Greetings from the Office of International Services (OIS)

We have been closely monitoring the developing situation with the coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic.  With widespread global impact, U.S. embassies and consulates have had to reduce or suspend visa services. There are travel bans on entering the U.S. from certain regions, and locally the state of North Carolina has declared a state of emergency.  In response to this, NC State University has made the decision to extend spring break by one week and transition to online instruction, and many offices on campus, including OIS, are being encouraged to transition to remote operations where possible.  

In addition, the Department of State on Friday sent guidance encouraging J-1 program sponsors to delay new, incoming J-1 exchange visitors for at least 60 days in accordance with a suspension of their own J-1 programs.

Due to these many changes and the rapidly evolving situation, OIS feels that the university is not in a position to properly support and supervise new incoming international scholars and student interns at this time.  Therefore, we have made the following decisions regarding new and initial status J-1 Scholar and Student Intern requests:

New J-1 Scholar and Student Intern Requests

All new departmental requests for an initial DS-2019 for international scholars and student interns coming from outside the U.S. will not be issued for a start date earlier than June 15, 2020.  J-1 exchange visitors may enter the U.S. up to 30 days in advance of the start of their program. A June 15 start date would allow a new scholar or intern the ability to enter the U.S. as early as May 16, 2020, and as late as July 15, 2020 without the need for a new DS-2019. 

Issued DS-2019s for J-1 Scholars and Student Interns With a Start Date Prior to 6/15/2020

We will work in the next few days to re-issue these DS-2019s with a deferred start date of 6/15/2020. We will distribute these DS-2019s to you to send to the exchange visitor abroad who will need to use the new document to apply for a visa (if they haven’t already) and enter the U.S. 

Please keep in mind that this is a very fluid situation and additional deferrals may be necessary. We will re-evaluate this on May 1, 2020.

Thank you for your understanding at this unique time. Please continue to monitor NC State’s COVID-19 response, and we look forward to welcoming your scholars and student interns at a later date.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth

Elizabeth A. James, JD

Director
Office of International Services, part of the
Office of Global Engagement
P: 919-515-2961
F: 919-515-1402 
http://internationalservices.ncsu.edu

NC State University
Campus Box 7222
320 Daniels Hall
Raleigh, NC  27695