The primary reason for the refusal of the U.S. Embassy in Chisinau to accept applications from nine Moldovan Work & Travel companies was that the companies in question had offended immigration requirements, said David Franz, U.S. Embassy’s Consular Officer, in a press statement released on January 29. David Franz explained that the Embassy received complaints from the students, who faced various problems while in the U.S., from not getting the promised job to problems with accommodation and transportation that the companies were responsible for. At the same time, based on Embassy checks in November 2007, over 1,000 persons of 5.041, or about 20% of the visa holders under this program, did not return from the US; 42% of the students returned to Moldova after the official start of classes, as announced by the Moldovan Ministry of Education. Only 36% came back to Moldova on time. However, David Franz noted, this ban is not permanent. These companies might be able to submit applications to the Embassy on a conditional basis next year, if the Embassy makes sure that these companies are back to operating normally and are able to fulfill their obligations. This conditionality will be applied to new companies as well in the future. At the same time, David Franz stated that the functioning in Moldova of illegal Work & Travel companies is a question to be addressed to the Moldovan authorities. The Summer Work & Travel (SWT) Program has been functioning in Moldova since 2002, when there were 50 participants per year. In 2006, the number of participants went up to 1,400; in 2007, the Embassy received over 5300 SWT visa applications, of which 5041 participants received visas for this program. The blacklisted SWT companies are: Acord NGO, ASET, Association for Youth Collaboration (ACT), Center for Transparency and Democracy (CTD), Echitatea, Pro-Spiritus (YMCA), SEUC, Studitierra and World Travel.