The J-1 Research Scholar category can help enhance American research, innovation, and economic development by allowing international STEM experts to engage in, support, or play a role in future-shaping research in the United States. There are four issues and concepts that form the basic foundation for eligibility for the J-1 Research Scholar category: the J-1 participant, the site of research activity, the program sponsor, the funding for the J-1 participant.
1. J-1 Participant — STEM experts who will hold J-1 status.
In theory, J-1 Research Scholar status is available to individuals with Bachelors, Masters, or Doctoral STEM degrees although it is anticipated that most participants being hosted by STEM businesses or researching in academia will have graduate STEM degrees.
2. Site of Activity — The site(s) where STEM R&D is being pursued.
The research can include applied and experimental efforts tied to product development, and can be at/with/for any host company of any size in any geography across the U.S., including a start-up. The research might also be part of a formal post-doctoral fellowship or other scholarly research effort, typically at a university lab. The J-1 participant’s research may be performed for an employer who is funding her work and is sponsoring her J-1 program, but the research site could also be employment separate from the sponsor or funding source.
3. Program Sponsor — The designated programs authorized by the State Department to sponsor J-1 participants in the researcher category.
These designated programs include all major research universities in America, and a handful of private sector “umbrella programs” designated by the State Department to act as an “umbrella” for host companies or employers of any type (including for-profit firms or nonprofit research organizations or universities).
4. Financial Support — J-1 participants must be funded.
The program sponsor must be able to confirm that the J-1 participant will receive sufficient funding to support herself while in the U.S. Funding might come from the program sponsor itself, which is common when, for example, a post-doc’s site of activity, sponsor, and funder is the same entity, a U.S. research university. But financial support can also be from an employer that hosts the J-1 researcher, even though that employer is not itself a designated J-1 exchange visitor program sponsor. And financial support could come from another grant or fellowship awarded to the individual participant, and in some situations the participant can be self-funded.
There are some common fact patterns where eligibility should be assessed.
An individual outside the United States with a Masters or PhD who is poised to pursue future-shaping research, either as a research founder, post-doc, academic researcher, or researcher in industry may be eligible to come to the US as a J-1 researcher, sponsored by a nonprofit exchange visitor program designated by the State Department as an authorized “umbrella organization” acting for host employers in the Research Scholar category.
There are also a variety of situations where it might be relevant for an F-1 nonimmigrant to change status in the United States to J-1 Research Scholar after earning a US STEM Masters or STEM PhD degree in the U.S. and the individual is going to pursue STEM research following graduation (or after or during a period of OPT – optional practical training). Some J-1 post-docs obtain their J-1 status to complete their post-doc this way, for example. The option also may be relevant if the individual has a job offer from a US firm conducting STEM R&D. US Citizenship and Immigration Services currently offers premium processing for this type of change of status, if the individual currently has F-1 nonimmigrant status.
Most international post-docs in the U.S. hold J-1 status in the Research Scholar category, allowing up to 5 years in the US to engage in research. The area of research for the up to 5-year period is controlled by the CIP (Classification of Instructional Program) code on each J-1 post-doc’s DS-2019 Certificate of Eligibility. Under longstanding law and regulation, a J-1 researcher can continue the same or related research for the full 5-year period. While some of that 5-year period can be scholarly on-campus activities, such as a university post-doc program, it is not required that the authorized J-1 research be limited to an academic post-doctoral fellowship. Instead, J-1 post-docs can also engage in company research, or nonprofit research, in addition to or after their scholarly, on-campus research as long as all research is related to the same CIP code.
J-1 status holders in the Research Scholar category can be engaging in and supporting scholarly research at university and teaching hospital labs but also may fill many other roles within academic labs or within company R&D. If the primary purpose and day-to-day duties of a position are clearly part of research and development efforts, such positions could be fulfilled by a J-1 researcher, whether the duties require a STEM Bachelors, Masters, or Doctorate.
No, J-1 researchers are not limited to academic research. J-1 Research Scholars can work with for-profit companies, and be paid as regular employees by the company, whether a start-up or a multinational firm. Fully consistent with long-standing regulation for the J-1 Research Scholar category, the host site of activity can be a company engaged in R&D, and is not limited to scholarly research at the nation’s hospitals and higher ed institutions, as validated by the State Department in the BridgeUSA FAQs on J-1 STEM research.
The “site of activity” is where the individual J-1 participant makes in-person, research-related efforts. The site of activity is often the employer that is funding the J-1 Research Scholar. But in theory, the financial support source can be separate.
Traditionally, the vast majority of and traditional use of the J-1 Research Scholar category for many decades has been for and at universities and teaching hospitals. For example, most international post-docs in the United States are on J-1 visas in the Research Scholar category. Importantly, after completing on-campus activities, a post-doc can add a new site of activity with a company, start-up, or other research site – as long as the research is similar to or related to the post-doc research program.
No, universities and teaching hospitals are not the only permitted sponsors of J-1 Research Scholars. The “sponsor” is the organization designated by the U.S. Department of State to be responsible for compliance, administration, and monitoring of the exchange visitor program. Certainly, higher ed is the largest group of sponsors – and the largest site of activity – for the J-1 Research Scholar, but there are others. “BridgeUSA” is where the US Department of State’s private sector exchange programs live, including the Research Scholar category – which is available for researchers pursuing scholarly work on campus or STEM R&D of all types off campus.
While most J-1 exchange visitor sponsors are U.S. colleges and universities, many are designated in specific private sector programs where the site of activity is a host business or host school district, or host summer camp and thus unrelated to higher ed (like intern, summer work travel, camp counselor, primary or secondary teacher programs, for example). Thus, there are a multitude of exchange visitor programs with authorized sponsors in specific categories of J-1 participants, where the site of activity is a host K-12 school, business offering an internship, resort offering summer employment to foreign college students, and so forth.
With regard to STEM R&D, a group of established nonprofit organizations are duly designated by the State Department to act as the J-1 program sponsor when companies want to host interns, trainees, and research scholars, and have worked for decades in the intern and trainee space with extensive experience sponsoring J-1s with host companies.
These “umbrella organizations,” among others these include American Immigration Council, Cultural Vistas, and Cultural Exchange Network (Cenet), are authorized, among others, to be sponsors of STEM researchers at host companies, and can partner directly with host companies of any size. They are also authorized, and have experience, working with host organizations where there are multiple sites of activity, and thus are ideal to partner with universities when a post-doc wants to weave in employment and research outside of academia or switch to company research after on-campus scholarly pursuits. The researcherusa.com website provides resource information on how the J-1 Research Scholar category works for STEM R&D across America, including outside of academia, with many FAQs including the FAQs from the State Department.
One benefit of being sponsored by a nonprofit exchange program that is authorized to act as an umbrella in the Research Scholar category is that such sponsors are used to authorizing multiple sites of activity or changing sites of activity, particularly valuable to collaborating international researchers who would like to be part of a venture studio as a research founder while also pursuing bench research, university lab research, and/or company or nonprofit research. When of interest, a J-1 post-doc can also transfer her sponsorship from a university to a nonprofit umbrella program, like American Immigration Council, Cultural Vistas, and Cultural Exchange Network (Cenet).
Fully consistent with governing regulations, the J-1 Research Scholar category permits a lot of flexibility concerning salary and funding. The purpose of the J-1 program is the exchange of ideas and building connections and collaborative research partnerships between American and global researchers – for lack of a better phrase, for the Research Scholar category one might consider its goal is to foster brain circulation.
For researchers on U.S. college campuses, it’s very common for the sponsor, host site of activity, and funder to be one and the same: the higher ed institution. But under State Department regulations, the funder does not have to be the sponsor, and outside of academia it is never the situation where the sponsor also is the employer and funder. Instead, when nonprofit program sponsors act as umbrella organizations, it’s standard for the funding source for the J-1 participant to be a for-profit company, venture studio, philanthropy, or independent lab, among other examples – where the J-1 Research Scholar is paid just as an American counterpart at the same site of activity. A J-1 Research Scholar might also be funded by a grant or fellowship that provided monies directly to the individual J-1 participant. And in some situations the individual does not have to be paid by the employer and instead can be self-funded for all or part of her U.S. research activities if she can show sufficient funds to support herself.
It is a binding regulatory requirement that the program sponsor must verify the ability of each J-1 participant to have funding sources to cover their living expenses (and to have access to qualifying health insurance), which is noted on the individual’s DS-2019 Certificate of Eligibility issued by the sponsor. But there are many options for such funding!
Independent, objective resources include:
- An employer guide on hiring noncitizens in the U.S. that includes summaries on “how do I hire a person conducting research” and “how do I hire a post-doc at a U.S. university.”
- An educational website, Researcherusa.com.
- State Department FAQs.
- A summary of the J-1 research visa.
- Organizations designated by the State Department as sponsors authorized to place J-1 researchers with any host site (including companies, start-ups, venture studios, and universities) include the Institute for International Education (IIE), Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE), American Immigration Council (LMurray@immcouncil.org), Cultural Vistas (CStephens-Bez@culturalvistas.org), and Cultural Exchange Network (Cenet) (ian@cenet.org).
