Christmas International House A Holiday of Friendship with International Students

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

The program I applied for has been filled.    What happens now?

Can I bring my friend or parents who will be visiting during the holidays?

Can unmarried couples stay together?

Can I apply for Christmas International House through your web site?

How do I use the Fill-In Forms feature to prepare my application?

Do I have to attend church?

How much money should I bring?

I have a question about downloading the application?

Is the registration fee refunded when a student cancels after being placed in a specific program?   What does the registration fee cover?

What is the difference between group housing and home stay?

What are my obligations?  Do I have to stay the whole time?

When should I arrange my transportation?

Will I be placed in my first choice?

Will I be asked to make a presentation about my country?

Will large groups of students from the same university and same country be placed together?

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Questions about downloading the CIH Application

What does PDF stand for?

When printing the application in PDF format all the words run together with no spaces between them, however, everything looks fine on the screen. Is there an error in your form, or is it my system?

When downloading a PDF form, my web browser window goes blank and I never receive the file.

Adobe Acrobat Reader claims the PDF file is damaged when I try to open it after downloading. Is your file damaged?

• What does the registration fee cover?   The registration fee does not go to the host family.    The fee pays the administrative costs for the program such as: salaries, rent, utilities, postage, printing and publicity costs.

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• What is the difference between group housing and home stay?    Group housing accommodations are much like living in a dormitory.   All of the students stay together in either a church building or retreat facility.   The men and women have separate sleeping areas and shower facilities.   Usually a common area is provided where students can play games, watch television, socialize and eat meals.   Students are invited into the homes of church members for meals on Christmas and New Years.    Home stay means you will be staying with a host family.   Some families enjoy hosting two or more students in their home.   Most families prefer to host only one student.   The students participating in a home stay program will join in the daily activities of their host family.   The programs also plan group activities for the students.

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• Can I bring my friend or parents who will be visiting during the holidays?   Only international students 18 years or older, who are studying at a US university, college or intensive English programs on a "F" or "J" visa are invited to participate.   The definition of family for the purpose of CIH refers to spouse and children, not the extended family.

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• Do I have to attend church?   Christmas International House is an ecumenical program coordinated by the Presbyterian Church (USA).   Participating groups include Presbyterian congregation, Methodist, Lutheran, Mennonite, and councils of churches and civic organizations.  You will be invited to attend Christmas services and celebrations, but religious conversion is not part of the CIH program.   It is a peacemaking program, working to improve relations among peoples of the world and an outreach to our country's new international visitors who would otherwise have no way to share in the Christmas Season.

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• What are my obligations? Do I have to stay the whole time?   Group activities are planned for the whole two weeks of the program, so you are expected to arrive at the beginning and stay until the end.    CIH is not intended to be a motel or stopover for students who want to tour around the U.S. over the holidays.   Sometimes late arrival and early departure cannot be helped (i.e. finals, inability to book flights, holiday dates).   It is important to discuss problems with the dates with the registration office.

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• Will I be placed in my first choice?   Students are frequently placed in their second or third program choice.   DO NOT include a city on your application if you do not really want to visit that location.     The registration office makes every effort to place students in their first choice but that is not always possible.   It is not mandatory to put three choices on the application.   The important thing is to realize you could be placed in any of your choices.

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• Will I be asked to make a presentation about my country?   Most CIH programs plan an international night.    The students are asked to prepare a traditional dish from their country and to share information about their homeland.   Students are also encouraged to bring any musical instruments or costumes from their country.

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• How much money should I bring?   The amount of money you might need would vary from community to community. You would probably need more money in Florida and New York than you would in Ohio or Missouri.    The local program coordinator would be the best person to ask concerning spending money.  Some special tourist fees are also displayed on the individual program websites.

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• Can unmarried couples stay together?   Only couples who have proof of marriage will be placed as married couples.    Engaged couples do not qualify as married couples.

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• Will large groups of students from the same university and same country be placed together?    Christmas International House prefers to limit the number of students from any one campus or country.

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• Is the registration fee refunded when a student cancels after being placed in a specific program?   The registration fee will NOT be refunded if the student has been placed in a program.    The fee is refunded only if the student is not placed in a program.

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• When should I arrange my transportation?  DO NOT make any travel arrangements until you receive a letter of invitation to a specific program from the CIH Registration Office.   We have a limited number of hosts in each program and we cannot place all students.

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• Can I apply for Christmas International House on your web site?    No.  You must submit copies of your student ID card, proof of marriage, application fee and a signature from your International Student Advisor in order to be eligible for  program.   This is not possible through our web site.    

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When printing the application in PDF format all the words run together with no spaces between them, however, everything looks fine on the screen. Is there an error in your form, or is it my system?

This issue can nearly always be resolved by obtaining and installing the most recent print driver available for your particular make and model printer. Most printer manufacturers, including Hewlett Packard, provide free printer driver updates from their web sites.

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When downloading a PDF form, my web browser window goes blank and I never receive the file.

Should you experience PDF files appearing as a blank window within your web browser after downloading, follow the appropriate steps below to resolve the issue:

Adobe Acrobat Reader
If you are using Adobe Acrobat Reader version 3.0 or earlier, upgrade to version 3.01 or later.

Internet Explorer
Please see Article ID: Q177321 in the Microsoft Support Online database for a possible resolution.

Use the "Save Target As..." or "Save Link As..." option to download the PDF file directly to your hard drive and bypass the Acrobat Reader plug-in.

• Select "PDF File Format" if necessary.
• Select the file(s) you wish to download.
• Click the "Review Selected Files" button.
• When presented with the Results page use the "Save Target As.." option to download the file. This can normally be accomplished by right clicking (left click, if your mouse is configured for left handed operation) on the title link then selecting "Save Target As.." when presented with a menu.
• Use Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the file after downloading.

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Adobe Acrobat Reader claims the PDF file is damaged when I try to open it after downloading.   Is your file damaged?

All of our files are verified prior to posting on the web site. Most likely your download was not successful. Try downloading the file again.

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What does PDF stand for? 

Portable Document Format   The PDF format is modeled after the PostScript language and is both device and resolution independent. Documents in the PDF format can be viewed, navigated and printed from a workstation using the freely available Acrobat Reader software from Adobe Systems Inc. Versions of Acrobat Reader run on Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows 3.1, Macintosh, LINUX, IBM AIX, Sun SPARC SunOS, Sun SPARC Solaris, SGI IRIX, HP-UX, Digital Unix and OS/2 Warp.

This format reproduces the application precisely as it was originally composed, provides built-in compression, is supported by all popular operating systems and is compatible with nearly any contemporary printer. The freely available Adobe Acrobat Reader software is required to view, print and search PDF documents.

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• The program I applied for has been filled.  What happens now?   If you applied for a program that has already been filled, and have indicated alternative choices,  we will try to place you in one of  those programs.   If none of your choices are available, (or you failed to indicate alternative selections),  you will be notified about other available programs and be requested to contact our office to discuss your options.       
  
  If you are requested to contact us,  please do so as quickly as possible.  If you do not wish to accept an alternative program,  we need to contact other students so as many students as possible can be placed in programs.
  
  Your registration fee will be refunded if we are unable to place you in a program.  

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How do I use the Fill-In Forms feature to prepare my application?

Overview
Use our fill-in form to enter some of your application information BEFORE you print the form.   The information you enter in this form is NOT sent to our office.   You MUST print the form,  obtain the necessary signatures and documents and mail the form to us.   Refer to the instructions attached to the application form for more information.

Software Requirements
To view, complete and print  fill-in application form you'll need the freely available Acrobat 6.0 Reader (or later) software installed on your computer. Acrobat Reader does not allow you to save your completed forms to disk. The ability to save completed forms is available commercially with the Adobe Acrobat 6.0 (or later) product suite.

• Download the form by clicking on the Application Form Icon.. Your web browser may be configured with an Acrobat plug-in to automatically open the file within your browsers window upon download. To download the file directly to disk, right click on the Results Page form title link then select "Save Target/Link As.." when presented with a menu.
• Use Acrobat 6.0 (or later) to open the file if necessary.
• Select the hand tool from the Acrobat toolbar menu. You can use the hand tool to move the page around so that you can view all the areas on it.
• Position the hand pointer inside a form field and click. The I-beam pointer allows you to type text. The arrow pointer allows you to select a field, a check box, a radio button, or an item from a list.
• Press Tab to accept the field change and go to the next field.
• Press Shift + Tab to accept the field change and go to the previous field.
• Use your mouse to select an area of the form that is not inside a form field before printing your form. If a form field is active (contains the blinking bar) the contents will not print.
• If the fill-in form is displayed within your web browsers window be sure to use the printer button on the Acrobat toolbar menu to print the form instead of your web browsers print function.

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09/15/2007