:: Companies ::

J-1 Interns are ambitious, hard-working and dedicated young professionals looking for international experience in the most advanced country on earth, USA. Interns are coming with a 12 to 18 month commitment and they cannot change their companies except for rare cases of abuse and treatment as cheap labor by their host companies. Securing this up to 18 month commitment means a lot to the companies in America, where hiring and firing is so easy that Human Resources departments generally have to ignore their core competencies for the sake of it. Especially for the hourly positions, it is almost impossible to keep your employees for 6 months because they are ready to change their jobs lured by a one dollar increase by the business next door.

• a very smart alternative
• the easiest way to globalize your work force
• cost-efficient,
• tried and proved to be tremendous by thousands of US companies

J-1 Internship Program is a smart way of attracting and creaming off the smartest brains overseas. Regardless of the sector you are operating in, you can bring as many interns as needed without the legally binding contracts of other visa types like H1B.

By offering internship positions, companies benefit from the global perspective of a vast resource of ambitious, committed and bilingual recent graduates. It is a win-win situation for the host companies and for the interns.

Companies are exempted from Federal Tax and only liable to pay State Tax for their interns. No social security or Medicare. Interns have their own pre-paid health insurance.

Host companies are filling out our Job Description forms so that we can clearly understand the requirements of the position, hourly compensation for the intern and some other special preferences. Job Description Form is very important to transparently inform the candidates about the position and the company. We pick the matching resumes from our resume database and share it with them. We set up interviews with the candidates the host company is interested in. Once the host companies make sure that they have found the right intern after the telephone interviews; they sign a Training Offer Letter and prepare a Training Plan. We help them with the preparation of Training Plan. Glocal Exchange again handles the J-1 visa process according to US State Department rules and regulations. The interns are subject to various background checks by the State Department designated DS 2019 sponsors. DS 2019 is the certificate of eligibility for exchange student, a legal document similar to I20 in the student visa. DS 2019 sponsors are monitoring interns’ activities in USA throughout the internship. The whole process takes only 4 to 6 weeks from the moment the interns get the internship offer to the start of training.

J-1 Interns are starting with their host companies with a commitment of 12 to 18 months. During this time, they are not allowed to change their companies unless they have acceptably obvious reasons on DS level to do so. Examples of obvious reasons are not paying or underpaying the hourly wage written on the Training Offer Letter, sexual harassment and the lack of a supervisor to train the intern.

Interns are seeking international experience no matter what. They are willing to work in the windiest city Amarillo, TX to the least densely populated Wyoming. Companies from the Northernmost Alaska to the southernmost Hawaii to the Easternmost Maine are benefiting from our services freely and equally.

We put ourselves in the shoes of a host company and ask following 10 questions you might possibly have in your mind:

1- Who is a J-1 intern? J-1 intern is graduated from an at least four-year university in specific majors such as tourism & hospitality, IT, Engineering, Marketing, Business Administration etc. who speaks fluent English and has a a copule of professional business experience. J-1 Intern's motivation is to get international experience in the most desired country on earth, USA.

2- By bringing J-1 Interns from overseas, are we sponsoring them? What is our legal status as the host company and who takes care of all the documentation? Hundreds of small, medium and big size companies use this program for years, which speaks for itself in J-1 Program’s simplicity and success. What we need from the companies is just a few signatures for the Training Offer Letter, Training Plan and Host Company Aggreement Forms. We are taking care of the J-1 visa documentation. The whole J-1 visa and DS 2019 (legal document allowing internship in USA issued by DS Sponsors designated by US State Department) process takes 4-6 weeks.

3- Do we have to pay for this program? No, this program is completely free of charge for US Host companies. You are just liable to pay your intern an hourly wage, which starts from $7.50 and goes up to $15.00 depending on experience.

4- What are the advantages and benefits of having interns in our company? Host companies are saving a lot of tax over interns because they are not permanent in USA. They enter US with their prepaid medical insurance so you do not pay Medicare or Social Security. Companies are exempt from Federal Tax and only liable to pay the State Tax. Apart from their low cost efficiency to the company, they are very hard-working and ambitious. They are coming with a commitment and they cannot change their companies throughout their stay as long as there are no obviously acceptable reasons to do so. Sexual harassment, underpayment or no payment and lack of a supervisor to train the intern are the major reasons that can justify an intern's request for change of host company. 12 or 18 month commitment is very important in USA. Especially for the tourism industry, because hotels are very fast changing business environments, the employees might be easily persuaded to change their job with one dollar increase offered by the hotel next door. But with J-1 Internship, you are fully staffed at least for 12 or 18 months. So, though it is a temporary placement, it is more reliable than the permanent ones. This program is a very viable human resources alternative.

5- What if the interns turn out to be useless for the position? All of the resumes submitted by our internship candidates have been going through several screening processes. Candidates are quite honest about their resumes and they are interviewed many times by different agents for English level and eligibility assessment. To avoid any future inconvenience, we allow host companies to know the candidates more and more through comprehensive telephone interviews with the HR Manager in charge or Department Directors. At the end of this interview process, host companies are certain about the qualifications of the candidates. 6- Ok, but still the transition from the home country to host country can be painful. What if interns cannot adapt to the company culture and social environment or etc? We transparently explain the A to Z of J-1 Internship to our interns and host companies. We share with them the experience of our previous interns, which is very remarkable so far. More importantly, when we are selecting the candidates, we pay special attention to their mental and physical health. If they are sad, blue, withdrawn, depressive and low-motivated, we eliminate them in the very beginning. We have to develop sound relations with the host company and if we send rotten tomatoes, we have no chance to work with you again. We hate this idea. However, if the intern shows irresponsible behavior towards his/her seniors or coworkers or cannot adapt to your company culture and social environment despite all the good will, then you have the right to terminate his/her internship. If he/she quits the job with no reason, they have to turn back to their home countries in 72 hours. The legal infrastructure of J-1 Internship is designed by US State Department and is favoring the host companies to the fullest extent.

7- Do they have Social Security number and bank account? How do we pay them? Yes, they apply for SSN and bank account in the first week of their arrival in US. They are perfectly legal in this program. You pay them biweekly or monthly paychecks just the way you do with your regular employees.

8- How about housing? Comfortable housing is imperative for the efficiency of the intern at work. We know this very well and approach it accordingly. Host companies are not obligated to arrange housing for the interns. Some host companies kindly help the interns out with this issue by guiding them or placing them temporarily and make necessary deduction from their paychecks. Interns generally find their own housing prior to their arrival. They get extensive help from us. It takes 6 weeks for the intern to arrive in US and they are using this gap to find their housing and know more about the city and American business life. None of our previous interns suffered housing problem.

9- If we work with Glocal Exchange, where can we bring our interns from? Glocal Exchange has good presence in Europe.We can fill any positions in IT, Engineering, Accounting, Marketing, Business Administration, Fashion Design, Architecture, Food & Beverage, Front Desk, Housekeeping, Maintenance etc.

10- Do you have any references? Sure, Glocal Exchange has host companies from many different sectors. We have plenty of host companies and the contact persons in these compnies can be submitted upon request.

If you have questions other than these, please do not hesitate to contact us. info@glocalexchange.com