Until recently, 19-year-old second year Bachelor of Arts WAAPA dance students Ava Harris, Asia Rovizzi, Hayley Massam and Sian Carvell were packing their bags for a prestigious semester-long study exchange with Purchase College State University of New York (also known as SUNY Purchase).
Part of a longstanding dance exchange partnership between WAAPA | ECU (The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, ECU) and SUNY Purchase, students from each university are chosen for the semester two opportunity each year based on high academic achievements and strong commitment to their studies.
Students and visas: quick links
Students: an unclear situation
Several months ago, alarm bells sounded for WAAPA’s four selected students as they began to encounter complications with what to date has always been a routine US student visa application process.
As per news reports in Reuters and The Guardian published in late May, the Trump administration ordered its overseas embassies to stop scheduling interviews with international student visa applicants until it had completed a review and had ‘updated [its] guidance on social media vetting of student and exchange visitor applicants’.
In a Reuters follow-up story, published in June, the news outlet reported that President Trump had ordered a resumption of international student visa interviews, but with ‘significantly tighten[ed] … social media vetting in a bid to identify any applicants who may be hostile towards the United States’.
Since then, there has been little follow-up information issued by the US government, making the current situation unclear.
For WAAPA’s four US study exchange students, the timing of their visa applications meant they were caught up in President Trump’s initial temporary suspension issued in May.
As WAAPA student Ava Harris describes it, ‘Back in May, I was waiting for some final paperwork from Purchase University to arrive before I booked my visa application appointment with the US Consulate here in Perth,’ she tells ArtsHub.
‘But then I received a call from my university’s [ECU student services office] telling me to prepare for the fact that I would not be able go on exchange to the US, because I may not be able to obtain my visa.’
Harris was then sent an email from WAAPA | ECU’s overseas study student support department in early June which reiterated that advice, preparing exchange students for the potential that their US study plans may not be able to go ahead.
‘We then went to the US Consulate’s online booking system to see if there were any appointments times available, and there weren’t,’ student Sian Carvell tells ArtsHub.
‘It was like they had closed all appointments [for US student visas] for the foreseeable future.’
Read: Australian museum director offers insight into US cultural sector after University of Michigan trip
Carvell said the moment that hit her hardest in the process was when she opened the email from her university, with the information warning her that she may need to re-think her US exchange plans.
‘Reading that email was very difficult,’ Carvell says.
‘It wasn’t just because it meant I probably wouldn’t be going on exchange anymore, but also because that was the moment when what is currently happening in the US became personal for me.
‘It also made me think about how these changes are potentially just the first in a long line of changes that are affecting US citizens and the rest of the world,’ she continues.
Students: building artistic relationships
Both Carvell and Harris wonder aloud about how students like them will be able to build artistic relationships and career contacts in the US while these restrictions are in place.
‘It’s concerning to this that this is what our existence as artists is going to look like under this U.S. administration in terms of what kind of exchange and dialogue we can have with our peers in the U.S,’ she says.
‘It’s also frustrating because where is the harm in us traveling to other countries to learn?,’ Carvell adds.
‘It’s a hard logic to follow.’
Despite these disappointments, the six U.S. students travelling to Perth for their semester two exchange at WAAPA have been unaffected by the visa suspension order, and have recently arrived in Perth with no disruptions to their experience.
But what remains to be seen is how much longer Australian students will faces challenges when applying for U.S. student visas under what may still be a ‘temporary suspension’ of international student visas, or a new ‘significantly tightened vetting process’.
To verify the current state of play, ArtsHub contacted the US Consulate Perth’s via its visa information line, but was unable to reach a spokesperson to confirm whether or visa interviews had resumed or not.
ArtsHub was also unable to access the US Consulate Perth’s student visa interview online booking system (open to visa applicants only), so could not verify whether US visa interview appointments for Perth/ WA-based student visa applicants are currently being made available.
Disclosure: the writer of this article is also a sessional lecturer at WAAPA | ECU.
Discover more arts, games and screen reviews on ArtsHub and ScreenHub.
