Travelling America

Hey,

Does anyone know how easy it is to travel while you're on the year programme?

Do you ever get time off in chunks, like a few weeks, where you can head off to places like Canada or South America.

Thanks!

 

i dont know how long your working period out there is. but i have applied for the summer program in 2007. which runs from june 5th to september 1st...approx. and i was told that i have up until the 30th of september to travel in america if i want to before my visa runs out and i have to leave the country.
so would give my about a month to travel america if i choose to.
dunno if this helps you.
Chatty
xxx ;D

 

yeah that helps loads! I didn't know your visa let you do that.

thanks

 

i didnt know our visa let us stay longer than the summer program! oo that is good news, as the flights are so expensive i reckon itd be worthwhile staying as long as you can!

 

yeah,i heard that you can stay in th states up to 30 days after your visa runs out - not bad at all really!!

 

yeah, you get 30 days then you're expected to leave. I had a student visa a few years ago (F-1) and that gave you 60. But I'll take 30... it's enough for a few weeks of whatever first!

 

I think if ya on the Q 1 visa which is for the year program, you get 30 days before and after ya start and finish date to stay in the states.
Tan x x x

 

make sure the flight you are booked is flexible.

i went with yummy's group flight and i had decided to travel after, until i tried to changed my flight. after calling the company the flight was booked thru, the airline in usa, the airline in the uk, and calling many different departments i finally found out i could change my flight up to 5 days after the original departure date, and i could only fly out of the airport it was originally booked from - orlando international. AND i had to pay a $200 fee and also the difference in the price of the new flight.

In the end if just wasn't worth it, so came straight home even though i wanted to travel.

 

It really depnds on your visa/program... I was told on my last program that I only had 10 days after my visa expired...

 

Heh - it also depends who is working at the customs desk... Uggh....

Depending on the length of your program (i.e., how much time off you will get,), you can travel during it. You can get AMAZING deals on three-night cruises out of Port Canaveral, good flight prices with South West Airlines, Spirit Airlines, Delta, Continental, great packages with lastminute.com, etc. You can fill your two weekly days off with a trip within Florida or go up to Savannah, Georgia.

~ Jen

 

Too true! They sent us all out an e-mail 3 weeks before I left telling us due to an error most of us didn't have our 10 days travel time and if we planned on being in the US between Nov 11-20 we had to get our Visa's changed. This effected most of the people I knew on the program and of course I was scheduled to work the ENTIRE time they setup a pickup for our passports...

 

yeh that happened to loads of us too! luckily they put my date on my i94 card as the 20th, as i already had a flight booked for 13th november, so id have been well panicking if my date had been put on as the 10th!

 

lol remember you were on the same visa as me

 

Where do ppl go travelling after they finish? Few of my friends went to NYC during their program, but i'd love to go afterwards of even far west America, do San francisco and Vegas again

 

While working there you can get a back to back ( sat-tues ), which means you usually have to work 10 days in a row before that, but it's worth it. I went on a couple of back to backs (NYC, Key West, Tampa ) and it was enough time to get some rest and get away from everything. Other than that you can take unpaid vacation which I did a few times ( to fly home for a visit, to go on a 7 day DCL and to go on a roadtrip from Orlando to Toronto ). After the contract I want to go to Cali for two weeks, but then the whole 9/11 thing happened and I didn't go. There are many possibilities and it's so cheap to travel from there.

Julia

 

Yeah greyhound buses are the future if you don't mind sitting around for a while, although internal flights are cheapish!

 

I never took Greyhound there, the flights were so cheap. I did take a bus in Canada a couple of times though and besides the one from Calgary to Vancouver ( that was overnight and stopped a million times ) it was always good for the money.

Julia

 

Yeah its cheap to get pretty much anywhere in the states, car rental is cheap as well, and road trips always provide the most fun!

 

LOL It seems like everyone that's online on the board still is alseep already...

 

Would appear so Just checked out internal flight prices, New York to Vegas for under $100 atm, insane!