The Coronavirus pandemic has affected the lives of many, many immigrants. In this video,
we'll talk about how it's impacting the J1 Exchange Visitor program and what to expect
in the next few months for those who participate in this program, and for their sponsors. Watch
this video, and I'll see you there. As you may know, the Coronavirus pandemic has affected
many, many visas. From H1Bs being stuck overseas, not being able to come back through other
visas like visitor visas, that people are basically stuck and waiting for embassies
to reopen. In this video. I wanted to focus specifically on the J1 Exchange Visitor visa,
specifically about this program and how it's being impacted right now during this Coronavirus
pandemic, and what's going to happen with this program in the future. So, as you know,
the J1 visa program was put on hold for about 60 days from March 18th because of the pandemic
and many sponsors who process the J1 visa, as well as host employers, are basically stuck
in a limbo, not knowing what's going to happen with this program. My name is Jacob Sapochnick,
and I'm an immigration attorney located in San Diego, California. If you're here for
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see our updates. So, click the Like, it's going to make me very happy. So, let's dive
in and talk about the J1 visa. As you know, the J1 visa is a visa that, specifically,
is processed only at a US Embassy through the State Department. There are hosts and
there are sponsors who process their training programs for this visa, who issued those DS-2019.
And since the pandemic, there's been a lot of uncertainty as to what's going to happen
with the J1 program. As of March 18th, as I mentioned before, there was a 60-day hold
and every 30 days, it's been extended as the crisis continues to unfold. So for the moment,
there are no J1 visas that are being able to come to the United States or being issued.
So, what's going to happen right now is that as the embassies are starting to reopen slowly,
sponsors continue to seek J1 candidates to be able to come to the United States. The
sponsors continue to work on programs, and they continue to issue the DS-19s. The only
problem is that host employers are not willing to commit to J1 trainees because they don't
know when they're going to be able to come in. So, therefore, during the 60 days hold,
there were no programs that were active in the United States on a J1, using the J1 even
though A lot of companies rely on the J1 visa to be able to launch their cultural exchange
programs. Those would be trainees here, whether it's in hospitality, or in other industries.
The J1s that were already in the US were not impacted. They continue to work with their
sponsors and continue to use the J1 program the way it was defined. The other problem
that we had is that a lot of the J1 program is scheduled to be with physical interactions.
So, whether it's a classroom training, whether it's training on the job, and because a lot
of companies were not physically on-site, sponsors had to be creative. So, we know that
quite a few of these sponsors started to do online training programs. We had a lot of
the host employers as well conducting zoom trainings, bringing trainers remotely so we
really commend a lot of the sponsors and the host employers for really quickly adapting
to the situation and being able to continue with the program, even though it's not the
way it's set up in the training plan originally but they were able to find new ways and creative
ways to be able to provide the training, the interaction with the trainees, the supervision
between the host and the sponsor organization. So, we think that in the future, the program
is going to evolve the same way. There's going be a lot more remote and online trainings
that will be provided to the trainees, as well as supervision and reporting to the J1
agencies using more of these tools that we have right now because everything is going
to change. The embassies start to reopen. Different countries have different schedules.
We think that appointments for J1 visas are also going to start to be implemented. So,
we think that if you were expecting an appointment before Then it's important to get in touch
with your J1 agency to make sure that you have updated DS-2019 forms, and as well as
communicate with your host to make sure that they still have a training position open for
you and be able to coordinate that with them for your arrival. But as of now, it's just
very uncertain when trainees are going to be able to actually get their visas because
we don't know when the embassy is going to reopen, when they're going to start issuing
visas so it's all kind of up in the air. But we know that the way the J1 program is going
to unfold is going to be very different than what it used to be before. They’re going
to be using a lot more online communication processes and be able to have the trainees
have a more interactive connection with their sponsors and with their host employer. So,
it's a shame that it's the way it is but this is our new reality. So, I will update you
once we know more about embassies, and we know more about what the sponsors are doing
with the new J1 visas coming up but this is the update I have for now. J1s are put on
hold for a while. And only now, as embassies start to reopen, we have also a lot of the
sponsors that are also going to be proactive to get new J1s. pushes program to be what
it is now with more online communication, with more online supervision, still trying
to meet the State Department guidelines. And we'll see, maybe those are going to be revised
as well in the future. So, if you have questions, if you are a J1 trainee, if you are a J1 prospect
or a host employer, let me know in the comments if you have any questions, and we'll keep
you updated as we have more updates on this program. So once again, thanks for watching.
Don't forget to subscribe to our channel. Once again, we release videos every single
week. And let me know in the comments what other videos you would like for us to make.
So once again, thanks for watching. I'll see you in our next video.