The following jobs are not allowed on the Work Travel Program and this list is not exhaustive. 

Under program regulations and/or IWT program rules, participants cannot be employed in the following positions or any:

• position that could bring notoriety or disrepute to the Exchange Visitor Program.

• Any position that requires licensing.

• A domestic employee (child care, chauffeurs, gardeners, etc.),

• Where host companies have experienced layoffs in the preceding 120 days and have workers on lockout or on strike.

• Where host companies displace domestic U.S. workers at worksites where they will place program participants.

• Positions requiring work hours that fall predominantly between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am.

• Declared hazardous to youth including poultry and meat processing; work involving heavy construction machinery or commercial bakery equipment, with the exception of portable counter top mixers and certain pizza dough rollers

• Positions that would require sustained physical contact with others (e.g., body piercing, tattooing, massage, manicure).

• Involved in gaming or gambling that include direct participation in wagering and/or betting.

• In chemical pest control, warehousing, catalogue/online order distribution centers.

• With travelling fairs or itinerant concessionaires (i.e. traveling carnival crew).

• For which there is another specific J visa category (e.g., camp counselors, babysitters, teachers, unpaid internship)

• In NAICS Goods-Producing Industries occupational categories, including, but not limited to, construction, manufacturing, and seafood processing.

• Adult entertainment industry jobs, even in a retail role; escort services, adult book/video stores, and strip clubs

• Working with Animals

• Babysitting

• Camp – as a counselor or even work within a camp or environment primarily surrounded by children

• Coach of children

• Crew member on ships or airplanes, or as pilots

• Domestic labor

• Factories, manufacturing, warehouses, retail shipping-packing operations( ANY AMAZON WAREHOUSE JOB IS NOT ALLOWED )

• Health care positions interacting with patients

• Independent contractors (i.e. “1099” filers)

• Janitorial work in office buildings (housekeeping in hospitality industry is alright)

• Landscaping and Mechanical Maintenance

• Mall kiosk jobs (retail stores within a mall are alright)

• Medical or veterinary work

• Modeling agencies

• As operators or drivers of vehicles or vessels for which drivers' licenses are required regardless of

• whether the person carries passengers or not

• Pedicab or rolling chair drivers or operators.

• Pharmaceutical services or any job that requires direct patient contact or dispensing of medication

• Positions that are substantially commission-based and thus do not guarantee that a participant will be paid minimum wage in accordance with federal and state standards for all hours worked

• Sales jobs involving purchasing sales merchandise to resell (door-to-door sales)

• Seafood processing

• Staffing agencies - employment through a staffing agency or “Professional Employment Organization”

• “Staffing/employment agency: A U.S. business that hires individuals for the sole purpose of supplying workers to other businesses. Typically, the other businesses where workers are placed pay an hourly fee per employee to the staffing/employment agency, of which the worker receives a percentage." [§ 62.10 Definitions. General Provisions]

• Teacher

• Working with children or the elderly as caregivers

• Any position with a company that refuses to provide a copy of a business license (or equivalent) and/or a copy of a valid workers’ compensation insurance policy (where required by state law).

• Any position for which a temporary or seasonal need does not exist or cannot be clearly demonstrated.

• Positions at single-guard pools;

• Positions that involve the use of deli slicers;

• Positions that are not compensated hourly e.g. piece wages, stipends, etc.;

• Positions as an independent contractor/hired on a 1099 form;

• ​With employers who hire J-1 students for 3 seasons (spring, summer, winter)​

• Positions in waste management, janitorial, or custodial positions; 

• Locations where telephone and Internet communication is not accessible.

Please refer to http://j1visa.state.gov/ for more information.

• • Hands On Labor

  • Unlimited Bikes

  • YMCA

  • Tour Central Park Inc. (www.bikerent.ync)

  •  Pier 66 Maritime

  •  Dickey's Barbecue Pit, San Diego

  •  Reunion by Chef Art Smith, Chicago 

  •  Lakeshore Sport and Fitness at Maggie Daley Park, Chicago 

  •  Life Time Fitness, Chicago 

  •  16 Handles, Brooklyn 

  •  Catering by Michaels

  •  Stone Street Tavern ltd (added March 2023)

  •  Arimaw Productions (added March 2023)

  •  Dee's Concessions (added March 2023)

  •  Watermark Concessions (Added March 2023)

  •  Nikolas Pizza (Added March 2023)

  •  Annie’s Hot Dogs (added April 2023)

  •  Dorrians Red Hand (added April 2023)

  •  Earl's Restaurant Somerville, Massachusetts (added May 2023)

  •  Twisted Spoke, Chicago (added May 2023)

  •  Cream, Bearkley (added May 2023)

  •  Primark (added May 2023)

  •  Kite Loft, Ocean City, MD (added Sept 2023)

  •  San Diego Zoo, CA (added Nov 2023)

• Please refer to http://j1visa.state.gov/ for more information.