On the 17th May, the UK government started allowing some international travel under the new "traffic light" system.
The USA is presently designated as an Amber Country - this means they are advising against non essential travel from the UK (and quarantine procedures apply on re-entry).
However, the US Government has not yet reopened it's borders to to visitors from the UK, Ireland and most other European countries.
The US Embassy in London, the Consulate in Belfast and the US Embassy in Dublin are still closed for anything other than emergency appointments - unfortunately, wanting your J1 visa ASAP doesn't qualify for this.
While the State Department and embassies worldwide are working extremely hard to get visa interviews and processes up and running, they are still unable to give a firm timescale for when this will happen. You can see the latest information from the London Consular Twitter account here
Please keep checking the US Consular Twitter feed at https://twitter.com/USAinUKConsular (there's a link to this on the side of this page) and also Section 2 of their FAQs page here
For those of you who have already been approved and received your legal documentation from us, please keep checking the above links and report back as soon as you get an appointment. If Embassy delays and closures will result in a delay to your start dates as listed on your Certificate of Insurance, you must contact our team ASAP - either via direct email to your specific team member or via info@istplus.com
For those of you who have not yet completed or submitted your application, we would ask that you have a conversation with your Host Companies regarding realistic dates - if you haven't started the process yet, and given current embassy closures, we would recommend against any start dates prior to Mid July/ August at the earliest!
Many thanks, The IST Plus InfoTeam
