A new entrant to the Irish student travel market is offering cheaper J1 Visas here in a move likely to lure more young people to spend time in the US.
The US J1 programme gives students the chance to spend time in the US on cultural exchanges, for work, to intern or engage in other activities.
The Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) has just begun offering J1 sponsorships direct to Irish students, with charges beginning at €499 for a basic programme.
The organisation says that it recognises there are financial barriers to J1 and cultural exchange programmes that can deter some students from taking part, so hopes to make them more accessible by operating here.
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Sheelagh Daly, CIEE’s director of sales in Ireland, predicts that its lower charges will open the opportunity to more students to travel to the US on the programme.
CIEE can cut J1 charges as it is a sponsor and so does not have to recruit candidates through an agent, which would add its own charges to the basic cost, adding to candidates’ expenses.
The J1 programme requires each student to be sponsored. CIEE is one of the larger sponsors worldwide, and has recruited big numbers of Irish young people in the past, but until now has worked through agents, according to Ms Daly.
“We have just launched two weeks ago,” she says, adding that a lot of students here are already familiar with the organisation.
The J1 work visa is most popular among Irish students, with 5,000 of them taking it up last year. Between 1,000 and 1,500 opt for internships, while another 1,000 go to the US to summer camp counsellors.
There is an extra €200 charge for the work visa, but CIEE will help find employers in the US for Irish applicants.
The council has a number of reciprocal programmes that bring US students to the Republic to study in universities, complete internships and high school programmes, or take part in other activities.
It also operates the Douglass-O’Connell Global Internship Programme. This commemorates the relationship between two key 19th-century figures from Irish and American history – Repeal and Catholic Emancipation campaigner Daniel O’Connell and US anti-slavery movement leader Frederick Douglass.
The exchange facilitates African-American students to travel to the Republic, according to Ms Daly.
The CIEE dates back to 1947 and already has established links with the Department of Foreign Affairs.
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