Harriet Alexander Higher Education Reporter
October 20, 2007
smh

IT WILL be more difficult for Australian students to take advantage of
a gap-year visa in the United States than it will be for their US
counterparts to come here, with a greater administrative burden for
Australians and slow interest from US organisers.

The 12-month reciprocal working-holiday visa, which will take effect
next month, was announced during the Asia Pacific Economic Co-
operation forum last month in a signal that the relationship between
Australia and the US had reached a new level of cosiness.

US citizens aged between 18 and 30 with post-secondary qualifications
can apply to come to Australia. But Australians will need to be
students or new graduates and to be sponsored by a US organisation
that will be required to monitor them throughout their stay and help
them reapply for the visa after four months in the country.

Stanley Colvin, of the US State Department, said the US sponsoring
organisations had not been as enthusiastic about becoming involved in
the scheme as the Australian travel industry, which has been agitating
for it for years. It would be expensive and labour intensive for them
to operate the visas for a relatively small return in the country's
vast tourism industry, he said.

"Quite frankly, I do not believe the sponsor community has decided
whether the market for this program in Australia is sufficient to
support their expenditure of resources - both time and money -
necessary to successfully implement and operate this activity."

But there was enough interest on both sides for a successful program
to emerge, he said, and 12 US sponsors had applied to operate the
visas before submissions closed - enough to import thousands of
Australians.

Australia has entered reciprocal working-holiday agreements with 19
other countries, but it is the first such visa arrangement for the US.

More Australian students are choosing to take gap years, with an
increase of 60 per cent in NSW and the ACT since 2000, according to
the University Admissions Centre. About 11 per cent of students who
plan to go to university next year have chosen to take a year off
first.

Julian Ledger, the chairman of the Backpacker Tourism Advisory Panel,
said more Australian students would defer their studies to participate
in gap schemes as a result of the US visa. The Government wants 30,000
participants within four years.

"We've got visa arrangements with some fairly small and obscure
countries where English may not be spoken," Mr Ledger said. "America
is a country with 300 million people, where English is widely spoken,
with huge work and career [options]. We're very excited about it."

But Brad Holland, the exec- utive director of International Exchange
Programs Australia, said it would take time for critical mass to
develop, especially since the US visa was more expensive, shorter and
more onerous than the one for Canada. (Costs for taking part in the US
program can be as high as $2700).

"Will this new visa open the floodgates? I don't think so," Mr Holland
said. "There are so many opportunities for Australians to work
overseas in other countries. It's a goodwill gesture."

Gap Activity Projects, which arranges volunteer work, offers
experiences such as teaching English in China, Malaysia, Poland and
Vietnam, and running camps in Canada.