ibette

Feel free to send the Colombian FB page his/her way!

Messaged you!

@duckduckduckgoose most if not all of the people in this thread are actually US citizen applicants applying to Fulbright for universities and institutions abroad, not the other way around so not a lot of people are familiar with the J-1 visa process for Fulbrighters. However, I do have a colleague who did her PhD in the US through a Masters Fulbright. She did have a J-1 visa but was able to accept a post-doc position post PhD graduation. I think the J-1 visa (from my limited understanding as a US citizen and only hearing about her experience) main issue is from the country that issues it to you. Your country is hoping for you to return 2 years through the J-1 before you could go back to the States again. What my friend has been doing is working in a research institution in her homecountry (latin america) during winter and summer breaks and counting those periods of time towards her 2 year requirements. I think it also depends on how flexible your country is on getting those 2 years out of the way (if it has to be continuous, at what time after your PhD is completed, etc). Personally, I wouldn't let a J-1 visa stop me from accepting a Fulbright since I think it will add more to your CV than if you just come on other type of external funding. Your best bet is to talk to other Fulbright alumni from your university or country that have navigated the J-1 visa process post Fulbright.

I heard Scholar awards are more tougher and competitive. Congratulations on getting this far and I really hope you can still complete your project in Canada!

HUGS. Also, I just noticed someone from my Uni also applied to Ireland. ((HUGS))

I haven't received my grant statement award from the Fulbright Commission in my country yet (and it will be two weeks tomorrow) I am hoping to upload my medical documents today so I am thinking I might be waiting for a while for those to go through. By the way, what part of Panama will you be in I will be your southern neighbor in Colombia. I visited the bocas del toro region and it is so beautiful!

This one hurt me! When I first applied I didn't even make semi-finalist status. I am not sure at what stage you are (in grad school, masters, etc), but I applied to the Mellin IDRF grant to see if I could complete my dissertation abroad when I took a year off from the Fulbright process. Also, it seems like you have no trouble getting past the US round but you're getting stuck in the country of your choice. Does your project have any part of it that might be controversial or might be hard/critical on the country you applied? Also, have there been any projects that are similar in line to yours that have been done in the past? That's something that I've learned from the webinars and my university's FPA. They mentioned for the research award that when people don't pass the US round it could be a combination of methodological concerns in the project, professional qualifications, and/or issues with the affiliation letter. However, when it's the in-country selection, US is kind of in the dark and can't really know why the projects would not go through but usually because there may be sensitive issues associated with the project or there are other type of needs the country wants to focus on. I am not sure if any of this is helpful but I just wanted to let you know that you totally passed the hardest clearance (US level) in the process.

Thanks, @Mossy.artist. I never got a response from the Fulbright Commission when I e-mailed them my Terms and Conditions, but the US point of contact replied to my inquiry of the grant document and she let me know that the FCB from my country had only contacted ETAs and should be contacting Research finalists soon for that document. I am just so paranoid about missing something! XD

@kclarkey and I created a FB group for Colombia awardees to discuss specific questions/support/resources. Please feel free to PM if you would like to join.

I start in August too and runs until May 2018.

Thank you so much for your input @jarp729 I uploaded the Terms and Conditions and they have been approved (phew). I also have the scanned copy which I might have sent prematurely to the Colombian Fulbright Commission (oops). But it's good to hear that people are not being immediately sent the Grant Award document. Thank you again!

Thank you for the reassurance, Libby! I kind of became concerned when I saw there were deadlines associated with the first notification e-mails (2 weeks). It doesn't help I just came back from a conference and will be traveling for another one next week which makes me nervous I might miss important e-mails because my inbox gets flooded easily. I contacted a previous Colombia Fulbright Research recipient and he also let me know that things may be a little slow so I will continue to patiently wait

I am also super confused about this. I got my finalist notification a week ago from IIE but I haven't heard anything from the Commission yet (even though I already uploaded the two documents on the self service portal and have been approved). Can the ETAs in Colombia chime in to see if you have received word from the commission there? Also, the instructions on the finalist resource website said to upload the terms and conditions page to the self-service portal and to send a copy to the Fulbright Commission of your country. Does that mean to e-mail over the signed terms and conditions to the Fulbright commission contact listed in the website? (I feel really, really incompetent right now, but I have been re-reading everything three times to make sure I didn't miss anything and I am still confused??).

Sent you a PM!

Congrats @Horb , @Herbie, and @maelia8 !! And the UK individuals! Right now I am on a plane on my way to SF but it makes me so incredibly happy to see all of the success today! I remember being here in 2013 with @Horb enduring the same friggin' waiting process. And like I said, this was my third time applying to go to my institution (a process of three years to get this right, 2 Fulbrights and 1 Carnegie Mellon IDRF). For any of you NS who still have another shot, please persist and apply again if you can. Every application I made helped me get closer to the end goal and I really learned something new after each process. Standing with you guys today!

((HUGS)) sending you some love and wishing you more exciting things in store. This was my third attempt on going to my country of choice (second time for Fulbright) so I understand the how defeating it can be and I hope that you continue to pursue your project.

My colleague from Syria got me Lebanese food soooo good!

Thank you everyone, so surreal. I was just about to grade my students exams when I saw both e-mails (one from the Fulbright and one that CC'ed my FPA). Sending you guys good juju today for more notifications.

I am going to Colombia !!!!!!

Eight e-mails during Fulbright's holy hour, if it wasn't for Drake's mixtape I am listening to I would have gone ham. #thanksDrake

Thank you for your input, it brings me some peace of mind. I definitely don't plan on calling them just because I am sure they are already flooded with calls which might delay their work. I think what throws some people off (or at least in my case) is that in previous years, and even some countries this year, they have released both Research and ETA at the same time. I am sure you are correct about the batches since there were some slight differences in e-mail times for the general notification released in January. In other news, I am about to go lecture and one of my students sent me an e-mail asking a question about class. I almost threw my computer keyboard across my graduate office when I heard the e-mails ding at 5:35PM...seems like Colombia Research is a no for today Ugh.

It makes me think they are unhappy with the country's choices for their Research awards and are going back and forth with them to re-arrange the finalists order. Don't know, but Colombia is in CT so they better be finalizing their list I just really want to know so I know if I have to renew my apartment lease or what. Also, it seems like the latest e-mail they have released was for Poland at 5:42PM ET so we have another 20 minutes or so to stress.

I've noticed that this year. I was looking at past years and it seems like the office waits right before they close to release e-mails. Knowing that Colombia ETA has been released but not the Research makes me think I am going to get the dreaded NS. It doesn't help some of the previous notification dates on the spreadsheets don't indicate the time (as in, if ETA is released earlier in the day, then Research later, or simultaneously??). I just find it very annoying I am the only one right now in the Research category for Colombia this year and don't have a fellow peer to gripe about our decision e-mails (or find out if they actually know their status because they are (P) or (A) and I happen to be NS).

Should we wait for 5:30PM? I am so confused, how can they release ETA and not Research for the same country? FFS what is going on