Citing massive documentation fraud, the Australian immigration
service, rejected a third of all Indian student visa requests in the third quarter
of 2009.
The Times of India reported that 33% of all
Indian student visa application were rejected between July 1 and Oct 31,
2009, by the Australian
Department of Immigration and Citizenship, a five fold increase from the same
period the previous year. The highest rejection rates (39%) were for students
from Nepal; 31% of applicants from Pakistan were also rejected. The department rejected 41%
of Indian student visa applications for vocational education and training in
the same period.
In a communication to Universities Australia, a
trade group representing Australian universities, the department wrote: “A
forensic analysis of applications found extremely high rates of fraud within
the documentation being provided in support of student visa applications in India. Over 50% of cases analyzed contained at least
one fraudulent document, with many of these cases containing numerous such
documents.”
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