A recent media report highlighted that the visa applicants from Punjab, Gujarat and Haryana seeking to pursue higher studies in foreign countries like Canada and Australia are now facing higher rates of rejection.
Why Would This Happen?
It appears that these countries, along with others like the UK, have tightened rules and students hailing from specific Indian states are facing greater scrutiny.
The idea behind such rules is to “restore integrity” in their education sector through “increased scrutiny of the caseload”, according to the Australian High Commission in India.
The countries that felt Indians keen to immigrate are using the student visa route to game the system, said the experts tracking this phenomenon.
Increasing Cases Of Visa Fraud Making It Worse
In the case of Canada, it is a case in point as its relaxed rules for asylum seekers meant that once a person legally enters the country, she/he can throw away the passport and seek asylum.
Further, the Canadian authorities cannot turn away asylum seekers even if they lack proper documentation, at least until their refugee application has been considered, considering their law.
Another fact that came out is that multiple education and immigration consultants were of the opinion that skyrocketing net migration figures following the COVID-19 pandemic as well as increasing cases of visa fraud led to these changes.
The unavailability of the specific numbers is due to the fact that foreign countries or universities do not share state-specific data pertaining to the rejection rate of student visa applicants.
“There appears to be a pattern of high rejection rates among students from Punjab and Haryana seeking to pursue higher education in Canada, while Australia has, in the past, imposed restrictions on students from Gujarat as well as Punjab and Haryana,” said Vivek Tandon, head of American immigration firm EB5 BRICS.
So far, the students from Punjab constitute the biggest chunk of those seeking student visas to Canada.
Almost 2.25 lakh Indian students Canada accepted during 2023 out of that 1.35 lakh were from Punjab, Tandon said.
The Canadian government had nearly deported 700 Indian students last June.
Interestingly, these students were mostly from Punjab, who had landed in the country with fake admission letters.
