Shifting priorities, fewer personnel and greater scrutiny of applicants’ social media postings are threatening to turn this year’s J-1 student visa program into a slog that leaves many prospective student visitors stuck at home and American employers short on staff this summer.
“There’s no decline in interest,” said Mark Overmann, executive director of the Alliance for International Exchange, a Washington, D.C.- based organization that advocates for student work/travel programs here and across the country.
The greatest problem, he said, is the increased time it takes U.S. embassy personnel to process J-1 visa applications because 0f a change in the requirements.
The J-1 visa is a non-immigrant visa for students who are approved to participate in work-and-study-based exchange visitor programs in the United States. Ordinarily, they rank high on the U.S. embassies’ to-do list, but not this year.
The state department has instructed embassies to give visa priority to overseas visitors seeking entry into the U.S. to see this year’s World Cup soccer competition.
At the same time, embassy staffs have been directed to go deeper in their interviews with J-1 visa candidates and in checking their backgrounds.
“We’re less than three months out from the start of the summer season for U.S. businesses and communities, and one thing is becoming increasingly clear: the U.S. has a J-1 visa appointment availability problem,” Overmann wrote in a March report to his membership.