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Irish students have voiced concerns they may not be able to work in the United States this summer due to delays with processing their J1 visa applications.
Students who applied for the visa through USIT, a travel company that specialises in student programmes, are struggling to get through to the company and are taking time out of studying for their final-year exams to be put on hold for hours on the phone.
Caoimhe Joyce, a final-year student at University College Dublin, said the situation has been very stressful for her and her friends.
The group applied for a J1 through USIT at the end of January. She has received a date for a US embassy interview, but the rest of her friends have not, even though they sent applications at the same time.
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They are due to fly out and start work during the last week in May. However, Caoimhe’s embassy interview is not until the week before, and the embassy can keep passports for up to 10 days.
Caoimhe knows friends who booked their J1 with a different company, who had their embassy interviews by the end of March and their visas shortly after. “We booked this in January so we wouldn’t be worrying in May. We are taking time out of study to be on hold on the phone, to send emails, and we are getting nowhere.”
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Jack Ryan, who is in his final year at Trinity College, said he cannot get through to USIT to enquire when his application will be progressed. He was aiming to fly out in a month’s time.
“It’s been terrible, everyone I know who applied through USIT is having the same problem. The phone lines don’t connect because there are too many calls. I have emailed, rang, contacted them on social media.”
Jack has already spent thousands on his accommodation, which is non-refundable. He is too afraid to book flights because he is worried the trip will never happen. “I went through USIT and paid their fees because I thought it would take the hassle out of it.”
He added that he cannot find a link to USIT’s virtual Q&A sessions as he was never emailed about them.
Unanswered calls
Sarah Domoney and her friends applied for a J1 through USIT at the end of January. The Trinity student said numerous emails and phone calls requesting updates on her application have gone unanswered in the past few months.
In mid-April, her job was approved by a sponsor, who vets J1 jobs and is responsible for workers when they arrive in the US.
However, a few weeks later USIT informed Sarah they had changed her sponsor and she would need to arrive in the US in mid-June, not at the start of June as previously planned.
She had to change dates on her forms to accommodate this and has still not received an embassy date or an update.
“We haven’t booked accommodation or flights. My friends who used other J1 companies received their visas weeks ago,” she said.
She would rather cancel the J1 and receive a refund, as she and many of her friends will be starting Master’s degrees in mid-August. “It’s too late to get visa approval now. We won’t be able to afford the flights or accommodation as it will be so last-minute.”
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Delays
The rollover of applications from 2020 and 2021, Easter holidays and Covid-19 related illnesses have caused some delays, according to Lisa Collender, USIT’s chief marketing officer.
“We have a fully resourced team of 20 staff working through all J1 applications six days per week, processing over 350 applications per day,” she said.
“We have also ensured that our email response time is within two business days and have extended the frequency of our virtual Q&A sessions to twice a week. They now take place every Tuesday and Thursday from 4-4.45pm.”
More than half of USIT’s customers have received their DS-2019 work papers, needed to apply for a J1 visa, while 35 per cent are waiting to be issued in the US and the final 15 per cent are being processed, according to Ms Collender.
“We can say with the utmost confidence that anyone who has sent a full application and shared the correct corresponding fee with USIT will be travelling and working stateside this summer.”
Students seeking an update on their application should email J1@usit.ie.