LINGUIST List 14.1953

Thu Jul 17 2003

FYI: LSA Summer School & Academic Exchange Visa

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

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  • Peter Trudgill, LSA Summer School

    Message 1: LSA Summer School

     Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 23:42:15 +0000
    From: Peter Trudgill <peter.trudgillunifr.ch>
    Subject: LSA Summer School


    A number of people have asked me why I have withdrawn from my commitment to teach on the LSA Summer School in Michigan this year. I am sorry to have done so, and apologise to all those who this has inconvenienced. What happened was this.

    As a British citizen, I needed a J-1 academic exchange visa to teach in the USA, even for just three weeks. Unfortunately, however, the rules for obtaining such a visa were changed this year, on January 1st. When I phoned the American Embassy in London to ask for instructions (the people in Michigan had no idea about the change in the rules) I was told that I would have to:

    Send a stamped and addressed envelope to the American Embassy in London rerquesting the 3 forms that I would have to fill out to be sent to me at my home in Norwich.

    Go to a bank and pay in the sum of $100 to the American Government and obtain a receipt.

    Send the completed forms and the receipt for the $100 to the American Embassy London.

    Telephone the American Embassy in London and make an appointment for an interview. There was a three week wait for such interviews. Interviews were between 9 and 12 a.m. only.

    Make the 250 round-trip journey to London, paying my own travel and accommodation expenses, and be interviewed by someone at the American Embassy to see if I was a suitable person to be granted a J-1 visa to teach linguistics to young Americans, and other people, at the summer institute. (When I complained about this during my phone call, I was told that even if I lived in the Shetland Islands, 700 miles from London, I would still have to attend for an interview in London at my own expense.)

    Wait for three weeks for my passport to be returned to me from London by post.

    I decided that did not want to do this. - Peter Trudgill Professor of English Linguistics Fribourg University