J-1 Scholars/Exchange Visitors

Invitation Process

If you would like to pursue a collaborative research project at The Florida State University or demonstrate your specialized skills as an expert in your area (dance, music, athletics, for example), you will need to follow the procedures below:

1. Research and contact faculty members with similar research interests with whom you would like to work collaboratively. You can access a list of FSU departments and institutes at http://fsu.edu/departments/. Go to the websites of the departments of interest to you to find a list of faculty and brief descriptions of their research areas.
2. Once you have received an official invitation letter from that faculty member, please complete and sign Part II of the Request for J-1 Program, and return a scanned copy or fax to the inviting faculty member, along with a copy of your CV, a copy of the information page of your passport and the information page of the passports of any immediate family members traveling with you, documentation of funding, and documentation of your leave from your home institution, if applicable.
3. Your faculty member or inviting department's administrative contact will be working on processing Part I and the Supplemental form of the Request while awaiting your Part II. Please note that it sometimes takes several weeks to get all required signatures on campus.
4. Once all parts of the Request form have been compiled by your inviting department, they will forward the Request to the Exchange Visitor Advisor at the CGE for evaluation of program eligibility and processing. Normal processing time of a complete Request is approximately one week. Missing information or documentation significantly delays this process.
5. After the Exchange Visitor Advisor has completed processing, the inviting department will be informed that the Certificate of Eligibility for Exchange Visitor State (U.S. Department of State form DS-2019) is ready for delivery by FedEx. FedEx delivery is always strongly recommended.
6. Once you have received the DS-2019 form, you will need to schedule a visa interview with a U.S. Consulate outside of the U.S. and carefully follow all instructions included in the Pre-Arrival packet which is provided with the DS-2019 form. The Pre-Arrival packet gives detailed information regarding the visa process, preparing for travel, entry to the U.S., insurance requirements, check-in and orientation requirements, housing options and procedures, and resources for general information about Tallahassee and the Florida State University.

In the case that you do not find a faculty member interested in hosting your program, please do not feel discouraged. We appreciate your interest in FSU, but sometimes the current research workload or student mentoring demands prevents faculty from committing to a collaborative relationship. There may be future opportunities for international exchange with FSU.