February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The annual exodus of students and young people to the U.S. has suffered falling numbers this year because of new security checks brought in after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and a variety of other concerns.
The Council for International Educational Exchange’s assistant director of work exchange, Jeff Hild, said that “once we became aware of this year’s [J1 visa] delays, we lobbied our contacts in Washington, D.C.” CIEE helps administer the work-experience program once the students have arrived in the U.S.
The downturn in the U.S. economy could mean fewer summer jobs to go around.
Thousands of Irish students have instead opted to travel to Britain or Europe to find summer work, according to travel agencies in Ireland.
A Union of Students in Ireland Travel spokesperson warned of delays as the application process got under way in May. “Unfortunately, there have been major delays in securing the work documents from the U.S. in order to complete the J-1 visa process,” the spokesperson said. “This day and age has been due to technical teething problems with the Student and Exchange Visitors Information Service and the other new and elaborate security systems introduced post-Sept. 11 which have affected all stages of the visa operation for summer 2003.”
The American Embassy in Dublin, which approves and processes the J1 visas for Republic of Ireland applicants, acknowledged that some applicants might not receive visas this year at all.
“While every effort will be made to process applications as expeditiously as possible,” the American embassy said through a spokesperson, “late receipt of cases from program sponsors, additional U.S. government visa processing requirements legislated in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, and early flight departures to the U.S. mean that a high percentage of students hoping to travel to the U.S. this summer may not have their visas in time.”
USIT assists young people with the J1 visa application process, along with four other smaller travel agents, and also helps the J1ers with finding employment, preliminary accommodation and other practical assistance.
Once in the U.S., administration of the summer work program comes under the auspicious of the CIEE.
In the past, rogue employers have also targeted some J1 students and scams aimed at extorting money from participants in return for worthless job or accommodation contacts.
“We counsel participants to choose jobs very carefully,” Hild said. “We have adopted the employee security policy to make sure that kids do not encounter illegitimate employers. We have a responsibility to help each individual. But with such large numbers of students, problems are inevitable.”