Maintaining  Your Status as a J-1 Scholar

You are considered to be maintaining your stay as J-1 Visa Holder as long as:

• You are required to have your current living address and contact information (e-mail address and telephone number) updated with our office at all times. If you are moving, you nee to report your new living address within 10 days of moving via e-mail to Gabriella Pavlakis (gabriella.pavlakis@temple.edu) if you are sponsored by the Temple University Health System, including Fox Chance Cancer Center.

• You are pursuing the objective indicated on your form DS-2019. For example, if the DS-2019 indicates that you are a Research Scholar in the Department of Anatomy, you must be a Research Scholar in the Department of Anatomy.
• You have made appropriate extensions of your form DS-2019. Section #3 on your DS-2019 lists the dates of your program; these must always be valid and current dates.
• You must be engaged in research at the institution that issued your DS-2019. For example, you may not work at Thomas Jefferson University with an DS-2019 issued from Temple University. Employment off campus for J-1 Scholars is not always possible so please check with Gabriella Pavlakis (gabriella.pavlakis@temple.edu) before you begin any employment other than what is indicated on your DS-2019.
• You must obtain and maintain health insurance that meets DoS coverage. If you have Temple insurance it will not cover medical evacuation and repatriation. You must have full coverage for both yourself and any J-2 dependents here in the US.
• Remote Work- The US Department of State says:

  Through June 30, 2023, ECA’s guidance continues to be that temporary modification of a current, active-status exchange visitor's program due to exigent circumstances beyond a sponsor’s or host entity’s control does not undermine the program’s original consistency with program regulations. ECA understands that program sponsors may need to adjust program activities to meet their obligations to provide for the health, safety, and welfare of their exchange visitors. Sponsors may pursue ways to maintain program objectives, including a limited hybrid option, of one to two telework days per week, for one more academic year, not to exceed June 30, 2023, while preventing unnecessary exposure to COVID-19. The limited hybrid option is available for the following five exchange categories' host organizations that have instituted telework policies: College/University Student (Academic Training and Student Intern), Research Scholar, Short Term Scholar, Intern, and Trainee. A fully or predominantly virtual exchange program is not permitted. Designated sponsors in those five categories have the discretion to determine, on a case-by-case basis, whether J-1 exchange visitors may be eligible to participate in host organizations' hybrid telework policies provided they can successfully achieve the objectives of their exchange programs and meet the purpose of the Fulbright Hays Act of 1961 to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.