uwstudent.org

This is the e-mail from 20 July 2006 aboutt he j-1 visa situation. Munro emphasizes that there has been no announcement and that things could change.

Hi Jeff,

Your timing is great. I actually do have an update of sorts.

I was in New York last week meeting with employers and students and also had a chance to stop into CDS's offices where we discussed the J-1 visa situation.

So far the news is good though it is all unofficial at this point. Early feedback based on direct meetings with the key State Department contact, Stanley Colvin, is that they acknowledged that the proposed definition of "intern" needed to be modified to include current students and this will be done. The expectation furthermore is that the exemption from the "2-year rule" that Canadian students currently enjoy will be applied to this intern category.

On the further point of the detailed oversight measures that were proposed, apparently the State Department has unofficially agreed to work with the Alliance (the lobby group that represents the many
visa-sponsoring agencies) to come up with an audit process which will allow for proper assessment of the overall J-1 visa class. The anticipated time frame is to have this audit system in place for 2008 and,with that as a goal, there will apparently be no changes implemented until then. That means that for now it looks like we can proceed with the status quo at least into 2007 and likely until 2008 at which point, the new rules will have little impact on our students and programs.

The audit tool is intended to allow for proper monitoring of the J-1 visa class to ensure that it is not being abused and that if there is abuse, to be able to determine who, what and how the visa is being abused. It seems clear that the key reason behind the proposed changes was a concern that too often the J-1 visa was being used as an "easy" way to get into the US and that the visa holder would then try and "flip" to a more permanent status once inside the US or simply go underground. Obviously this is not something that our students are engaged in and there's no indication that this was ever a concern with our students or programs.

Again, all of this is "unofficial" and there has been no announcement of any of this - it's all just the result of discussions that are on-going between State Department officials (Likely mostly Stanley Colvin) and officials from the Alliance. We should probably be cautious about "announcing" anything - rather just inform our contacts of the initial news we've heard.

tony