Every year, the University of Michigan welcomes hundreds of international scholars on a J-1 visa.  Once a U-M faculty member has invited a scholar for the J-1 Exchange Visitor Program, the process begins. The SSC provides coordination services that include processing new requests, returning J-1 visa scholars, transfers, and those seeking an amendment or extension for their program.

Note: If the scholar is coming to or extending their time at the Medical School, please submit your request to Medical School Immigration Support and Compliance (MSISC), which you do by submitting the intake form on this page. The SSC does not process visa requests for the Medical School.

J-1 Visa Request Process Overview
for U-M Department Contact

The J-1 visa request process involves many steps. To help streamline and simplify what’s needed, we have created an Overview of the J-1 Process to help you navigate through the process, provide you with a checklist on what to gather before you start, and guide you on what happens once you have made a request.

J-1 Visa Wait times and Submission Deadlines

Please be sure to view the Visa wait times in your Scholar’s country of Legal Permanent residence. This should also be taken into consideration in addition to the “9 to 11 weeks in advance” that we request. Some countries have consulates that are either closed or have very long visa wait times which can delay start dates as well. Scholars are unable to schedule their Visa appointment until their DS-2019s are complete and tickets can not be expedited due to long visa wait times.

The J-1 Visa Submission deadlines are now available to view here, as well as, on the J-1 Visa Request eForm. Please note: Deadlines are subject to change, this page will have the most accurate deadlines. Please be sure your new request has an acceptable start date before submitting your new J-1 Visa request.

Restricted Party Screening

As part of our compliance with university and federal guidelines, the J-1 team currently conducts Restricted Party Screenings for all incoming J-1 scholars:

• The screening must be completed with no alerts before the J-1 team can initiate the request with the incoming scholar
• The screening is conducted using the names as listed on the scholar’s Passport, along with any current and previous affiliations listed CV. In order to ensure accuracy, effective immediately, we are now requiring a copy of the scholars passport in addition to the CV, at the time of the J-1 request submission
• J-2 dependents will also be screened as part of the process, once scholars have provided the J-2’s passports

Process Overview: Once the screening is completed, 1 of 2 things will happen:

1. No Alerts: The J-1 team will notify that you the English Evaluation request has been sent out or that the J-1 request ticket has been initiated
2. Alert on name or affiliated institution: The J-1 coordinator will reach out to the Export Controls team for guidance. Each situation is handled on an individual basis, depending on the nature of the alert. The Export Controls team may contact your department directly if additional documentation is needed

Please be aware that this may delay the program dates

Further information about this process can be found here:

• https://research-compliance.umich.edu/export-co…
• https://research-compliance.umich.edu/faqs/whic…

Request J-1 Visa Exchange Visitor Program:
New | Return | Transfer

This is used for visitors who have been invited to start a new J-1 Exchange Visitor Program, have been invited to return under J-1 visa status, or will transfer their J-1 Exchange Visitor Program to the University of Michigan from a different institution within the United States. Please use the checklist below before filling out the request.

• Confirm that J-1 is the appropriate visa status for the purpose of the visit and long-term intent of the exchange visitor.
• Will the visitor be receiving any funding from U-M? If so, how much?
• Do you have a copy of the visitor’s resume?
• If you would like the International Center to ship the visitor their DS-2019, do you have a shortcode that can be used for the shipping label?
• Do you have a 2-4 sentence summary of what the visitor will be doing while they’re here?

When submitting a new J-1 visa request please take into account insurance costs. Insurance costs cannot be prorated for exchange visitors. If their program begins on 06/29/2022 they will be required to pay the full premium amount for that month. The same applies to program end dates, if the program ends on July 01, 2023 they will be required to pay for that entire month’s insurance costs. The current monthly insurance rate is $291.27.

Please submit requests 9 to 11 weeks before the visitor’s program start date to allow for the DS-2019 to be created and for the visitor to apply for their visa.

Request J-1 Visa – Amendment | Extension

This is used for extending a visitor’s J-1 Exchange Visitor Program at the University of Michigan or changing the program objective and/or work responsibilities. It is also used for changing funding information, site of activity, position or job title.

Note: Extension/amendment requests must go through a department contact. Exchange Visitors should not submit these requests themselves.

Questions?  Contact us (Choose J-1 Visa)