Sarajevo Work and Travel visa validation study

UNCLAS SARAJEVO 000480 DEPT FOR CA/EX,CA/FPP, CA/VO, AND EUR/SCE (MIKE FOOKS); DEPT ALSO PASS TO KCC; POSTS FOR FRAUD PREVENTION MANAGERS; VIENNA FOR DHS MARLA BELVEDERE; DEPT ALSO PASS TO DHS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KFRD CVIS CMGT CPAS ASEC BK SUBJECT: Sarajevo Work and Travel visa validation study REF: Sarajevo 00000464 ¶1. [Summary] Sarajevo FPU recently completed a validation study for all J1 Summer Work and Travel cases that post issued in 2008. A solid 96% of issued applicants returned, with only four percent remaining in America [End of Summary] ¶2. Methodology: Our Fraud Prevention Unit took all 78 issued J1 work and travel cases from 2008 as a sample for this validation study. Our FPU called the applicants' homes and reviewed SEVIS and ADIS records. ¶3. Findings: our study revealed that 75 (96%) of the issued applicants returned to Bosnia while 3 (4%) remained in the U.S. Most of our work and travel issuances were to 52 (67%) males. Of the 26 females, two remained in the U.S. to pursue romantic interests (one married). ¶5. Our Summer work and travel participants overwhelmingly came from the Republika Srpska (79%),while 19% of the participants came from the Bosnian Federation, and 2% from the Brcko district. In the United States, the participants were largely placed in the Northeast, with the two most popular states being New Jersey and Maryland. ¶6. Almost 70% of the participants stated they were completely satisfied with the program. They did not have any complaints or comments. Those that were not satisfied with the program usually noted the long working hours and modest pay. One of the students stated he earned so little that he could hardly pay off the 3,000 konvertible marks ($2,600) he paid to an agency in Bosnia. One person said that her employer tried to cheat and underpay all the work and travel participants. Others said that the company they worked for went bankrupt and failed to pay them two months salary. ¶7. [Comment] FPU believes that the large percentage of participants from Republika Srpska is due to the growing presence of Serbian based agents and agencies involved with the work and travel program. Additionally, our applicant pool would likely be larger if local universities received state accreditation that would allow them to participate in the progam. [End comment] ¶8. In contrast to the return rate from our recently completed Au-pair validation study, Post considers the results for the work and travel program encouraging. English