Chinese exchange visit cancelled

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Flickr CC: Phillip Jägenstedt

The Chinese flag.

Martha Sanchez, RubicOnline Editor
January 22, 2019

As a part of the Upper School’s language exchange program, students from Mingde High School in China were supposed to arrive on Monday. Instead, their visas were denied and the trip was cancelled.

The visa process proved to be difficult for these students. Upper School Chinese teacher Tian Wang explained the process the students went through to obtain their visas in China.

“All the teachers and students had to travel to a different city in the south to be interviewed at the U.S. consulate,” she said, “unfortunately all the students’ visa applications were rejected at the interview. We were not sure why.”

According to the U.S. Department of State, an application may be denied because the officer in charge of the process does not have all the information required to issue a visa, because the applicant does not qualify for the visa, or because upon review the applicant falls into a category that would make them ineligible for a visa.

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The U.S. visa is never guaranteed. We had tried our best to provide documents for their visa application. We hope to learn more about why the Chinese students didn’t get the visa in order to do a better job next time.

— US Chinese teacher Tian Wang

While the Upper School students still hope to travel to China in spring break of this year, the Chinese students’ visit will not be rescheduled because Chinese schools don’t have any other long break between now and the summer.

Wang admits that the visa process can be tricky, but is hopeful that another such issue will not occur on future exchange trips. The first Chinese exchange was delayed in 2016, but the students from China made it to the U.S. in January 2017.

“The U.S. visa is never guaranteed,” she said, “we had tried our best to provide documents for their visa application. We hope to learn more about why the Chinese students didn’t get the visa in order to do a better job next time.”

 

Phillip Jägenstedt’s image of the Chinese flag can be found here.