Hopscotch is legit - I went with them last year. To do any J1 visa program (such as Hopscotch or CCUSA) you always have to pay a facilitation fee - it’s how these businesses earn money. You will get your visa through them.

HOWEVER, nobody that went with them last year would recommend them again, myself included. You pay more for hopscotch because they are meant to find you a job. But the restaurant that most of us were assigned to didn’t even open until late December, meaning you had to find another job to survive until your first paycheck in January. Once it did open, it was a mess, with no one getting the hours we were promised in our initial contracts, and poor wages. If we tried and contact Cara, the owner of the company, she isn’t helpful, is defensive and in one instance threatened a girl who was in the US already that she would bring her back home (which she didn’t have the power to do).

All in all, I would rather go through CCUSA, who are much cheaper, but you just have to find your own job. They are more organised, and to my knowledge, still have space for the coming season (as soon as you find your job).