J-1 Exchange Visitor Program

Inviting Family to the U.S.

During your stay at Florida Tech, you may want to invite a family member to visit you. The following provides some suggestions to help your family obtain a visa to enter the U.S.

Spouse or Child(ren)

If you have an F-1 or J-1 status, your spouse and child(ren) under age 21 can obtain an F-2 or J-2 dependent visa to accompany you or follow you separately to the U.S. To request a Certificate of Eligibility I-20 (F) or DS-2019 (J) from the International Student & Scholar Services Office, please come to the ISSS Office and speak with the "J" scholar advisor.

Before the DS-2019 can be issued, the following items are required:

  • Copy of spouse's and/or children's passport page
  • Financial statement showing support available (current requirement is $5,000 for spouse and $2,500 for each child (up to total of $10,000)

A new I-20 or DS-2019 form will be prepared for each of your family members. Our processing time is approximately 3-5 days to create the new documents.

After you pick up your family's new documents from the ISSS Office, you must deliver them to your family (either by mail or in person) so they can make a visa appointment. See also Applying for a Visa. If sending documents by mail, the ISSS Office recommends sending them by FedEx so that you have a "tracking number" in case the items get lost in the mail.

Extended Family and Domestic Partners

Extended family (parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles etc.) and domestic partners are not eligible to come to the U.S. as "dependents" in F-2 or J-2 status. They must apply for a B-1/B-2 Visitor visa (http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1262.html) or come to the U.S. under the Visa Waiver Program (http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/without/without_1990.html)

To facilitate the process of applying for a B-1/B-2 visitor visa, you can do the following (optional):

  1. Write a letter of invitation. Include the purpose of the visit, your relationship to the individual, a statement of your status here and the length of time they will be visiting ( usually less than three months). It is also good to mention that the individual has a job to which they plan to return. If you plan to provide for their support while they are here, include that information as well.
  2. Obtain a Letter of Verification:
    1. Undergraduate & Graduate students can request a letter of enrollment from the ISSS Office. Sproul Hall. 
    2. Scholars can request a letter from the departmental staff person who assists visiting scholars or host professor which indicates that you are a scholar in good standing in the department, your reason for being here, that you wish to return to your home country at the end of your research or teaching, and, if applicable, the amount of funding being provided by the department. 
  3. If you are not being paid a salary by the university, request a financial statement from your bank.

Providing your family members with all of the above papers may improve their chances of obtaining a visa. However, there is no guarantee a visa will be issued. The success of the applicant's request for a visa lies in their ability to prove that they have no intention of staying permanently in the U.S.

 

<< Back to J-1 Index