Post-completion Academic Training

You may apply as early as the semester start date of your graduating semester. Please make sure your application has been submitted on or before the scheduled deadline. This will allow adequate time for us to review, make a decision, and process your DS-2019, which is required prior to starting training. The DS-2019 will serve as proof of your authorization.

The Spring 2024 application deadline is June 12.

Step 1: STUDENT - SECURE A JOB OFFER AND PROVIDE A SIGNED POST-COMPLETION AT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT FORM FROM YOUR EMPLOYER

Find an AT experience that is related to your major, that will begin within 30-days of the completion of your program, and that is compliant with . Secure a job offer and have your employer complete the Post-Completion AT Employer Acknowledgement form, which is required to move forward to Step 2.

If the prospective employer does not agree to sign the form, then you must find another job placement. The Post-Completion AT Employer Acknowledgement form is mandatory, no exceptions.

Step 2: INTERNSHIP COORDINATOR AND DEAN – ACADEMIC RECOMMENDATION

Schedule time to meet with your internship coordinator to discuss your AT placement and academic recommendation. The form is completed by your internship coordinator and faculty dean.

Be prepared to discuss your goals and objectives directly supported by the AT placement you’ve secured. Once the Academic Recommendation is completed and submitted, it will be sent to the dean of your academic department for final approval.

Please note that the internship coordinator and dean may deny recommendation if they not see a direct correlation to your major or validation of placement being integral and critical to your program.

Step 3: STUDENT - SUBMIT YOUR ONLINE AT APPLICATION

Complete the online AT application and provide all the required documentation that should be uploaded as well:

1. Bank statement.
2. Housing plans after graduation.
3. Proof of health insurance.

Submit your application to the ISS office for initial screening, which includes review of your application and clearances by Office of Honor and Financial Services.

Step 4: ISS – FINAL APPROVAL AND SEVIS AUTHORIZATION

When ISS receives approval from your academic dean, ISS will process your AT in SEVIS and authorize your AT for the appropriate time and update site of activity. If your AT application is denied, your ISS advisor will work with you to start travel arrangements to return home.

Step 5: STUDENT - PICK UP YOUR NEW DS-2019

Once your AT is approved and authorized in SEVIS, ISS will notify you to pick up your updated DS-2019 and authorization letter. If you leave before your AT is approved, you must notify your ISS advisor and request that your document be mailed to you.

Reminder: You may not start AT without authorization from ISS. 

All academic training can begin after you have been approved by the ISS office. Academic training is a benefit for those who graduated with a bachelor's degree. Once you have approval from the ISS office and received the updated hard copy of your DS-2019, you may start your post-completion academic training. Note that you must begin your academic training within the 30 days following graduation.

You are authorized to engage in academic training for the time period specified on your DS-2019 in box five. You allowed 18 months total to engage in academic training, assuming you did not engage in pre-completion academic training. If you did engage in pre-completion AT, that time will be deducted from your total time of AT allowed. If you would like to extend your academic training authorization up to the 18 months allowed, please contact our office.

According to the 22 CFR 62.23 (f):

1. Must be in the United States primarily to study rather than engage in academic training.
   
2. Must be in good academic standing (CGPA must be 2.5 or above).
   
3. Must be at least 20 hours per week (Student cannot work less than 20 hours per week).
   
4. No teaching or co-teaching of K-12 (kindergarten to year 12) students.
   
   • Per the Department of State’s Guidance Directive 2012-06, the regulations do not permit exchange visitors sponsored under the professor, research scholar, short term scholar, or college and university student categories to teach at primary and secondary school in public or private schools.
   • Instead, teaching in K-12 schools is restricted to the teacher category, which we do not sponsor.
5. No patient contact.
   
   • Per Department of State’s Guidance Directive 2012-05 and 22 CFR 62.23(i)(8)(i), college and university students are not to engage in activities involving patient contact for AT placements. 
   • Guidance Directive 2012-05 provides clarification on appropriate and inappropriate placements under the social services and social sciences occupational categories. This guidance specifically addresses placements in facilities and residences that could potentially place exchange participants in unsafe environments and include internship or training activities that are clinical or may require participants to have patient contact or perform unskilled labor.
   • Prohibited Activities per Guidance Directive 2012-05
     
     • Any activity conducting physical and therapeutic intervention, restraining, monitoring clients, and assisting them with meals, housekeeping, and hygiene; or activities in which the intern or trainee may find themselves in situations where the delivery of clinical and/or therapeutic services or performing unskilled labor (as defined in Appendix E of 22 CFR Part 62).
     • Prohibited activities are inconsistent with the objective and intent of the Exchange Visitor Program and sponsors must cease placing interns and trainees in such positions. 
6. No AT placements in student employment positions.
   
   • 22 CFR 62.23(f)(5)(i)(D)
     
     • Academic trainees and student employees at the same site of activity must be engaged in different types of activity with primarily substantive roles directly related to the major field of study.
     • Avoid placement in positions or duties performed by student employees.
7. No AT placements in positions that lack academic rigor or are there to fill the labor needs of an organization.
   
   • 22 CFR 62.23(f)(3)(ii) and 22 CFR 62.23 (f)(5)(i)(D)
     
     • AT placements must be professional training with academic rigor that is tied directly to the student’s major and related to program objectives.
     • AT placements are not to fill labor needs, specifically unskilled positions, of an organization.
     • AT is not to be used for the primary purpose of employment; it is academic training with program objectives.
   • Guidance Directive 2018-01
     
     • Unskilled placements in AT are not permitted. Training is to be in primarily substantive roles
8. No more than 40 percent hybrid or virtual participation is permitted in certain categories.
   
   • While remote AT placements were allowed during the pandemic over the past two years, the U.S. Department of State clarified in April 2022 that “a fully or predominantly virtual exchange program is not permitted”; thus, remote academic training is limited. AT must primarily be in person.
      
   • Limited hybrid option.
     
     • Participants in academic training in the College and University Students category can engage "remotely no more than 40% of the time (e.g., two days out of five) when their host organizations have instituted partial remote policies and their sponsor has approved their hybrid program participation."
     • Primary residence must be near the site of activity, confirming ability to engage in in-person AT.
9. No unskilled labor positions.
   
   • Unskilled work is work which needs little or no judgment to do simple duties that can be learned on the job in a short period of time. A person does not gain work skills by doing unskilled jobs. Here is the list of unskilled labor positions:
     
     • Assemblers
     • Attendants, Parking Lot
     • Attendants (Service Workers such as Personal Services Attendants, Amusement and Recreation Service Attendants)
     • Automobile Service Station Attendants
     • Bartenders
     • Bookkeepers
     • Caretakers
     • Cashiers
     • Char workers and Cleaners
     • Chauffeurs and Taxicab Drivers
     • Cleaners, Hotel and Motel
     • Clerks, General
     • Clerks, Hotel
     • Clerks and Checkers, Grocery Stores
     • Clerk Typist
     • Cooks, Short Order
     • Counter and Fountain Workers
     • Dining Room Attendants
     • Electric Truck Operators
     • Elevator Operators
     • Floor workers
     • Groundskeepers
     • Guards
     • Helpers, any industry
     • Hotel Cleaners
     • Household Domestic Service Workers
     • Housekeepers
     • Janitors
     • Key Punch Operators
     • Kitchen Workers
     • Laborers, Common
     • Laborers, Farm
     • Laborers, Mine
     • Loopers and Toppers
     • Material Handlers
     • Nurses' Aides and Orderlies
     • Packers, Markers, Bottlers and Related
     • Porters
     • Receptionists
     • Sailors and Deck Hands
     • Sales Clerks, General
     • Sewing Machine Operators and Handstitchers
     • Stock Room and Warehouse Workers
     • Streetcar and Bus Conductors
     • Telephone Operators
     • Truck Drivers and Tractor Drivers
     • Typist, Lesser Skilled
     • Ushers, Recreation, and Amusement