Students from Punjab, Gujarat, Haryana now face higher rejection rate for Canadian, Australian visas

Education and immigration consultants say post-pandemic skyrocketing net migration figures as well as rise in cases of visa fraud led many countries to introduce new, stricter visa rules.

Representational image | ANI

New Delhi: 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, ThePrint has learnt.

This is mainly because these countries, along with others like the UK, have tightened rules and students hailing from specific Indian states are facing greater scrutiny.

The Australian High Commission in India, for instance, told ThePrint that the idea behind such rules is to “restore integrity” in their education sector through “increased scrutiny of the caseload”.

Experts tracking this phenomenon said countries felt Indians keen to immigrate are using the student visa route to game the system.

Canada is a case in point. 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.

Canadian authorities, by law, cannot turn away asylum seekers even if they lack proper documentation — at least until their refugee application has been considered.

Multiple education and immigration consultants ThePrint spoke to 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.

Foreign countries or universities do not share state-specific data pertaining to the rejection rate of student visa applicants.

But, according to Vivek Tandon, head of American immigration firm EB5 BRICS, 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.

Students from Punjab constitute the biggest chunk of those seeking student visas to Canada. Of the nearly 2.25 lakh Indian students Canada accepted in 2023, 1.35 lakh were from Punjab, estimated Tandon.

There is no data on which state has the highest acceptance rate but considering Canada and Australia are vetting applications from Punjab “more carefully”, it can be assumed that applicants from states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Maharashtra are viewed more favourably, he told ThePrint.

Last June, the Canadian government had nearly deported 700 Indian students, mostly from Punjab, who had landed in the country with fake admission letters.

Following New Delhi’s intervention, then-Canadian immigration minister Sean Fraser was quoted as saying that genuine students who are victims of fraud will be allowed to stay in Canada on temporary visas, subject to a probe. And in May this year, Brijesh Mishra, an Indian national believed to be the main culprit behind the scam, was sentenced to three years in jail in Canada after he pled guilty to charges.

So far, 20 Indians linked to the fake admission letter scam have either been forcibly removed or have departed on their own, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) told ThePrint. Over the past three years, 56 Indian nationals were removed from Canada having been found inadmissible for misrepresenting material facts associated with their entry or stay, said the CBSA.

Questions also surfaced after it was found that Indian nationals arrested for the murder of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – a case that sparked a diplomatic row between New Delhi and Ottawa – entered Canada on student visas.

Last May, a number of Australian universities stopped processing applications from Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and J&K citing ‘fake documents’ and high dropout rates. At the time, the country’s Department of Home Affairs deemed one in four applications by Indian students “non-genuine”.

Canada and Australia are viewed as an attractive destination because they have simpler citizenship and immigration norms compared to the UK and the US.

Higher rejection rates, visa loopholes

Speaking to ThePrint, Dev Mehta, director of Mumbai-based FRR Forex pointed to cases of forged marksheets and proxies appearing for the applicant in the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) examination. “The desperation to go abroad is so high that students are willing to do whatever it takes,” he added.

Mehta noted that foreign countries are more narrowly focusing on whether the university and the course chosen by an applicant matches their career trajectory. 

Ajimon Ouseph, Toronto-based business and immigration consultant, said Canada has increased due diligence of visas and tightened rules in the past year in response to growing concerns about organised fraudulent activity. “Applicants from Punjab and Haryana are viewed with more scrutiny. Usually, the IELTS scores are fudged or immigration consultants dupe people from these states,” he told ThePrint. 

Adding, “Canada’s relaxed rules on asylum seekers is the loophole. If you enter the country, abscond and lose your passport, you can present yourself as an asylum seeker. Canada, by law, cannot turn away asylum seekers even if they lack proper documents — at least until their refugee application has been considered.”

As for applicants who face rejection, consultants like Chandigarh-based West Highlander hold special ‘remedial courses’.

“Rejection rates are increasing because applicants do not know/cannot meet new visa requirements. We help identify which details are missing or wrong. About 30 percent of people who come to us have fake documents. We refuse assistance and inform authorities if necessary,” Anshul Mehra, assistant general manager at West Highlander, told ThePrint.

The company says each year it helps 500-700 students whose visa applications are rejected. In cases where the name of the university itself appears fake, the company double-checks the US’ Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) list, Canada’s Designated learning institutions (DLI) list or similar lists in other countries.

That said, foreign countries, too, have had their share of missteps in the past.

For instance, in 2016, a British tribunal alleged that then-Home Secretary Theresa May wrongly deported up to 50,000 international students, many of whom were Indians, on the basis of “hearsay”. An English test cheating scam at one school, reported by the British media, was used to incriminate all who had appeared for the test.

Ripple effect of stricter visa rules

The commonwealth countries and the US are main destinations for student applications from India. Therefore, if one country heightens due diligence, it has a ripple effect on the rest, said immigration consultants.

Many countries have put in place new rules to stem migration and ensure study permits aren’t used as a backdoor into the job market or as a gateway to immigration. 

In January, Canada doubled financial requirements for foreign students from CAD $10,000 to CAD $20,635. Mehra said this led to “panic” among applicants from Punjab and Haryana and now countries like Germany and New Zealand are “trending”.

Canada also made it mandatory for international students to attach a Provincial Attestation Letter (PAL) with their application, failure of which would result in rejection. A PAL verifies whether the applicant is part of a Canadian province’s quota of study permits. To obtain one, they must contact the province in which their university is located. 

This was for those applying for undergraduate or postgraduate programmes; not doctoral and masters programmes. 

Against that backdrop, the cap on the number of study permits per province was reduced in April with an aim to bring down the total number of permits issued by 35 percent, compared to the previous year. The new rules have caused Canada’s processing of new study permits to fall by half, mainly due to a drop in Indian students’ applications and rising refusal rates, reported Toronto Star.

The UK, too, introduced more stringent rules this year. In January, it barred students from bringing family members to the country. This affected Indian nationals who account for a quarter (26 percent) of recipients of study visas issued by the UK globally.

London-based immigration lawyer Gurpal Singh Uppal told ThePrint that such curbs seek to tackle phenomena like “contract marriages”. In such arrangements, a man who cannot pass the IELTS exam would sponsor a woman’s studies abroad in exchange for a spousal visa.

“The number of dependents coming into the UK skyrocketed from 15,000 in 2019 to 1.5 lakh visas in 2023. Contract marriages, common among applicants from Punjab and Haryana, have contributed to this,” he said.

After the UK’s ban on dependents, the number of study-dependent visas issued from January-March this year fell by an estimated 80 percent. Indians, forming the largest international student cohort in the UK, were the worst affected.

There has also been a decline in “calibre” of students coming from Punjab and Haryana, explained Uppal, adding that 90 percent of his clients from these states do not finish their studies in the UK. 

“Although they are keen to come here and settle, it’s not a rosy picture. They end up picking jobs like construction labourers or courier drivers. The UK doesn’t hold the future that they want,” he said.

Asked what the UK and India are doing to counter visa fraud, the British High Commission in India told ThePrint in an email that this is an “ongoing issue” tackled with “in-country travel providers and visa application centres to raise awareness of common scams targeting customers when they apply for their UK visa”.

Besides the UK and Canada, Australia too introduced stricter visa curbs this year.

In March, Australia’s new English language requirements for all student visa and temporary graduate visa applications came into effect. There is now also additional scrutiny on subsequent student visas. For example, if one wants to pursue another course after completing the one for which they applied for a visa, they will need to provide evidence to demonstrate how an additional course will further their career or academic aspirations.

These new rules seek to “restore integrity” in the country’s education sector, a spokesperson for the Australian High Commission in India told ThePrint.

“The increase in student visa refusals is a direct result of the Australian government’s integrity-focused approach to student visa processing and an increased scrutiny of the caseload to address integrity concerns in the program,” the spokesperson added.

There are currently 1.15 lakh Indian student visa holders in Australia, the second largest cohort of international students in the country.

This is an updated version of the report

 (With inputs from Shivani Mago)

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)