Disclaimer: You should not treat this as an unofficial document that is not endorsed by the University of Waterloo or any of my employers. Please treat everything with caution and note that I'm still just a student.
Four months ago, for the first time in my life, I got to both work, and live in the USA.
Like many others, I was a tad bit worried about everything and so I found many guides online:
As you may notice though, these were written and last updated around 2017, and now, almost a decade later, I thought I'd provide my own thoughts and experiences on the entire process and what you need to look out for.
One of the biggest barriers to working in the USA is just simply obtaining a Visa. Thankfully, Waterloo makes this somewhat simple for the employer and you. I was lucky enough to go through Cultural Vistas which is one of the standard companies that Waterloo works with.
They made the process somewhat simple (I imagine it would take a lot longer without them.) Prepare to still provide a lot of documentation, this is what I remember roughly had to be filled in:
It took around 1 month for the entire process from start to finish, it may be shorter for you since I had to fix and update some other documents at their request. They were pretty good at communicating and responded quickly (within 24 hours), at the time of this writing it cost around $1,125 which my company paid on behalf of me, you can find up to date prices here
Once everything is all clear with your Visa, you should receive a multitude of documents, these will include:
DS-2019: Certificate of Elibility for Exchange Visitor Status Non Immigrant, 1 Page This document needs to be signed by you, read carefully as certain sections need to be left empty
DS-7002: Training Placement Plan, Lots of Pages This will be filled in by your employer and basically asks them to explain what you'll be doing and learning during your training, you do not have to sign anything here.
SEVIS I-901 Payment Confirmation: Payment to participate in this program Cultural Vistas will pay this fee for you, but essentially you have to pay $220 to participate in the program and this receipt proves that it has been paid.
Print all of these out, and keep them ready and with you when you prepare to enter the USA.
In addition, you should also print out:
Finally, you will need to pay the I-94 fee, to do this go to: link. It's $6 and can be done up to a week in advance of entering the country.
Make sure to check this frequently since it will tell you what you were admitted into the country for. You should see a J1 status, not entirely sure what you have to do if this isn't what you see but you can consult other guides.
You do not have to worry about anything if you're traveling within the USA, flights, busses, trains are all ok. However, if you're planning on leaving the USA you will have to first notify your Visa sponsor and will likely need an updated DS-2019.
I did not leave the USA during my internship so I would just follow whatever general process your sponsor asks you to follow.
Apply for this ASAP! This has changed a lot from what other guides described from what I had to go through.
Cultural Vistas recommended waiting 2 weeks, but it should be fine to do this earlier so long as you wait a few days after entering the USA.
The general process looks like this:
This happened to be 2 weeks later 😔.
The lower Manhattan office I went to had no security screening, but was hard to find as other guides mentioned, just ask though and they will direct you to the correct floor.
Bring all documents I don't remember explicitly what I was asked for during my appointment but they did go through many of my documents. Thankfully, it went by relatively fast (5 minutes).
Wait for your SSN! As a sidenote, you CAN get paid by your company if they use Rippling, even if you don't have your SSN yet. I only found this out after the month long fiasco which was further delayed due to the government shutdown.
This SSN is for life! You do not ever have to apply for this again.
Probably the worst part. I might've had a worse experience because I was in NYC but you should probably invest a lot of time in this.
Other general tips for NYC specifically:
I've heard good things about Airbnb, but not Super.com if that helps but apps seem to just be hit or miss most of the time.
As other guides mention, you can do this without your SSN, however there's a bit more here.
I used TD and I needed:
I don't have too much else to offer here, I'm still 19 so getting a credit card wasn't an option due to me being under 21, so I just used a debit card for the majority of my stay. You should still be able to use a Canadian Credit Card, but I had to pay some like 1-2% transaction fee for converting CAD to USD.
TD made it relatively simple to transfer USD from my Canadian account to my US account.
If it helps you can now also do this online instead of the quick 5 minute phone call you have to make. As long as you also fit some general minimum requirements (IIRC it's 1.5k USD in your Canadian account), all transaction fees are waived, they temporarily take something like $25-50 but then they'll refund it after a few days.
At the end of the day, USD to CAD isn't very strong right now so I'm opting to keep my USD, especially since I'll probably need it for future terms. Thus, I don't really have anything on transferring either, although I would probably still just transfer USD to USD from my US account to my Canadian account and then just convert to CAD.
Unfortunately, I haven't gone through this process so I have no advice, I am also not a tax professional of any sort so I wouldn't take anything I say seriously...