13 November 2024

32% study visa applications of Indians rejected

By Gurbir Singh:

New Zealand continues to be a popular destination for international students, but nearly one-third of all student visa applications submitted by Indian education agents to New Zealand Immigration were declined last year.

In the information released by Immigration NZ last week, out of 6425 fee paying and scholarship student visa applicants, 3004 (46.75%) were rejected for the calendar year 2017.

All these applicants were outside New Zealand at the time of applying and relate to those visa applications that were decided and completed during the year.

The reasons for decline in the approval rate have not been revealed. However, this is largely due to the strict scrutiny of visa applications by Immigration NZ’s Mumbai office after scores of alleged fraud by a few education agents in visa applications were unearthed. This also led to deportation of several students, though they declined any knowledge or role in the fraud or incorrect information provided in their applications.

As compared to India, China fared much better. 7327 students from China were granted visa approvals and only 542 applications were rejected by Immigration NZ to study in New Zealand.

The rejection rate of visa applications for education agents recruiting Indian students last year has actually come down slightly. This could be because of increased awareness or adherence of the immigration and English language proficiency rules by education agents.

In the year 2015 and 2016, the decline rate of student visa applications from India was 51% and 54% respectively whereas it was only 9% and 7% for China.

According to the Immigration New Zealand India market student visa approval data report, out of 197 offshore immigration adviser companies and/or education agents on its list, only two of these had 100% success rate, whereas one company had 0% success. However, the number of visa applications submitted by these companies were only between 10 -20.

In the category of 200+ applications, there was only one Chandigarh-based agency that achieved a high success rate of 93%, followed by a Delhi agent at 81%.

Amongst all the states of India, the highest overall approval rate of student visas made by the Immigration NZ’s Mumbai Area Office, were from Maharashtra and Karnataka at 82%. Tamil Nadu was next at 80%, whereas in Punjab and Chandigarh, success rate was only 55%.

This data represents decisions made during the period 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2017.

 Last year, the country approved offshore student visa applications from 160 countries across the world, including 2507 from the US.

Originally published in PressReader.com by this journalist in Feb 2018

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