Breaking News

Language courses: visa applications Weird visa regulations are giving students business people who just want to take a language course in the US a headache. After having read the brochures of the travel organizers, there's the stressful process of applying for a visa. Because anyone planning to polish up his or her English in more than 18 hours of lessons a week needs a student visa. That means, he or she will first have to call the embassy hotline to schedule a visa interview. If you're really unlucky, you will be placed on hold for a while (1.86 Euro per minute). And then, depending on the workload there, it may take a few weeks until you get an appointment. Even if the US embassy claims that a number of interview appointments are available at the time.

And after that, you have to fill out several application forms. However, the regulations are changing quickly and if you happen to have an outdated form with you, they will probably just send you home again. And be very careful with choosing a passport photo. The specifications are down to a millimeter. So any visit to the consulate has to be very well prepared. For example, language holiday agency Carpe Diem tells the story of a 19-year old girl who wanted to improve her English in the US for a few weeks after graduating from school and before starting university. Her visa was denied because she did not have regular employment and the authorities feared that she might stay in the US as an immigrant.

If you try entering the country on a regular tourist visa anyway, you might quickly run into trouble. US language schools have to submit all their students data to US immigration prior to the students arrival. If the official finds out that you are enrolled at language school, you might be sent back home immediately (at your own expense).

Admission control The American Immigration Lawyers Association has published a list by the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (BCBP), a department of the new immigration authority BCIS, listing those countries whose citizens have to be prepared for tighter security checks at border control. Since according to experience this might also apply to people who have been living in the German-speaking countries for quite some time, here is an excerpt:

Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Brazil, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran , Iraq , Israel , Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Liberia, Malaysia, Morocco, Pakistan, Philippines , Republic of Yemen, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela

New system to make admission simpler During his press conference for the 100-day anniversary of the Department of Homeland Security, its Secretary Tom Ridge has announced the introduction of a new system at the US borders: VISIT (stands for Visitor and Immigrant Status Indication Technology). It is supposed to make admission easier for tourists, students and business people of all types - and at the same time make it harder for illegal visitors to enter the US. It includes to simple devices to collect biometric data at the airports as well as data of already existing photos, fingerprints and other technologies for identification. The system will be linked with the already existing SEVIS system (we told you about that) for students in order to avoid misunderstandings at identification. The test phase is supposed to start toward the end of 2003. We will inform you in good time about how the system works exactly.