Embassy gives thumbs up to Jamaica students

• US diplomatic cable says J1 visa applicants honouring terms of work-study visas

Jamaican students travelling to the United States to study have generally done the nation proud by sticking to the terms of their visas.

Several diplomatic cables from the United States Embassy in Kingston spoke positively about the students and noted that because of their track records, the percentage of applicants granted visas was higher than most other categories of visa applicants.

According to one diplomatic cable dated December 2009, a validation study on Jamaican applicants who received student visas (J1 visas) between May and August 2009, conducted by the US Embassy's Fraud Prevention Unit, "showed that virtually every J1 summer work and travel programme participant returned to Jamaica".

The cable said the Fraud Prevention Unit used a randomly selected sample size of 800 student applicants and focused on summer work and travel students enrolled in a post-secondary institution.

The Fraud Prevention Unit reported that 567 of the 800 students (81 per cent) returned to Jamaica on or before the date allotted.

The study further found that 121 of the students (17 per cent) returned home later than scheduled, while one applicant adjusted his status while in the US.

Thirteen students, or two per cent of those granted visas, were listed as "inconclusive", meaning their return could not be confirmed.

frequent fliers

The study noted that several of the students were repeat travellers to the US for the work-study programme and always returned in a timely fashion.

"Further analysis shows that applicants with existing (visitor's) visas … were not more likely to have a timely return than any other participants. In fact, 60 applicants who have existing (visitor's) visas returned timely and 15 applicants with (visitor's) visas did not."

The study also revealed that in 2009, the US Embassy issued 3,356 students visas and refused 568 applicants. That translated into a refusal rate of 14 per cent. However, in the visitor's visa category, the refusal rate was 50 per cent.

"The summer work and travel programme is viable and generally very well used by Jamaican post-secondary students. Based on the study, and the results, we (the US Embassy) plan to target audiences for outreach to ensure that the programme continues to be a successful tool for Jamaican students to participate in a cultural exchange," the cable concluded.