1 year USA graduate visa - summer?

Fbjm

I am 24. I'm enrolled in a post-graduate higher diploma, but since it's only a year long I can't apply for the J1 summer work in America visa. I called USIT looking for advice and they pointed me towards this 1 year USA graduate visa, since I graduated from my bachelor's less than 12 months ago I'm eligible.

I'm totally lost on this though. I want to do a summer thing, like go over sometime mid June and come back late August as I'm hoping to start a Masters in my field in September. Is that possible? I've read accounts of others who've done it and they're all saying things like "I hopped over in January and it was fantastic, blah blah etc", so I'm worried now that a summer option mightn't be an option for me. Is that an option for me with this visa?

Any and all help appreciated, thank you.

ordinary_girl

I'm not 100% on this, so you'd be better off contacting USIT, but I'll try to be helpful anyway! Even though both the grad visa and the summer visa are both J1s, they have different limitations. I'm not sure if your idea for going over in mid June is to pursue J1 summer type work, but since you'll be on the grad visa you'll be strictly limited to finding internships/entry level work that must be related to whatever you've studied, so it won't really be the same as a "summer visa" in that sense.

Chain Smoker

You can't do the summer one unless you're currently enrolled in a degree and have proof that you're returning to college at the end of the summer. The one year visa is completely different and you're restricted to work which is related to your degree.

You can spend 90 days in the US without a visa though, you wouldn't legally be allowed to work.

Chain Smoker

You can't do the summer one unless you're currently enrolled in a degree and have proof that you're returning to college at the end of the summer. The one year visa is completely different and you're restricted to work which is related to your degree.

You can spend 90 days in the US without a visa though, you wouldn't legally be allowed to work.