CHANDIGARH: Some have paid their tuition fees, others have their acceptance letters in their hands. But now hundreds of Indian students may not be able to study in the UK thanks to a sudden decision to temporarily stop accepting student visa applications at its three centres in north India.
As there is no guarantee of getting their tuition fees back, which students have already paid in some cases, the fear of losing lakhs of rupees is looming over their head.
"The admissions process is an arrangement only between the student and the college and we cannot intervene. However we hope that genuine colleges will understand this situation but we cannot play any role in it," Nigel Casey, British deputy high commissioner, said.
This indefinite suspension, put in force from Monday, was the direct result of a 10-time increase in student visa applications during the period October to December 2009, at three visa application centres of Chandigarh, Jalandhar and New Delhi.
Last year, 13,500 applications were received during this period whereas only 1,800 and 1,200 were received in 2008 and 2007, respectively.
"We will again review the situation by the end of this month. Then depending on our evaluation, we will decide when to resume accepting applications again," said Casey.
Casey said that this suspension was necessary to scrutinize the situation and to save genuine applicants as there were some cases where people were abusing the student visa norms.
"Some unscrupulous agents mislead youth by telling them that they can easily attain PR (permanent residency) through student visas, which is totally wrong," he pointed out.
As per official records, Britain's visa operation in India is its largest in the world.
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