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Section 641 of the Illegal Immigration Reform
and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 mandated
that the Immigration and Naturalization Service
("INS") develop an information collection
program relating to nonimmigrant foreign students
and other exchange program participants. Initially
conceived as a way to gather information on foreign
students, who would be spending four or more years
in the United States, this section has had a number
of unintended and unfortunate consequences.
The problem created for short-term (for periods
of twelve months or less) foreign visitors is
particularly acute. If left unchecked, a recent
INS construction of Section 641 would seriously
discourage participants in these short-term programs.
INS proposed imposing a fee on such visitors that
would substantially increase their costs of participating
in exchange programs by as much as 25%. This would
limit the number of visitors, especially those
of modest means, who can participate in valuable
exchange program experiences that contribute so
significantly to international understanding.
It would also have a serious economic impact on
the Camping and Resort Industry which uses the
services of a significant number of participants
in these short-term programs.
In fact, the requirement to track participants
that enter the United States under J-1 visas for
visits of twelve months or less duration is unnecessary
since these programs are administered by the Department
of State (formerly USIA) that has specific regulations
requiring that the Sponsors track each and every
participant.
Therefore, it is requested that Section 641 of
Public Law 104-208 be amended to exclude non-immigrant
exchange program participants that enter the United
States using J-1 visas for visits of twelve months
or less duration under programs authorized by
the Department of State (formerly the United States
Information Agency).
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