Work and Study
Only the US Immigration and Naturalization Service can grant permission to work in the country. Contact your local embassy or consulate for advice on current regulations and INS addresses; however, unless you have relatives (parents or children over 21) or a prospective employer to sponsor you, your chances are at best slim. Illegal work is not as easy to find as it once was, now that the government imposes fines up to $10,000 for companies caught employing anyone without the legal right to work in the US. Even in the traditionally more casual establishments, like restaurants and bars, things have really tightened up. If you do find work it's likely to be of the less visible, poorly paid kind - washer-up instead of waiter. Students have the best chance to prolong their stay in the US. One way is to get onto an Exchange Visitor Program; participants get a J-1 visa that entitles them to accept paid summer employment and apply for a social security number. However, most of these visas are issued for jobs in American summer camps , which aren't everybody's idea of a good time; they fly you over, and after a summer's work you end up with around $500 and a month to six weeks in which to blow it. If you live in Britain and are interested, contact BUNAC, 16 Bowling Green Lane, London EC1 (tel 020/7251 3472, ), or Camp America, 37a Queens Gate, London SW7 (tel 020/7581 7373, ). If you want to study at an American university, apply to that institution directly; once accepted, you're more or less entitled to unlimited visas so long as you remain enrolled in full-time education. Applicants for au pair visas must prove that they have at least 200 hours' experience with infants, 24 hours' training in child development and eight hours' child safety training. Prospective employers must provide a written description of the job they expect their au pair to perform, so there is protection on both sides. The American Institute for Foreign Study runs a program called Au Pair in America (tel 207/581-7322, ), open to men and women aged 18 to 26. There is a placement fee of $75, a $100 contribution toward insurance and a good-faith deposit of $400; the combined amount covers the interviewing and selection process, visa and flight to the US. On-the-job payment while in the US is about US$139 per week; if you last the whole year you get your good-faith deposit back in dollars.
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