-December 13, you cannot work for another employer or outside those dates without additional authorization
- You may have multiple employers as long as you remain under the hour limits
- Submit an additional E-Form
- You may extend employment
- Submit an additional E-Form
- We will not back date employment authorizations to prior terms. Authorization requests must be submitted in the same term you are working.
- Employment at one of the Five Colleges requires separate Academic Training approval
To apply, submit the J-1 Student Employment Authorization E-Form.
Please note that it will take 10 business days to process your application. If you need a Social Security Number, follow our steps.
*If you have already requested a full year authorization for your assistantship in the fall term, you do not need to submit a request again for the same assistantship in the following spring term. For example, you requested authorization for your teaching assistantship in fall semester and it was already approved for both fall and spring semesters, you do not need to submit a new E-Form in the spring.
Pre-Completion Academic Training
All off-campus employment for J-1 students requires Academic Training (AT). J-1 students working at the Five College World Language Center do not need AT but must submit the employment authorization request.
Academic Training:
- Must be related to your field of study
- Must be appropriate to your level of education
- Pre-Completion AT requires enrollment in at least one credit each term you are approved
- Cannot exceed your total time in the J-1 program or specific time limitations
- Cannot be authorized for permanent employment
- You must have medical insurance while on post-completion AT
- You cannot be self-employed while on AT.
You can find our scheduled AT Workshops on our ISSS events page. Please refer to our AT Presentation along with the information below for more details. If you have any additional questions, email your ISSS advisor.
Eligibility
- Your primary purpose in the U.S. is full-time study
- Your DS-2019 was issued by UMass Amherst and has not expired
- Your proposed Academic Training is related to your field of study
- You are in good academic standing
- You have received authorization from the ISSS
- You have not used the maximum amount of Academic Training allowed (18-months for undergraduates and Masters students and 36-months for Ph.D. students)
Considerations
- Employment may be paid or unpaid
- For post-completion AT, you must have personal funding to cover the entire length of your AT if you are unpaid
- You must maintain adequate medical insurance for the entire duration of your AT
- You may have multiple academic training authorizations at one time or back-to-back
- Authorization is employer and time specific
- You CANNOT conduct training outside of your approved AT dates or with a different employer. Each AT segment needs its own authorization.
- Travel on pre-completion AT remains follows the standard guidelines.
Generally authorized for a maximum of 18-months or a period equal to the program of study, whichever is less.
- Doctoral Students exception: doctoral students who plan to pursue post-doctoral training are permitted a maximum period of 36-months.
- Time limits are cumulative
- Any AT conducted prior to the completion of studies will be deducted from the allowable post-completion time and only the months remaining may be used following the completion of a degree.
- Pre-Completion Academic Training may only be concluded:
- School year = part-time (no more than 20 hours)
- Graduate students who have completed all coursework for their degree can use AT to conduct research which will assist them in the development of their thesis/dissertation. Time is limited to 18-months unless all program degree requirements have been completed.
- Undergraduate students who participate in off-campus internships which are required for their degree program and/or for which they will receive academic credit
- Vacation periods (Thanksgiving, Winter Break, Spring Break, Summer) = full-time
- School year = part-time (no more than 20 hours)
The Exchange Visitor regulations require all J-1 and J-2 visa holders to maintain medical coverage throughout their stay in the U.S. Your student health insurance will end if you are graduating from UMass Amherst and you will need to find additional coverage to start as soon as it has ended. There cannot be any “gap” in insurance coverage between the end of UMass medical coverage and the start of your post-completion AT employment. For questions regarding the end date of your coverage, please contact University Health Services. If your employer does not offer health insurance, you can find alternative coverage here.
Request Pre-completion Academic Trainining
Offer letter on company letterhead (with complete mailing address) that contains ALL the following information:
- The employer's letterhead
- Job title
- A brief description of your job duties
- Number of hours you will work per week
- Although all AT is considered full-time per J-1 regulations, students are still subject to the 20-hour minimum with the exceptions noted above.
- An exact employment start and end date
- Location where you will be working
- Your salary and related compensation
- Signature of the supervisor, department head, HR representative or appropriate representative of the employer
If your offer letter meets the requirements above, determine if you meet one of the requirements below:
You must meet one of the following requirements to gain pre-completion AT authorization.
- Training is formally required for your degree program completion. An internship, practicum, etc. that is required for degree program completion and enrollment in a course. Your department typically requires enrollment in a specific course each term you need AT.
- Training is part of an Undergraduate Cooperative Education Experience* (Co-op must be approved by the Career Development Hub. *Undergraduate students ONLY.
- Training is credit-earning (internship or independent study). Your Career Advisor or Academic/Faculty Advisor should determine which course best suits your program’s needs. ISSS and Career Development Hub do not determine this.
- Training is on an approved Graduate School Externship. The Externship must be approved by the Graduate School to acquire the required paperwork. *Graduate Students ONLY.
If you believe your pre-completion AT meets one of the options above, consult with your academic advisor or your college’s Career Services office to ensure your proposed training is integral to your degree and be enrolled in at least one credit for that semester.
Each College has different AT procedures for awarding credit and completing the required paperwork. Please review your college below. If your college is not listed and you are unsure of who your advisor is, please reach out to the Career Development Hub for assistance.
If your proposed AT overlaps more than one term, then you will need to be enrolled in one credit in each term unless part of an approved Co-op.* (For example, your training occurs in the last 3-weeks of the summer term and all the fall semester term. You are required to be enrolled in the appropriate course in the summer term and the fall semester term.)
AT will only be approved for the registered terms. If you cannot register for a specific term because the registration period has not opened yet, you will need to wait to submit an additional AT request once the registration period opens and you have been enrolled.
*Undergraduate Co-op Students will be coded as a “Co-op” in SPIRE and do not need to enroll in any credits but should provide their Department Permission Form with all needed terms marked as approved.
Graduate Students: 999 Continuous Enrollment cannot be used for AT purposes. If you are in a 999 course, you must enroll in a separate credit- earning course of at least 1 credit before AT will be issued. This can include Thesis (699) or Dissertation (899) credit if the internship is related to your research. Check with your GPD for the appropriate course number.
You must remain enrolled in this course for the duration of your AT. Withdrawal may be considered a violation that could jeopardize your J-1 immigration status.
All students must be approved for the Experiential Learning Request in SPIRE. If you have any questions about this process, contact the Career Development Hub.
In SPIRE, you will upload your offer letter and any other required documents. The Experiential Learning Request will take at least 5 business days to be processed and approved. The faculty sponsor (instructor) must approve the request after they receive notification of the request. Do NOT email the faculty sponsor or the Career Development Hub requesting expedited approval.
Once the Experiential Learning Request is approved, the Career Development Hub will facilitate course registration.
Once you have completed Steps 1-3 and have received the necessary documents, proceed to the AT Request E-Form and upload your job offer letter, approved Experiential Learning Request(s) (ELR), and a screen shot(s) of your course enrollment/your co-op/externship paperwork for the term(s) you are requesting AT:
Full list of documents required to be uploaded:
- Job Offer Letter that meets all requirements noted in Step 1.
- You may upload an addendum to the offer letter, job description, or additional email confirmation to meet the requirements as long as you have an official job offer letter.
- Proof of Course Enrollment(s)/Co-op/Externship Permission Form. To get the correct course enrollment screenshot, go to SPIRE>Manage Classes>View My Classes>Printable page. Save this as a .pdf or .jpeg to upload to the E-Form. Co-op and externship students need to upload their approval paperwork.
- You must remain enrolled in this course for the duration of your AT. Withdrawal may be considered a violation that could jeopardize your immigration status.
- Approved Experiential Learning Request from the Career Development Hub. To access the approved Experiential Learning Request PDF
- Log in to your student account on SPIRE.
- Click on the Academics Tile.
- Under the Forms and Academic Requests tab, choose Experiential Learning Request at the bottom.
- Click on the record related to your internship. If you have multiple records, your most recent record is at the bottom.
- Click "Open Printable View" at the bottom of the form.
- Click "Print this page" at the top
- Proof of Medical Insurance is required for the duration of your J-1 program per the Department of State.
- For Exchange Students Only
- You must present a letter from your home university confirming that the proposed job is related to your field of studies and recommending that you be allowed to accept this opportunity.
If you are missing any of the items above, your AT request will be delayed. You may not begin working until your AT is approved and your AT DS-2019 has been issued. The ISSS processes AT requests in the order received and cannot expedite requests.
The Academic/Faculty Advisor listed on your E-form will be automatically contacted to confirm the academic nature of your proposed training. Even students who have graduated more than 1 year before their post-completion AT request need their UMass Advisor's confirmation. If they are not available, a suitable substitute in your department (such as a Graduate Program Director) is acceptable.
Note: exchange students will upload a letter from their home institution to fulfill this requirement
Each time you end a position while on AT, J-1 regulations require that you must submit an Evaluation E-Form to ISSS. “The sponsor must evaluate the effectiveness and appropriateness of the academic training in achieving the stated goals and objectives in order to ensure the quality of the academic training program.” [22 CFR 62.23(f)(6)]
Reporting Requirements
Failure to comply with the Academic Training rules and reporting requirements may constitute a J-1 status violation; such violations may have negative consequences for your current immigration status or result in delays and denials of future immigration benefits. Your Academic Training authorization is based upon the job offer you presented to the ISSS. If you leave that employer, start with a new employer, or leave the U.S. and will no longer use AT, you must notify the ISSS.
It is important that you do not begin any employment until you have received a new DS-2019 Form from the ISSS and the start date is current.
You must update SPIRE with your current physical address within 10-days of the change if you move for AT.
If you are changing your status from J-1 to another immigration status such as H-1B, Permanent Residency, etc. please submit this information using the Change of Status E-Form. The ISSS will update SPIRE and your SEVIS immigration record as needed.
J-1 students in the categories of Student Bachelors, Student Masters, Student Doctorate, Student Non-Degree (whose stay exceeds 6 months) will have a 12-month bar on participation in a J-1 status of Research Scholar or Professor.
Please review the information related to the 12-Month Bar and Two-Year Home Country Residency Requirement (212e).