New J-1 visa appointment availability data signals concern for Summer 2026
Recent data collection conducted by the Alliance within our membership (see note below for more on methodology) shows that nearly 25,000 J-1 BridgeUSA participants set to arrive this summer are at risk of not getting a visa interview. A lack of visa interview capacity in key sending countries remains an acute threat to BridgeUSA programs and U.S. communities as we draw closer to the start of the summer season.
An estimated 19,400 expected Summer Work Travel (SWT) participants (23% of total expected summer participants) are at risk of not securing visa interviews, representing an estimated $66 million loss in direct economic contributions to U.S. host communities.
An estimated 5,200 expected Camp Counselor (CC) participants (16% of total expected participants) are similarly at risk of not securing visa interviews, which would result in an additional $9.1 million in lost economic impact.
These challenges are particularly acute in key sending countries including Australia, China, Colombia, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Mongolia, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, where collectively 13,590 appointments are still needed.
If these appointments do not come through, U.S. seasonal economies and tourism dependent communities, and U.S. summer camps across the country will feel the impact.
This problem began in late 2025 when a Department of State cable instructed Embassies to fully prioritize B1/B2 tourist visas for the World Cup at the expense of other nonimmigrant visas, including J-1s. Earlier this year, U.S. Embassies in key BridgeUSA sending countries across announced reduced J-1 visa interview capacity by anywhere from 50-90%.
The Alliance continues to coordinate the exchange and business communities to press Congress and the Administration on the importance of BridgeUSA programs to U.S. public diplomacy and U.S. local economies.
We’re using this new data to continue to make the case for our two primary asks of the Bureau of Consular Affairs:
We ask that Consular Affairs instruct Embassies to place priority emphasis on J-1 visa interviews. We support the issuance of World Cup visas to all eligible tourists and ask that Consular Affairs reprioritize J-1 visas for eligible participants for this summer and beyond given how critical they are to U.S. seasonal communities, camps, schools, families, and economies.
We ask that Consular Affairs provide more staff support for J-1 visa issuance, specifically for back-end online presence screening of J-1 visa applicants. We ask that the Department of State provide additional staff time and resources to assist Embassies with the back-end vetting of J-1 applicants’ online presence. This could be additional staff sent to Embassies and/or a central staffing mechanism that enables additional staff not at post to perform online vetting research while Consular officers are concurrently performing interviews at post.
NOTE: In this data collection, Alliance member organizations who sponsor the Department of State’s BridgeUSA Summer Work Travel (SWT) and Camp Counselor (CC) programs shared their most recent visa processing data. These respondents account for an estimated 60% of total participants in both the SWT summer season and CC categories, respectively, making these findings broadly indicative of the current conditions. Total data presented here is extrapolated from these results to give a full program picture, based on State Department data for the programs from 2025 and expected participation for 2026.
