The Fulbright Grants described on this website are subject to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which provides that no citizen of the United States may, on the grounds of race, sex, color, religion, age, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.

Candidates may not apply to IIE and the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES) in the same year.

For official policies of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, click here.

Eligibility

APPLICANTS MUST:

• Be U.S. citizens at the time of application. Permanent residents are not eligible.
• Hold a B.A. degree or the equivalent before the start of the grant.
• Applicants who have not earned a B.A. degree or the equivalent, but who have extensive professional study and/or experience in fields in which they wish to pursue a project, may be considered.
• In the creative and performing arts, four years of professional study and/or experience meets the basic eligibility requirement.
• Applicants may hold a J.D. degree at the time of application, but not a doctorate.
• M.D.s or medical students or the equivalent (e.g, D.D.S, O.D.) who wish to continue medical or hospital training or to obtain practical clinical experience should apply to IIE. However, M.D.s who have completed formal postgraduate training and propose attachment to a hospital or clinic for independent or collaborative research should apply to the Council for International Exchange of Scholars.
  
• Be in good health. Grantees will be required to submit a satisfactory Medical Certificate of Health from a physician.
• Have sufficient proficiency in the written and spoken language of the host country to communicate with the people and to carry out the proposed study. This is especially important for projects in the social sciences and the humanities.

PREFERENCE IS USUALLY GIVEN TO APPLICANTS WHO:

• Have undertaken their higher education primarily at educational institutions in the U.S. Foreign study during the junior year or other periods of undergraduate study that are integral parts of the curricula of American institutions will not be considered a disadvantage.
• Have not resided or studied in the country to which they are applying for more than six months. Duty abroad in the Armed Forces of the United States is not considered disqualifying within the meaning of this section.

For most grants, applicants who have had extensive previous foreign experience in the country of application are at a disadvantage, but are not necessarily disqualified for that reason.

Ineligibility

Applicable to Fulbright Grants and to Foreign Grants supplemented by Fulbright Grants.

The following persons are ineligible:

• Anyone who has already held a U.S. Department of State-funded Fulbright Student Grant of any type.
• Applicants holding a doctoral degree at the time of application.
• Applicants seeking enrollment in a medical degree program abroad.
• Anyone who has resided abroad for five or more consecutive years in the six-year period preceding the date of application.
• Applicants residing (i.e., living, working or studying) in any country listed below will not be considered for a grant to that country.

• Australia
• Belgium/Luxembourg
• Canada
• China
• Chile
• EU Member States for EU Grants
• Finland
• France
  
• Hong Kong
• Hungary
• Macau
• Mexico
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom

• Anyone who has previously received a Department of Education-funded Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) grant.
• Employees of the U.S. Department of State, and their immediate families, for a period ending one year following termination of such employment. This provision does not include part-time or temporary employees, consultants, and contract employees of the Department of State, unless such persons perform services related to the Bureau’s exchange programs.
• Employees of private and public agencies (excluding educational institutions) under contract to the U.S. Department of State to perform administrative or screening services on behalf of the U.S. Department of State’s exchange program, for a period ending one year following the termination of their services for the U.S. Department of State provided such employees have been directly engaged in performing services related to the exchange programs.

Multiple Fulbright Grants

• Students may receive only one U.S. Department of State-funded U.S. Student Fulbright grant in a lifetime, including Fulbright Travel and English Teaching Assistant Grants.
• Recipients of U.S. Department of State-funded U.S. Student Fulbright grants are eligible to receive a U.S. Department of Education's Fulbright-Hays DDRA award one year following the completion of their U.S. Department of State-funded grant.
• Candidates may apply for both the Fulbright U.S. Student Fellowship and the Fulbright-Hays DDRA award in the same year. However, if awarded both, the candidate can only accept one award and must decline the other.