From: cjp8b@dayhoff.med.Virginia.EDU (Chris Penington)
Newsgroups: alt.visa.us
Subject: Re: J-1 visa
Keywords: J-1
Message-ID: <1992Aug4.231715.12325@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Date: 4 Aug 92 23:17:15 GMT

In article <4275@news.duke.edu> rp@acpub.duke.edu (RAJESH PENDEKANTI) writes:
>Hi,
>
>I desperately need some information regrding ths transfer of F-1 visa to
>J-1.  My job starts after one and a half months from now. I have the IAP
>66. I wish to go back to India for a month and come back to join the job.
>  
>1.  How long does it take to get a J-1 visa from F-1 applying in US?
>2.  Can I get the visa in US and go to India and come back before starting
>    the job?
>
>3.  Can I go back to India and apply for J-1 from there?Is it risky?
>4.  Is there any difference between getting a J-1 visa from India and from
>US?

This whole series of questions assumes that you can actually get the
**visa** in the US. Unless INS and the State Department have
completely changed the way they do things in the last year then I
don't believe this is the case. Visas are issued by US consulates
outside the US. Does anyone KNOW differently? What you CAN do within
the US is apply to INS for a change of visa status (F-1 to J-1). This
does NOT mean that they give you a new visa, just that they note that
you now have a different visa status. Check with the person who issued
your IAP-66 (indeed direct your questions to them, they should know an
awful lot more about this and your case in particular than the net
community). If your paperwork is current and in order (specifically
your IAP-66) you should be able to get your new J-1 visa at any US
consulate, be it in India, Britain (shudder), Australia or upper woop
woop. If your paperwork is in order the only "risk" I can imagine is
to your sanity as you work your way through the application process.
:-)

	Chris (who spent two days at the US embassy in London because
of paperwork that wasn't current {the FSA having declined to update it
when requested to do so}}

-- 
Chris Penington (cjp8b@virginia.edu)             .A---------.        My
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