Cautioning Against Laos ETA Applicants
Posting this as a warning for people considering applying to the Laos ETA program, after hearing a friend's grievances.
For the 2026-2027 cycle, all candidates for the ETA program were named as alternates. No acceptances or rejections. During interviews, they were all informed that the program has yet to finalize their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and could not provide a further timeline. That was more than two months ago. Raises the question, why were interviews even held? To the ETA applicants, the MoU seemed like a routine thing too, only a matter of time before it would be completed.
In this year's Slack though, apparently a Laos Research applicant was informed during their interview that they were unsure if Laos ETA would occur this year. Why? Who knows. Why was this mentioned to them? Who knows.
In the intervening months, my friend has received no update from the program. No communication, no further information, genuinely nothing.
If you're considering Laos, please be aware. It's a wonderful country, but it's crazy to be stuck in a situation where the entire country might be canceled (despite funding being appropriated a year in advance) and none of the applicants have received any information. Disgraceful.