J-1 Visa for Dental Preceptors

UCSF can only sponsor School of Dentistry Preceptors and Fellows in the J-1 visa student non-degree category. This visa category is used for students who have been admitted to a prescribed, non-degree academic program with a specific educational objective. Such a course of study may include classroom instruction and research projects.

Eligibility for the J-1 Student Non-Degree Category

  1. Admission into a qualified School of Dentistry Preceptorship or Fellowship program is required. Please contact the Office of Continuing Dental Education for any questions related to program admission.
  2. Agree to maintain health insurance (for J-1 primary and any J-2 dependents) for the duration of the program of study.
  3. Demonstrate appropriate funding for yourself and any dependents for the entire length of the program. A significant amount of the required funding (51%) must come from non-personal sources. See the Funding section below for additional information on the types of funding that are acceptable.

Funding your J-1 Visa Program

Upon receiving your admission letter from UCSF, the amount of funding that you must show in order to qualify for a J-1 visa will be indicated on the letter. You must upload evidence of your non-personal funding source as part of the visa application. A non-personal source could be:

  • Your current school or institution
  • A current or past employer
  • A national or local government grant
  • A scholarship or fellowship

A combination of any of the sources above would also be acceptable.

It is important that your non-personal funding be related to your dental studies. For example, if your employer is sponsoring you, that employer should be in the field of dentistry.

A training grant, professional development fellowship, or academic scholarship for continuing education would also be examples of acceptable non-personal funding.

However, a guarantee of financial support from a company that is not related to the field of dentistry would not be acceptable as evidence of non-personal funding. Similarly, we cannot recognize personal loans or fund documents that come from a friend or relative as evidence of non-personal funding for the purpose of sponsorship in the J-1 Student Non-Degree program.

Some possible non-personal funding sources are below: