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Bureau
of Educational and Cultural Affairs Project Directors' Handbook
> Getting
Your Educational Partnerships Program Started: Information and Suggestions Getting Your Educational Partnerships Program Started:
Information and Suggestions
DS-2019 forms, J visas, and Exchange Visitor Visa Tracking Systems DS-2019 form completion Foreign participants must travel to the United States under a J visa during exchange visits funded by this program. Other types of visas cannot be utilized. Grantee colleges/universities are required to prepare DS-2019 (formerly known as IAP-66) forms for all foreign participants who will be visiting the United States as part of this program. The DS-2019 form is a recommendation that certifies to a U.S. consular office that a J-1 visa applicant will be participating in a U.S. educational program with the support described on the completed form. It is not a visa application, but a certification of eligibility for a visa and functions as a recommendation to the consular officer who reviews the participant's visa application. The completed DS-2019 form should be sent directly to the participant, not to the U.S. Embassy or Consulate in the country where the participant is applying for the visa, unless your program officer has advised you otherwise. Faxes are not acceptable. If you need assistance obtaining or completing the DS-2019 form, go to the person responsible for J-1 visas in your college or university. Generally, a centralized office (often the International Studies/Students Office) at a college/university has the authority to issue and sign these forms. The DS-2019 is a controlled form (each one is individually numbered and organizations with the authority to issue them must account for each individual form) so you will need to coordinate with your J-1 visa office. U.S. embassies do not issue DS-2019 forms. It is absolutely crucial that all information on the DS-2019 forms match the details in the exchange visitor's passport. This is especially important in countries where there are differing transliterations of the spelling of names from the native language into English. If the DS-2019 form and the applicant's passport contain different details, the visa application will be rejected. It is often a good idea to get a faxed or photocopied version of the applicant's passport before filling out the DS-2019 in order to guarantee that the information will be correct. In the past, there has been some confusion on the part of the U.S. project directors about whether to prepare the visa paperwork indicating that the University or the U.S. Government is the sponsor for the applicant. With partnership program participants, the University acts as the sponsor and fills out the sponsorship section of the DS-2019 form with their designated Exchange Visitor Program (J visa) number. This number begins with the letter "P" which indicates private, rather than government, sponsorship. When filling out the form, it is important to indicate in the pull-down computer menu that the program sponsor has received funding from the U.S. government. The consular officer may consider this information in deciding whether to grant a visa. In section 5 of the DS-2019 form, text should be included stating that support for this visitor comes from the Department of State. Please also note that there is a two-year home residency requirement placed on recipients of J visas. The home residency requirement states that after visiting the U.S. on a J visa, participants are required to spend two years in their home countries before being eligible to apply to return to the U.S. on either an immigrant visa or a work visa. Waivers of this two-year requirement are rarely granted (even in cases of marriage to a U.S. citizen). The INS restriction does "not" prevent J recipients from returning to the U.S. on other types of visas (J visas, student visas, tourist visas) although individual consular offices may have their own policies or practices. Visa Interviews All J visa applicants are now required to undergo personal interviews as part of the visa application process. Once the participant has received the completed DS-2019 form from you, it may be a good idea for him/her to contact the Public Affairs Section at the appropriate Embassy or Consulate prior to submitting the visa application to confirm that he/she has all the necessary documentation and discuss the process of scheduling the visa interview. You may also want to contact the embassy to let them know that you are in the process of requesting visas for partnership participants. Please check with your program officer to get the current contact details for the relevant person at the embassy and encourage foreign participants to make appointments for their visa interviews with the appropriate consular authority as soon as possible. Please note that due to increased security screenings and a new requirement that all visa applicants undergo a personal interview, visa applications may now take up to three months to process. It is crucial that all paperwork is prepared and sent well in advance of the proposed visit. There is little that can be done to expedite the process so it is important to allow time for potential delays. You should book travel on tickets that can be re-booked or refunded in the event that travel cannot take place as scheduled. Since many countries are tightening their transit visa policies for foreigners traveling to and from the United States, grant administrators should stay informed of transit visa requirements. Information on visa processing wait times is available on the Department of State's Bureau of Consular Affairs' newly redesigned travel web site: http://travel.state.gov. You can visit http://travel.state.gov/visa/tempvisitors_wait.php to obtain wait time estimates for visa interviews and visa processing. The site also provides links to each consulate's web site, where information on local procedures and instructions is available. The information can be useful in determining the amount of lead time needed to obtain proper visas to travel to the United States for exchange visits. SEVIS Recent legislation requires that student and exchange visitor visas be
tracked electronically in a database. The Student and Exchange Visitor
Information System (SEVIS), which was introduced in 2002, is an electronic
database and information tracking system that must now be used to generate
the DS-2019 forms and track and verify the subsequent visa application
process. The SEVIS system allows U.S. consular officers abroad as well
as immigration officers at the point of entry to verify the authenticity
of the DS-2019 form and the visa application. The International Studies/Students
office at your institution should be familiar with this system and should
be able to enter the necessary details on behalf of your exchange visitors.
Additional details on SEVIS and the SEVIS fee can be found on the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Student and Exchange Visitor Program
web site, http://www.ice.gov/graphics/sevis/index.htm.
Visa-related fees Prior to going to the U.S. embassy or consulates for their visa interviews,
applicants for It also is likely the foreign participants will have to pay for their visas. The costs of visas vary, depending on the nationality of the applicant, the duration of the stay and the number of entries. A complete index of visa charges by nationality can be found at: http://10.8.40.7/ReciprocityWeb/index.htm. New regulations requiring personal interviews for all U.S. visa applicants mean that exchange participants from outside of capital cities may incur costs related to travel for the visa interview. Costs related to SEVIS registration and the visa application process can be charged to the grant. Please contact your program officer with any questions. Foreign Visitor Departures from the United States Foreign participants are subject to monitoring by the Student and Exchange Visitor Exchange System (SEVIS) during their exchange visits. When exchange visitors arrive at your institution, please ask them to provide you with a copy of any paperwork they receive from the Department of Homeland Security or other U.S. government agencies for your review. You may be able to prevent misunderstandings about foreign participant registration requirements and exit interviews required by the immigration officers when the participants depart from the United States. Please note: A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Fact Sheet issued by the National Security Entry-Exit System (NSEERS) states: "Some individuals will require additional scrutiny and will have to provide additional information under the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, or NSEERS . . .. Anyone could be subject to additional scrutiny and should follow the directions of the Customs and Border Protection Officer if additional information regarding itinerary, length of stay, or other security questions is required. A packet of information will be available at the port of entry explaining the registration procedure." Since, as stated above, any participant can be subject to NSEERS, ask your participants if they were interviewed, fingerprinted, and given a packet at the airport when they arrived. More information can be found at: http://www.dhs.gov/us-visit .
Fly America Act
Money Transfers There are instances in which U.S. grantees formally sub-contract with their foreign partners. The U.S. organization's grant from the Department of State would need to be amended to reflect this subcontract (unless it is reflected in the original grant) and the Grants Officer will need a copy of such subcontracts. Many grantees disburse funds in the host country (such as local purchases or salaries) directly rather than through a formal subcontracting arrangement. Some grantees have wire-transferred money to their partners as part of a subcontract agreement. Questions to ask when contemplating such a transfer include: does the partner department or faculty have a bank account? Are the banks in the partner country reliable? Will the host government tax the transfer? If the partner is using an account belonging to the university or some independent organization, will the account owner claim overhead? Are there restrictions about withdrawing money that is wired (e.g. must accounts be held in the - sometimes rapidly depreciating - local currency)? Wire transfers can be processed through banks as well as through companies such as Western Union. In some cases it may be possible to use credit cards (e.g. to purchase computers or plane tickets). For large equipment purchases, it may be possible to identify a local supplier with ties to western companies and to work out an arrangement whereby payment is made to a bank account in a third country and computers with service contracts are delivered locally. Under such an arrangement, it may be possible to have a signed contract in advance of payment to make the accountants happy. Some individual exchange participants have used ATM cards to meet their living expenses. With both ATMs and credit cards you should be aware of the potential for identity theft and fraud. In some cases goods may be purchased in the United States and sent to the foreign partner. Most commonly airplane tickets fall into this category (although there are reports that tickets may be substantially cheaper in foreign countries). Some grantees request that foreign exchange participants purchase their own tickets and receive reimbursement. This can be a financial challenge for some partners; it is also necessary to make sure that the partners clearly understand Fly America provisions. Some projects rely on individuals to hand carry funds to the partner country. This does place a large responsibility on the individuals so tasked.
Orientation for Exchange Participants
Orientations can be planned for groups or individuals and can consist of any combination of the above and other topics. Written orientation materials, which the participants can refer to at a later date, can also be a useful resource. We are providing, for your reference, a sample Orientation Guidebook, developed by a current Educational Partnerships Program project director. Although this guide pertains specifically to exchanges with Ukraine, it serves as an excellent example of the types of issues that can be covered by orientation materials.
Classroom Dynamics and Academic Resources Traditionally, academic systems in many countries have focused on classes in which lectures are read to students in a large classroom, there is little student-teacher interaction and students are tested on their ability to reproduce the content of the lectures, verbatim. Students generally spend many, sometimes up to 30 or 35 hours weekly in class and have little homework to do outside of class. Additionally, students often hold part-time jobs to support themselves and their families, further reducing the time they have available to focus on their studies. The lack of resources such as textbooks, journals, or Internet access, which would allow the students to prepare readings or research outside of class, has contributed to this approach to education in which the class lecture is the primary source on information. It is not possible to assign readings to the students if there are no books or journals available from which to take articles. Many of the projects supported by the Educational Partnerships Program have budgeted funds to provide new educational resources to the foreign partner universities. These materials can have a dramatic impact on the institutions that receive them. In spite of this, however, it is useful to keep in mind that the students and faculty with whom you will be working are likely to be relatively time and resource poor, which will affect how much you can realistically accomplish in the limited time that you are working with them.
Maximizing Impact In your proposals, many of you listed "internationalization" of your institutions as one of the goals of the partnership proposal. One way to promote greater awareness of this international partnership is by developing a project web page which includes information on the goals of the partnership, tracks progress toward the accomplishment of the goals, includes pictures of trips to the foreign partner campus or visits from exchange participants, highlights new courses, revised syllabi, a calendar of partnership related events, etc. Examples of such websites can be found at: Monmouth University and the Higher School of Social Work Social Pegagogics
"Attistiba" Latvia:
University of Georgia, West Visayas State University, and Western Mindanao
State University, the Philippines: If you do develop a project website, please remember to share the address with your program officer. From time to time, you may wish to consult the Educational Partnerships Programs' website for information on the activities of other institutional linkages: http://exchanges.state.gov/education/partnership . When you visit your partner institution abroad, we ask that you arrange to meet with the cultural or public affairs officer at the U.S. Embassy to discuss your project. This can provide an opportunity to learn how your project fits into the larger context of U.S. government-supported educational exchange efforts and whether there are other resources or information that could be useful to the project. Continued support for Educational Partnerships depends on the Embassy's knowledge of the impact and accomplishments of projects like yours. In addition, please let us know about any publicity the project receives or project-related events that the Department of State might help to publicize.
Computer Equipment Purchases
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Contacts
Grant Changes and Amendments
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