How to apply for Work & Travel USA?

To ensure your eligibility to join WAT USA

make sure you read all the information below carefully 

• Must be a full-time student (Undergraduate/Master Degree)
• Understand the program and talk to your parents/ guardians 
• Register with agent (Speedwing/ Out of the Box)
• Pay for program deposit + short interview by agent
• Face-to-face/Skype interview with CIEE USA representation 
• Make full payment for the program + send documents needed
• USA Visa interview
• Book flight ticket
• Count down for the journey to USA !

Must be a full time student (Undergraduate/Master Degree)

To join this program, you must prove you're a full time student.

There are 2 important documents that you can get them ready while you're in the Uni/college:

• Letter of  student status
• Letter/cert-proof of English

Please obtain a Student Status Letter (In English) from university/college to proof your current full time student status.The letter will determine your participation eligibility. It's good if able to indicate the date of your sem break. 

Also, get your any related certificates/ letters to proof your English level. It'll be good if indicate in English

It could be your TOEFL,1119,IELTS,ELS, STPM/SPM, any English grades,transcripts or certificates.

✑The last chance you can take part in this program is BEFORE your graduate.Just remember that you need to apply BEFORE you finish your course (NOT THE GRADUATION CEREMONY!!). So get the letters ready before you leave your Uni.

✑There will be some case that MIGHT NOT be able to get the USA visa as US gov scared of people will *jump aeroplane* (not coming back on/after due date stated in visa). But,no need to be too worry about it because a lot of students apply before and go after their graduation able to get it successfully.

✑If you're a master student currently, you're also eligible for the program too. But make sure you're below 30 years old and already enroll for at least 2 semesters.

Understand the program and talk to your parents/guardians

✑ Understand what is Work & Travel USA program

refer to 什么是美国打工旅游？What's Work and Travel in USA?

✑ When should I start to apply?

My suggest is, once you understand the program and feel wanna spend your holiday with great experience the better you apply it earlier.

Agent will start to recruit student for the Summer season in Oct/Nov of the year and the job list will usually released in early month of the year. The departing period will be from May.

While Winter season as mine, start the recruitment in May/June and the job lists will released in July/August or thereafter.The departing period will be from end of Nov or earlier of Dec.

The earlier you apply, the more chance to get your desired job as all job offers are in 1st come, 1st serve basis. But if you're late, no need to worry as there's always job offers coming in Speedwing and OOTB. You can compare both job offers provided by these 2 agency and make a wise decision to appoint your agent.

✑ How much do I need to pay?

Average total cost that you might needed is around RM10k.

I use my cost breakdown  for your reference, spend little minutes to have a look. It shouldn't have much discrepancy when it comes to WAT USA summer 2014 recruitment later due to the currency exchange rate.

Breakdown of the fees I paid as below:

WAT US Winter Programme Fee  - RM3100 
SEVIS Fee                                    - RM120
Insurance Fee                                - RM50
US Visa (Category:J1)                   - RM540

Total Program Fee                         =RM3810 (paid to agent)

Flight tickets [return way] =RM4-7k  (purchase from agent or by yourself)

Pocket money= at least USD 500 
(bring more if you need to pay deposit for your accommodation& first 2 weeks living expenses)

✑ Where am I going to stay?

Usually, the accommodation will be provided by the employer.

We still need to pay to the rental but some are not. Some employer provide free meals as well. Even if they don't, we employees always get employee discounts from the employer.If you really concern on the rental, then may be you can try to apply for YMCA (If i was right, i remember they provide free meals and free accommodation for seasonal workers, but their hour paid is around USD 4.25/hr )

For me,  the rental rate will be USD 50 per week and share with other 3 people in a hotel room. , not included meals.It considers cheap so far as my employer does not provide us the accommodation. So we need to search and find the place we gonna stay in the State. Luckily,we find it and can be shared by 4 in a room. 

Register with Sppedwing/ OOTB

Well,there are actually 2 agencies offering this kind of service, Sppedwing and OOTB.You can refer to my post earlier, inside it got the link to register with your preference agencies. 

refer to 什么是美国打工旅游？What's Work and Travel in USA? so that u will get more information and updates.

I registered to both agencies and finally decided to go for Speedwing.

Actually, both agencies' officers are friendly and helpful on solving our doubt with this program. The reason why i choose Speedwing is that it starts its registration earlier than OOTB and offers the jobs I want. Also, my friends and seniors who went for USA all were going through Speedwing, they are the reasons I go or it.
They will answer all questions patiently n make sure that I understand the whole thing before paying the agency deposit.

But due to some misunderstanding, I feel unsatisfied with their services and attitude after they receiving the full payment from me. (You can read the post on 15/11/2013 to check it out the reason) 

Basic interview session with agents

Once understand the program, pick the agent and decide to join, u can apply through their website. pay for the *deposit RM300/RM750 (Speedwing) or RM100(OOTB).
*Amount of deposit paid will depend on requirement of agents and employers

Actually, Speedwing or OOTB will organize roadshow around University campus in Malaysia. If you got the chance to meet representatives in your campus, you can have a better briefing and understanding on this. Otherwise, you just go through their websites, and do the online registration process.

After they receive your registration form, they will start assist you to choose your employer and help on further application processes. Then, you also will have a very basic,short interview with your agent through phone call.

Interview session with the US employer

Once you  pass through the phone interview, they will arrange you to have another interview with US employer. There will be 3 ways for the interview: face-to-face, phone or skype interviews.

They will ask some simple questions like what makes you to join this program, how you know this program, do you have working experiences before,etc. Come to the language part, don't be so worry about your english level. You can need to speak a presentable English, at least can understand and answer their question, everything will be fine. They just wanna make sure you do have sufficient ability to speak, write, understand and carry out the commands when you are in the State.
Just be yourself. Smile and show your passion to work, you will b hired !!!
Once you are b hired, you need to submit the documents required  and pay the balance agency fees to agent.
They will email you a long list to show you what documents are required from your side. It will be letter of student status, proof of english , application form, Insurance, SEVIS and so on.

Visa interview

Once you done the above mentioned step, agent will proceed to the arrangement  of visa interview with US embassy for you.They will provide a pre-departure orientation and some guidelines before the interview session. I'm quite worry before this. Oh ya, you will need to collect your DS-2019, insurance card and SEVIS form from your agent before you go for the visa interview.(u need to bring along DS-2019 to the embassy) Be honest and be yourself! This is very important! They don't allow you to have any chance to jump aeroplane over there!

US visa is always not a problem for Malaysian students, but you must also check with your family whether they have been visited US before or they have been refused by a US visa application. You must be able to explain to the officer about your future plan after Work and Travel USA program. The passing rate of visa application is 99%, so not to worry about the visa application.

Book ur flight ticket

Once you pass the visa interview and received your visa from embassy, then you can proceed to purchase your flight tickets. Sounds exciting !!!!! Agent will quote the price for the ticket from their travelling agency.

BUT, if  happened to stumble across airlines sites that provided cheaper flight tickets, you can always go for it n buy it yourself.

Count down for the journey to USA !

so, now everything is done n you just wait the time to  FLY now!

Enjoy your life there kao kao cz it's like once in a life time!!!!

Important tips :

#1 Don't be too picky on the jobs la. All the jobs r almost the same. It will be tough if u always think that it is tough!

#2 Don't try to take this opportunities to jump aeroplane or search for any business opportunities in US! u will definately fail the visa interview!!!!

#3 Try to get along with friends when u r in the US! There's nobody except friends!!!

#4 Don't think too much about how much u can bring back! Try to enjoy ur life there!~

4 SIMPLE steps to apply for any of the attached employer/position

Step 1: Send us your completed  resume template (ONLY if you have yet to do so)

Step 2: Make the deposit payment  – EXCEPT international students!

Step 3: Send along the copy of payment slip for verification (via email)

Step 4: Let agent know your choice of employer & position in the email

hmm i guess tat's all for now.

If u have anymore enquiries, u can always drop me a comment here or email OOTB info@outofthebox.com.my

I'm really happy to share with u my WAT experience. So, pls don't be shy to contact me. I'll try my best to explain everything that u wan to know. n of course, pls email them for 100% answers if u have any doubts! I can only explain it according to my previous experience.

For those who r going, congrtulations n enjoy ur life kao kao there.

For those who r still considering, take ur time and don't be rush. It's a 10k decision and it's a lil bit far from Malaysia.

But still, pls join if u have the chance!!!!

里面会注明：

-雇主

-工作地点

-需要的人数，性别

-职位 （大多数是服务业，需要劳力的position）

-工作范围

-时薪（会注明有没有tips,OT,bonus等）

-租金 （有些雇主会提供住处*还rental/week，有些需要在去美国前，自己要找housing）

-开始/结束工作的日期