The number of Irish students applying for J1 visas to work in the US this summer has more than halved, partly as a result of increased security regulations introduced by the US government this year, writes John Downes.
According to the student travel agency, USIT, the total number of applications it has received has decreased from 6,500 last year to approximately 2,800 this year.
This represents an "unprecedented" decrease in the number of applications it has received, it says.
USIT believes students may be concerned at the increasing number of obstacles which they face when looking to travel to the US to work and live for a summer.
For the first time this year, any student wanting to participate in the programme is required to attend the US embassy in Dublin for a short interview.
This means students from outside Dublin in particular can be faced with significant additional travelling expenses to attend the interview.
USIT charges students €100 for the interview, of which €85 goes to the embassy. It says another €15 is for administration costs associated with the embassy's use of a premium rate line to book appointments there.
Final-year students are also no longer permitted to take part in the programme, and participants now face mandatory fingerprinting at airports. They must also agree to register with the US authorities so that they can be be tracked while in the country.
"Politically and diplomatically, I do think it needs to be addressed because of the unique position the J1 programme has occupied here in the past," Ms Seona Mac Réamoinn of USIT said.
" I think from our point of view it means we can't sit back and say everybody knows about the J1 programme.There is less word-of-mouth from students coming back."
A spokeswoman for the US embassy said it had received less applications than expected. It would be working with the programme sponsors to analyse the reasons for this.