NEW YORK — When Meirav Ezer decided she wanted to teach art for a second summer at the Reform movement’s Kutz Camp in upstate New York, the 31-year-old Israeli art student had to wait four months to get her visa.
The extensive process, which included an interview at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, where she was drilled about her motives, delayed her departure and forced her to miss the first few days of camp orientation.
When she finally arrived at Newark International Airport, she was detained for 40 minutes for a final identity check.
“I felt very frustrated,” Ezer said in a telephone interview last week from the camp in Warwick, N.Y.
“It really surprised me, all this process I need to do and to deal with, and all this waiting,” she said, noting that last year it had been much simpler.
Ezer’s experience reflects the new regulations the State Department has added to its visa program in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The regulations, which apply to all Israelis and other foreign nationals who require visas to enter the United States, have at times flummoxed and frustrated Israelis coming to work in American Jewish summer camps and the Jewish professionals responsible for getting them here.
The changes have had a significant impact on East Coast camps, which employ not only Israelis but large numbers of counselors from Europe.
Northern California Jewish camps, however, have been minimally effected.
Ken Kramarz, executive director of resident Camp Tawonga, said only one of 11 shlichim (emissarries) was held up in the process of getting his J-1 visa, arriving at camp two to three weeks late. “It was very painful for us when he wasn’t here,” said Kramarz, but they made-do until he showed up.
Camps Newman in Santa Rosa and Swig in Saratoga also experienced “minimal” problems, according to Ruben Arquilevich, executive director of UAHC Camp Institutes for Living Judaism, which encompasses both sleep-over camps. There are about 20 Israelis on staff at Newman and 15 at Swig, and “we didn’t have any challenges with the group coming in.”
Of the half-dozen or so camp staff from Europe, he added, “one or two” experienced visa-related delays.
To bolster national security in the aftermath of 9/11, the State Department first beefed up the visa process with additional forms.
But beginning earlier this year, there was a complete overhaul. The new measures included a more elaborate visa application process and, often, an in-person interview. In addition, the Department of Homeland Security instituted a new computerized database.
Now, beginning Aug. 1, all foreign nationals requesting an American visa will require a face-to-face interview with an American consular officer in their home country.
Twenty-seven countries — mostly European — are exempt from the requirements because their citizens can travel to America without a visa for tourism or general business.
Israel does not meet the requirements for what is known as the visa-waiver program, according to Kelly Shannon, spokeswoman for the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs.
In order to qualify, a country must have a visa refusal rate of less than 3 percent for foreign nationals applying for a U.S. visa in their country for the previous fiscal year. In addition, a country must have reciprocal visa-free travel for U.S. citizens traveling to that country for general business and tourism and a high-security passport program that protects against fraud.
Some believe Israelis should not be subject to the newest stringent measures. The issue has already been taken up by at least one member of Congress.