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NY agency reports “exceptionally difficult” summer for J1ers

By Noreen Bowden | June 25, 2007

This summer is a tough one for Irish students in the US East Coast. Housing and jobs are tight, reports the Emerald Isle Immigration Center. The centre, which is based in Queens, is appealing for help with housing and jobs for students.

Padraig Nolan, the centre’s J1 Summer Coordinator, writes:

The summer of 2007 is so far proving to be an exceptionally difficult one in the shoes of an Irish college student on the J1 work Visa. The main problems faced by the J1 students are that of finding accommodation and employment. The lucky few that do find accommodation are faced with massive expenses when they are not working, this can make it very difficult to make it through the first few weeks, as they must eat into their savings in order to afford the rent. One J1 student in particular who called into the EIIC office in Queens informed us of the difficulties that were slowly turning his dream summer into a nightmare. He told us how hard he was finding it to find accommodation not to mention a job. The typical J1 student pays anything from $1500 to $2000 to secure their work visa and flights to America and it is extremely difficult to secure accommodation or employment before arriving due to the pressures of exam time back home in Ireland.

When a J1 student arrives he/she must not only begin job hunting as well as house hunting but he/she must also sort out social security which can delay employment considerably by up to four weeks. Legally an employer is permitted to employ a J1 student even before he/she has applied for social security but many employers do not seem to realize this. They believe that until the social security card is in the hand of the student he/she is unemployable. This as you can imagine adds to the difficulties faced by the J1’s.

Statistically it appears the majority of J1 students have chosen the west coast as their summer destination. You might think this means more job opportunities in the east especially New York however, this is not proving to be the case. Employers looking for summer relief workers need to get on the phone to us and let us know they are seeking relief workers. Irish college students are known to be hard working, dependable and polite workers. The idea of the J1 work visa for many Irish students is to work hard for the summer in order to make some money for the following college semester and allow two or three weeks at the end of the summer to travel and experience American culture first hand. It is terrible to see any J1 student returning home early after spending all their savings on three or four weeks accommodation in a hostel, but this does and will happen. We only hope the number of students returning home early can be minimized.

We are appealing to all potential employers and or people with housing available for the duration of the summer period to contact us at the Emerald Isle Immigration Center and help make the summer easier for these hard working college students.

Please contact :

Padraig Nolan, J1 Summer Coordinator*
Emerald Isle Immigration Center
59-26 Woodside Ave
Woodside, NY 11377
Phone: 718/478-5502 ext 207

 *Please note that the position of  J1 Summer Coordinator is funded by entirely by the Irish Government Department Of Foreign Affairs’ grant to the Emerald Isle Immigration Center each year

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One Response to “NY agency reports “exceptionally difficult” summer for J1ers”

1. Andres Says:
   August 19th, 2007 at 2:06 am

   hi i enjoyed the read

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