Golfer gets late start to semester

By Tony McDaniel

One Saluki women’s golfer got an unwanted extended winter break.

Xianmei Jin, a freshman, was stranded more than 7,000 miles away in China since Jan. 10, when she was not allowed access into the U.S. because of an issue with her passport. Jin was visiting her family in Qingdao, China over winter break.

Jin’s passport was within six months of its expiration date: June 8. Some countries, including China, do not allow travelers in or out of the country if their passport is within six months of its expiration date. Jin returned to SIU Wednesday and starts classes today, 19 days later than she expected, after waiting for her passport to be renewed.

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“If my flight was just two days earlier, my passport would have worked,” Jin said.

According to Jin, the “six month rule” is not well known to many international students. The rule states any passport expiring six months before the passports listed expiration date is not valid, therefore making a passport expire six months earlier than listed. For instance, if your passport expires Jan. 1, 2014, the actual expiration date for some countries would be July 1, 2013.

The Center for International Education at SIU helps international students with many aspects of college life including assisting them in arranging trips home to visit family.

Carla Coppi, director of the CIE, said when she first heard of Jin’s situation from Kathy Jones, senior associate athletic director, she thought it was an issue with Jin’s visa, not her passport. Coppi said it’s usually visas students have issues with, not passports.

“In August, I will have worked here for 31 years,” she said. “We’ve never had a student turned back for this reason, we are all quite alarmed and upset by this.”

Coppi said she is unaware if anyone at the CIE noticed Jin’s passport would no longer be valid by the time she boarded a plane to return to school.

“I think that we said her passport looked valid pretty far into the future,” she said. “Did we sit down with a calendar and count the days? This has never come up, so we would never probably have figured that was a necessity.”

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Jin and the CIE have not been in direct contact with each other since Jin left China Jan. 10, but the CIE have been able to gather information on her situation through the athletic department.

Coppi said Jin’s situation came down to a stroke of bad luck.

“It was a 48-hour variance between when her passport expired and when she would be returning to the country. Two days, two days,” she said. “Was that a little petty? I guess, perhaps.”

Jin said she is frustrated with the situation and would rather be in Carbondale attending classes. She said she has been in touch with her professors who have been helpful by giving her work she can do online. Some professors will even let her make up any tests she missed once she returned to Carbondale. Most of Jin’s professors have worked with her during her unfortunate situation.

“One of my professors said if I want my credit, I have to use Skype to take class on time,” Jin said. “But America and China have different time [zones]. So I decided to drop it.”

Jin will have a burden to deal with when it comes to the golf team as well. The team has started practicing and has played several rounds without Jin, according to her coach Alexis Mihelich.

“She’s going to have to work hard to get out from behind the eight ball and get caught up with her teammates,” Mihelich said. “That’s going to be hard for her because she is going to be playing catch up with school, too.”

Mihelich said Jin also has not been able to work on her game because she left her golf clubs on campus.

Jin said it’s important to raise awareness on the issue so other international students do not find themselves in her situation. Coppi said the CIE already has a plan to prevent instances like this in the future.

“We’re going to beg that students give us the exact date of their return,” Coppi said. “Then, we are going to look at their passport and we are going to make sure that it is valid for six months from the date that they return to the country.”

Tony McDaniel can be reached at [email protected], on twitter @tonymcdanielDE, or at 536-3311 ext. 282

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