Now its UK’s turn to cancel visa applications from India

Filed in archive Europe on February 17, 2010

© ell brown

After Australia, it's now UK which is getting harsher with its visa application for Indian students. UK's visa application centers in northern India have temporarily stopped accepting visa applications for student visas for now. When asked for clarification on this issue, Richard Stagg, UK High Commissioner stated that it doesn't mean that it wants to prevent Indians from studying in UK rather it intends to stop people who are not genuine from entering into the country. This step was taken after its application center received a large number of student visas on a single day which was equivalent to the number of applications received in the whole month of January 2009.

This sent alarm bells ringing at the UK visa application center which stopped the process temporarily to prevent any fake person from entering the country. It has been placing pressure on visa authorities and at the same time making things difficult for legitimate students looking for a dependable and speedy visa service. Earlier institutions were free to bring in thousands of foreign students into UK but now the number has been scaled down to 2000. As of now Tier 4 has been implemented which places greater onus on educational institutions in UK sponsoring foreign students. The institutions are placed under scrutiny and the authorities keep a check on whether the student is enrolled in the institution and is attending classes or not.

UK visa authorities also face the problem from corrupt agents in India who flummox gullible people by false promise of helping them enter UK by outdoor means. Even if some people manage to enter UK illegally they don't have enough money to sustain themselves and some are made to believe that they would get full time work or benefits but in reality that is not possible unless you have a work permit.

During this period the UK visa authorities intend to cope up with backlog of cases and come up with solutions to deal with problems which have cropped up in the past. The situation will be reviewed by the end of February and till then it means sleepless nights for genuine Indian students.