LONDON—The U.K. Border Authority (UKBA) has stopped student visa applications from North India, Nepal, and Bangladesh for at least a month as it investigates an inexplicable sixfold increase in demand.
The increase is specifically from centers in Delhi, Chandigarh, and Jalandhar. If genuine students still wish to enter the U.K., they can apply from other centers, officials said over the weekend.
UKBA spokesperson Sam Murray said, “The suspension is in three centers where we witnessed an unusual rise in applications. In October-December 2009, we received 13,500 applications, whereas in the same period in 2008 it was 1,800 and in 2007 it was 1,000.”
Jeremy Oppenheim, head of the points-based visa system, said on the UKBA Web site that his office continually checks and monitors the student application system. “As a result of this routine monitoring and an increase in applications, we have temporarily stopped accepting new applications from North India, Nepal, and Bangladesh while we carry out an investigation to ensure they are all genuine.
“We will take tough action against those who attempt to abuse the system.”
The suspension starts Feb. 1 and will last until the end of the month at which point staff are expected to have trawled through the huge influx of requests. Interviews and appointments as well as paper applications have been suspended during the same period.
The stoppage will not affect the majority of genuine students seeking entry into the U.K. as most applications are submitted in October for courses starting in January, or in July for the fall semester.
“Genuine students have become the innocent victims in this case,” Harjap Bhangal of London Immigration Advice & Appeal Services Ltd. wrote in an email. “There is evidence of large scale fraudulent applications coming from North India in particular the Punjab. The reason for this is due to the ease with which the points needed to qualify can be made up.”
He explained, “Forty points are required to qualify for a student visa; 30 of them are obtained by just having a visa letter and the other 10 are obtained by just having to ability to show funds held in an account for 28 days. The source of these funds is not questioned nor is the ability of the student to study his course.”
Those rules will now change. Starting from Feb. 22, any student who applies must possess a confirmation of acceptance for studies (CAS) certificate from their prospective sponsor. The sponsor is the educational institution offering a place which a student has been accepted. Each sponsoring institution will be required to vouch for the ability of students. A visa letter will no longer be accepted even if issued before Feb. 22, 2010.
Visa fraud
“Punjab is an area which is renowned for immigration fraud,” Mr. Bhangal stated. “Agents have seen an opportunity to milk the situation whilst it is there. They charge 6 lakh rupees (approximately $US13,000) to send students to the U.K. Once the students get there, they realize they have been duped.
Recently, so-called students have been seen sleeping on streets in west London and begging door-to-door. This has received widespread publicity in the BBC and other media. They had been promised by agents full-time work and loads of opportunities.
“However there are now reports of female so called ”students“ turning to prostitution.”
According to statistics, the U.K. recently became the second most popular destination for students from India after the United States. The spate of recent attacks on Indians in Australia may have caused a drop in student applications there.
The U.K. visa system has five tiers of which tier 4 is for students. Tier 1 is for highly skilled individuals; tier 2 for skilled individuals with a job offer; tier 3 for low skilled workers, and tier 5 for temporary workers and the Youth Mobility Scheme which allows young people to work in the U.K. for a limited time to satisfy primarily non-economic objectives.
The UKBA site says, “If you are in the United Kingdom as a student under the immigration rules in place before March 31, 2009, the old rules still apply to you until your permission to stay runs out.”
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