UK halts student visa applications from N India

New Delhi, Jan 31: The British High Commission has temporarily suspended acceptance of student visa applications from north India.

The UK Border Agency on Sunday, Jan 31, announced the suspension in taking visa applications at its centres in New Delhi, Chandigarh and Jalandhar from Monday, Feb 1.

Deputy High Commissioner Nigel Casey said, "We took this decision in response to unexpectedly high numbers of student visa applications in these areas at this time of year."

These three centres (New Delhi, Chandigarh and Jalandhar) had received nearly 1,000 student visa applications from Oct to Dec 2007.

This number increased to 1,800 in the same period in 2008 while the number climbed to 13,500 in the corresponding period in 2009.

Visa application centres in west and south India will continue their operations as usual.

When asked the reason for such unprecedented increase in visa applications, Casey said the decline in number of student visa applications to a few other countries could have contributed to the rise.

It is important here to note that Indian parents are not allowing their children to join Australian universities in view of increased racial attacks.

Australia has witness about a 50 per cent drop in Indian students when compared to Jan 2009.

With UK universities rejecting applications from North India the options of studying abroad is reducing drastically.

OneIndia News