Information on Incidental Employment for J-1 Scholars

Information below is designed for J-1 professors and research scholars. It will explain the regulations which permit J-1 professors and research scholars to participate in occasional lectures and short-term consultations.

Your J-1 Responsible Officer

To work for any employer other than Wright State University  in the position described on your DS-2019 Form, you must first obtain approval in writing from your J-1 Responsible Officer, who represents your J-1 sponsor and issues your Forms IAP-66. He or she must evaluate the proposed employment in terms of your program objectives and your individual circumstances, and then decide whether it would be appropriate or not. For most J-1 professors and scholars at WSU, the University is your sponsor and your J-1 Responsible Officer is one of the UCIE advisers. If your J-1 sponsor is an agency, and if you are uncertain how to reach your J-1 Responsible Officer, an UCIE adviser will help you find out, but has no authority to grant employment permission.

Conditions

The proposed employment:

Must be directly related to the objectives of your Exchange Visitor program; 
Must be incidental to your primary program activities; and 
Must not delay the completion of your Exchange Visitor program.

Procedures

To obtain authorization for incidental employment, you should present the following to your J-1 Responsible Officer:

A letter of offer from the prospective employer describing the terms and conditions of the proposed employment, including the duration, the number of hours, the field or subject, the amount of compensation, and a description of the activity for which you are being hired.
A letter from your department head or supervisor:

a) referring to the letter from the prospective employer; 
b) confirming that the employment is directly related to your principal activity, is indeed incidental, and will not delay completion of your program;
c) explaining how the proposed activity would enhance your Exchange Visitor program; 
d) recommending approval of the employment.

If your J-1 Responsible Officer approves, he or she will authorize the employment in writing.

Authorization to Work

If the employment is a lecture or consultation, you will be working not as an employee but as an independent contractor, meaning that you will not have a sustained employer employee relationship with the person or institution paying you, and will not complete Form I-9, "Employment Eligibility Verification," in order to start work. In that situation your authorization will take the form of a letter to you from your J-1 Responsible Officer, which your employer may ask to see, and which you should keep permanently.

If the incidental employment is sustained, for example if you will be teaching a course at another school that lasts an entire term, then your authorization will be a new Form DS-2019, issued by your present J-1 Responsible Officer, showing the name of the employer (as well as the institution of your principal affiliation), and the amount you will be paid. Your Responsible Officer will send the yellow copy of that Form DS-2019 to the United States Information Agency in Washington, as notification that the incidental employment has been authorized, and will give you the pink copy to use as documentation when you and your employer complete Form I-9, "Employment Eligibility Verification," before you start work.

Social Security and Other Taxes

Social security taxes.

In general, as a J-1 scholar, you will be exempt from Social Security (F.I.CA.) taxes for the period of time you are classified as a non-resident for U.S. federal income tax purposes. This normally refers to the first two tax years in which you are in the United States. (See Internal Revenue Service Publication 519 "U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens.")

Federal, state and local taxes.

Unless you qualify under a tax treaty between the United States and your home government, your earnings as a J-1 scholar will be subject to applicable federal, state and local taxes, and employers may or may not be required by law to withhold these taxes from your paycheck, but in any case you will still have tax liabilities on your earnings from incidental employment.

A Note of Caution

As a J-1 scholar your options for incidental employment are limited. Please remember that employment without proper authorization is a serious violation of your status. Before you begin any kind of employment, you must first consult your J-1 Responsible Officer, whose written approval is necessary in advance.