J Visa Or Not .. What to do ??

[vsharmaiit]

Hi all. I am a Ph.D. scholar at CSE, IIT Kanpur, and one of my supervisors is from the US. He and my supervisor at IIT Kanpur both have in principle agreed to send me once every year to US for a short stay at his univ. there (2 to 4 months max) for studying with his research group there. Now the question is which Visa should I go on. IITk will support the travel and the my supervisor there will support the accomodation. As I will not be enrolled in the Univ there so he would be giving me some daily allowance. Now does that come under employment ? Then would it be imperative to go on a J Visa ? If yes than how could I go again next year ?
I do not wish to stay there for more than 3-4 months at a strech, but wish to do it every year for my research.
Please help and guide. Thanks in Advance. --Vsharma

 

[Raghu2k]

J1 visa reqd

Hi,

When I was a undergrad from IIT-Madras, I travelled twice to US on a similar professor to professor basis. Both the times I took the J1 visa. All the professor has got to do is to send you the IAP-66 forms and take you as a short term scholar or a student. He can pay you through the university payroll office through his funds instead of paying out of his purse. The purpose of the visit might be research or a non degree program in your engineering stream. There is no need for any enrolment for this. The visa will be valid for the duration of stay (until your program ends).



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non-legal point of view only