UK suspends accepting student visa applications in North India

Britain announced on Saturday that no new applications for student visas will be entertained from February 1 from the Delhi, Chandigarh and Jalandhar centres. The decision was taken after a dramatic rise in the number of applications from these centres, leading to the suspicion that many of these were not genuine applicants, but those who were trying to misuse the system.

“From Feb 1, United Kingdom High Commission will stop accepting student visa applications under Tier 4 of the points based system at visa application centres in New Delhi, Chandigarh and Jalandhar,” the regional director of UK Border Agency, Chris Dix, told reporters here. The decision to freeze the issue of fresh visas was taken after thedramatic rise in the number of applications between October and December. From a mere 1,000 applicants in 2007, the number went up to 1,800 in 2008 and a whopping 13,500 last year. Most genuine students apply for the visas around June and July for courses that begin in September. But the increase in application is for the period between October and December, where some educational institutions take in students. It has been found that many of these institutions are not genuine and work the system with the promise of permanent residency in the UK. Last week alone, 60 institutions were ``suspended’’ and their licenses revoked. So far, 90 institutes got suspension orders.

All those applicants who have already got appointments before February 1 will have their application processed as normal. But, all the appointments given after February 1 will be suspended temporarily. New applications will not be accepted.

“Applicants should first contact through email to those centres to see if their application will be accepted. I would strongly advise against travelling before communicating via email, to see if they can get appointments in person,” said Dix.

The British deputy high commissioner Nigel Casey said that the decision was taken anot only because of the dramatic increase in the number of applications, but also over concerns about the quality of the centres. “Some people in north India are perhaps spreading the news that the student visa is a good way to settle in the UK,” he said. Out of the 13,500 applications, some of them have reportedly been found to have “causes for concern”.

However, there is also another viewpoint that the increase in the number of applicants could be related to the fall in the number of students travelling to Australia, following the numerous cases of assault on Indians there. Dan Chugg, spokesman for the British High Commission said “It could be one of the reasons, though it is difficult to directly prove the point.”

Chugg further added, `The pause will help to clear the back log and scrutinise the applications to ensure that genuine students are not kept out. A review will be done at the end of February for all these three centres”. Meanwhile, in the rest of the country student visa applications will be accepted.