Shaista Fatima/New Delhi
Hundreds of students who have secured admissions into colleges abroad are stuck in India after having paid heavy fees for the courses as they are unable to get visas.
The problem arose because of the Covid and the related embargo imposed by countries on the intake of outsiders, including students, to prevent spread of infection. Though in the West, educational institution and Universities have reopened, the governments are directing their embassies to limit and stagger the number of visas to be issued.
Because of this, students seeking visas are facing a unique problem – touts and middle men have cropped up on the scene.
The Expośe
Many students allege touts are out in the field offering to fix appointments for them with the VFS Global, an outsourcing agency that collects documents and biometrics for visa applications for various embassies in Delhi.
However, the VFS global has been regularly warning the applicants against touts and middlemen claiming to operate on its behalf. A tweet by VFS Global says, “We do not charge our customers for the booking of appointments. We advise you to be cautious of touts who promise an early appointment for an extra fee.”
Students like Sanket and Aryan (name changed on request) who have secured admission in MSc Data Science at RWTH Aachen and Friedrich–Alexander University, Germany say “securing an appointment feels like a nightmare now, we have paid our fees, our semester starts from October but we are not able to get a slot for submitting our visa application.”
“After the pandemic, the VFS released slots periodically. Since there was a huge rush of applicants, slots were full and later even when more slots opened there was a lot of black marketing”
Naaz, who secured admission in Ruhr University, Vochum Bochum, Germany, M. Sc Chemistry claims that some of her peers had managed an appointment with help of a middleman who charged them Rs as high as 25k for an appointment. The normal appointment fees to be paid online is only Rs 896.
She says, “On contacting one of the brokers, he assured of getting me a slot to present my papers for Visa for Rs 25,000.” Naaz has even recorded her conversation with the middleman and it’s in possession of Awaz-the voice. We even have a poster of the middleman claiming to arrange the appointment of students with VFS in Delhi.
Sanket alleged it was due to the middlemen students were not getting appointments online.
Visa At Your Doorstep (VAYD) was a facility started by VFS during the pandemic that enables students to get appointments at an affordable price at their doorstep, but after the lockdown was lifted the normal in-office regime was started again.
“VFS in other cities are functioning properly but Delhi is facing problems, they are continuing VAYD that doesn’t make sense. Now that the lockdown is lifted, the middle-men are taking undue advantage of this premium service,” Aryan said.
Naaz told ATV that even some students who are able to avail VAYD have to go to Delhi as VFS doesn’t provide the facility in small towns.
“While VAYD was for fine during the lockdown it’s continuation after its lifting is intriguing,” she added.
The students allege that some middle-men have high-end automated systems that book the slots as soon as these are released on the site of the VFS, leaving no space for people like them.
Poster with details of a middleman assuring Visa
Many students have paid their tuition fees for the semester, some have left their jobs and are stuck for VISA.
Some of the students sent an e-mail to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) listing their problems and seeking help.
The MEA in turn alerted the German embassy in Delhi. The embassy said it has taken up the matter with VFS. The Embassy also told the MEA that it was working on a new Visa system that would make cheating difficult.
The embassy has further requested the students to file complaints against the miscreants with them.
Students applying for the visa of the UK, USA, Canada are also facing similar issues.
Speaking to Awaz-The Voice, one student said “Covid-2nd wave was an apocalypse for students like me, Visa offices and embassies were closed, a passport request letter is generated by the immigration office after which we can submit our passport, but again due to the huge pile up of applications the letter is being sent out at snail’s pace…”
Under normal circumstances biometric verification letters and passport request letters arrive within 4-5 days but now it’s taking 20-30 days for applications to process and more than a month for the follow-up procedures, he said.
Awaz-the Voice tried its best to contact VFS Global to know their version. There was no response from them to the email sent for this.
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