Those of you heading to America with no J1 or working visa be warned!!

keltoms

Hey all,

i'll be heading to america next wednesday for 2 and a half months on the visa waiver program (holiday visa). my friends left yesterday morning and one of them texted me saying "watch urself comin through customs, i got dragged off to the side and bags and all searched f**kin wreck the head going mad at me for not havin a j1" he just made it VERY clear he had no intention of working and was there for tourist purposes only.

Just said id give all of u's a heads up

Larianne

Yes, don't have anything like printed CVs or references in your bag in case they are searched. Better to have them sent by post once you get there!

Neamhshuntasach

Larianne wrote: »

Yes, don't have anything like printed CVs or references in your bag in case they are searched. Better to have them sent by post once you get there!

Or just have them saved in an email and print off while over there.

I was talking to a girl in town at the weekend who was supposed to go off last Monday. She wasn't going on a J1 but was part of a group of friends that were. Her mistake was making it obvious she was with that group of people and she paid for it by being denied entry. So her summer plans are screwed now even though she said she had no intentions of working and had enough money to support herself. But being associated with a group of J1ers was suspicious to the officer. So anybody going over without a J1 that has no intentions of working just distance yourself from other J1ers and go through on your own to avoid that suspicion.

PeakOutput

with all the free j1 visa offers if you are goin over to work there really is no excuse not to have one it wont be much more expensive if at all and your guaranteed not to have your summer by some monkey in a uniform

tolosenc

Not to sound harsh or anything, but those who are heading to the States to work without a visa(of whom I know quite a number) are stupid enough that they usually get what they deserve. The bummer is if you're genuinely just off for a hollier and fet tarred with the same brush as others...

RATM

Yeah if your going there with a bunch of mates and dont intend working but they have J1's then the best thing to do is not even check in with them at the airport cos Customs there could even lay their hands on the seating list to find out who checked in with who. And if they even see you were sitting beside a bunch of mates with a J1 that could give them 'sufficient grounds for suspicion'.

cooperguy

Im in America for the summer on a J1. Went through customs in Shannon and saw none of that. Nobody had any problems

Neamhshuntasach

cooperguy wrote: »

Im in America for the summer on a J1. Went through customs in Shannon and saw none of that. Nobody had any problems

Well your on a J1 so none of what was mentioned in here would apply to you. And for all you knew everyone had a J1 during your time in Shannon. The warnings were for people who don't have a J1 and are heading over for the summer. The US immigration officers can be weird at times. It's all just pure luck and everything is so hit and miss that you can't depend upon their actions to be a certain way. But once you've a visa there should never be problems.

cooperguy

Nope. i knew people who hadnt any visas. Im not saying that its not possible to be hassled im just saying it definatly doesnt happen all the time. There is no point in getting too worried about it

notlost

hia im 24--and goin to san fran to an american i know until i go to college in sept--but dont have j1--u seem to no a bit about this so 1 willi have hassle gettin in?

Stephen

If you don't have a visa you can only stay for a maximum of 90 days and you can't work while you're there. If you booked a one-way ticket it'll draw suspicion for someone who hasn't got a visa.

lonestargirl

Stephen wrote: »

If you booked a one-way ticket it'll draw suspicion for someone who hasn't got a visa.

One of the conditions of using the visa wavier program is that you have an onward ticket.