Inbound Student Guarantee Form - Procedures

Updated 2016

The following is a list of persons involved and mostly local procedures that occur during and after the creation of the Inbound student Guarantee form.

 

List of offices/persons involved:

 

     Once there is agreement between the Hosting club and SCANEX regarding the choice of a student, a Guarantee Form must be issued. The purpose of the Guarantee Form is to formally note that the Host Rotary club will provide room and board in approved homes, provide up to one year of study at a secondary school level, invite the student to participate in Rotary club and district events and activities typical of our country, and provide guidance and supervision to assure the student's welfare. The Host Rotary club will also give the student a monthly allowance, nominally set at $100, although there is no formal set amount. District 5000 also agrees to ensure adequate training for Host parents and Youth Exchange Volunteers and orientation for the student upon his/her arrival. 

 

     The Guarantee form is signed by the Host club president, club secretary/YEO, club counselor, District YEO, and the School Principal or registrar. The Host family is also listed on the form but not required to sign. The Guarantee Form is a writable PDF file. That means that you can open it with Adobe Reader ( a free file from Adobe that allows you to read pdf files ) and type into the form. Unfortunately Adobe Reader may not allow you to save the file so you have to do all of the typing at once and then print the file. So what I suggest is that you print out the blank form and make a list of all the names, phone numbers, email addresses, school and Host Family addresses. Then when you have all that information handy on an Excel spreadsheet like this, you can simply copy and paste from the spreadsheet to the Guarantee Form and print it out.

 

     Once the form is printed, you can then get the necessary signatures ( blue ink please ) from each person whose signature is needed, make a copy for your club records and send the original to the District YEO ( David C. Hurd, 1626 Kinoole Street, Hilo, HI  96720-5021 ).

 

     It is usual that the club YEO approaches the school to deal with registration procedures and the Principal's signature and school stamp. Contacting the school registrar should be done at the earliest possible time, preferably before school ends in the spring. The first Host family must live within the school district. If the second or third family lives outside the district it is not difficult to obtain an exemption.      

 

     Once the Guarantee Form has all the signatures it is scanned and the hard copy mailed to the SCANEX Country Coordinator. He in turn sends the Guarantee Form to the Responsible Officer who contacts the Department of State (DOS) to obtain a SEVIS number and a DS-2019 form. This form is then sent back to the Country Coordinator who sends it to his counterpart in the country that the student is coming from. Having a SEVIS number allows the student to begin the registration process with the nearest US embassy. The student will then pay a SEVIS fee (Department of Homeland Security) and a Visa fee, each about $180-200.

 

In a week or so after their appointment with the nearest US embassy the student should receive the Visa and can then arrange transportation to the Host club city and also pay for their required medical and travel insurance.

 

     The student should arrive 7-10 days before school starts because - as noted above - the school will require a physical, a TB clearance check and fill in any missing shots that the school needs. TB examinations are two days apart and usually on Mondays and Wednesdays in Hilo. Best to check locally when these pairs of examinations are so that you can advise the student for best travel plans.