Confusion leads to low take up of Irish/US student visas
April 10 2009 by Liam Clifford
Ireland and the US have reported that visa take-up of the new ‘J’ visas, which allow US students and their Irish counterparts to travel and work in the US or Ireland for a year, has been surprisingly low.
The shortfall in the issuing of the attractive working holiday visas is
thought to have stemmed from some confusion about the terms of the
visas. A leading Irish travel agent, USIT, which specialises in student
travel, says the rules governing the visas are complex. It claims that
3,000 Irish students enquired to their offices, but very few were
eligible for the visa.
Under the agreement, struck last September between the US and Ireland,
the US made 20,000 ‘J’ visas available for Irish students and
reciprocally, Ireland made 5,000 visas available.
The USIT commercial director, Dearbhla O’Brien, says the scheme
initially attracted great interest because it was promoted in Ireland
as being similar to the Australian 12 month working holiday visa.
However, she added that this was a mistake as the two types of visa are
not similar at all. The new ‘J’ visa only allows graduates who left
university less than 12 months before to enter and they are then
limited to working in their field of study once in the US.
There have been complaints that the new visa is not dissimilar to the
existing 18-month internship visa that was already available to foreign
graduates wanting to work in the US for a short period.
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