Canadian citizen Wilson R.S. Prichard ’03 had expected to begin work at a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., earlier this month on a special one-year Optional Practical Training (OPT) program.

But due to what he describes as a series of errors by the government agencies processing his application for a work visa, Prichard is still working from his laptop in Toronto.

“I went to apply for my OPT visa at the beginning of May, and was told that it would take two to three months to process because they have introduced a new tracking system for non-U.S. citizens in the U.S. called SEVIS,” Prichard wrote in an e-mail.

And Prichard has since only encountered more pitfalls.

“I never received confirmation of my application, which would have included a tracking number to check the status of my application,” he says.

Without the confirmation or tracking number, his inquiries have bounced among a number of agencies. Two months after submitting his forms, Prichard still doesn’t know whether his visa application was processed.

Though Prichard, as a recent graduate, no longer works with the HIO, Ladd says predicaments like his are par for the summer course of many students—and for her office.

But she discounts the possibility that such problems are direct corollaries of the SEVIS program. Ladd and her colleagues have not seen more of these cases this summer than in past years, she says.

“I’d really be surprised if this has to do with SEVIS. We have problems every year,” she says.

The new database, with its history of failures, has become the national scapegoat for weaknesses in visa procedures that offices like the HIO have faced for years, she adds.

Students coming to the U.S. from countries with high non-return rates—such as China and India—are often barred from entry until they can prove their intent to return to their countries of origin, Ladd says. This often means tenacious negotiation from the HIO.

“The students have to show strong ties to their countries,” Ladd explains. In some cases, she and her colleagues have to compile references and examples of past students who have returned successfully after a U.S. education.

But as new systems to be learned and mastered loom on the horizon, the HIO staff is doing what it can not to let fatigue show.

“In the midst of all of this,” Ladd says, “we want to create as welcoming an environment as we can for people.”

—Staff writer Nathan J. Heller can be reached at heller@fas.harvard.edu.