J1 Students Damage Own Passports For Alcohol

It seems many young Irish people working for the summer in the United States are ignorant when it comes to the seriousness of tampering with their passports.

The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has issued advice to its members working over here this summer, not to interfere with the travel documents in any way.

It comes after the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs had to intervene in many cases, where students used laminates in order to doctor the date of birth on their passport.

The consumption of alcohol is legal in Ireland at the age of 18, and many students are prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to circumvent the age limit of 21 here in the States.

Tampering with passports is a federal offence here in the USA, punishable by a minimum of ten years in prison even for a first time offence.

The practise is a criminal offence in Ireland too, with fines of up to €10,000 or five years in jail or both.

USI president Gary Redmond said it appears the practice of using a laminate to tamper with the date of birth seems to have originated with students from colleges in Cork and spread from there.

"It should be noted that this laminate is easily detectable by border control officers and other personnel, inspecting travel documents," he advised.

"The attachment of this laminate to passports compromises that travel document. Furthermore, its removal will likely cause irreparable damage."

In San Diego, one student was arrested after trying to enter a nightclub with an altered passport.

Local police passed the case on to the FBI, and the Irish consulate in San Francisco was forced to intervene to get the student released from custody.

It's been reported that four students have been deported for altering their passports.

And one concerned parent contacted the USI to say her daughter and 15 of her friends had tampered with their documents.

The USI is advising anyone who has tampered with their passport, to stop using it immediately and contact their consulate to arrange a replacement before travelling on it.

The union says it's concerned that if the problem becomes more widespread, it could affect future allocations of J1 visas to Irish students.

But US ambassador to Ireland Dan Rooney says he doesn't believe Irish students have damaged their reputations due to the small number of cases to date.

"We think that the Irish and everybody else should obey the rules and regulations..." he said, "If they are not of age then they shouldn't drink. Those rules were put in for a purpose and they should not be broken by anyone, American citizens or Irish citizens.

"As far as changing the passports, that's an Irish problem. The visa is our problem, it's an American issue, but as far as the passports are concerned that's an Irish issue and the Irish Government has to deal with that."