UK Embassy warns visa seeking students of unscrupulous agents

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

ISLAMABAD: Since the announcement about changes in student visa by UK government, unscrupulous visa agents in Pakistan are taking advantage of prospective students by offering help with non-genuine visa applications while at the same time charging large sum of money for the service, said UK Embassy sources.

They said these agents were offering faulty advices to applicants resulting in incomplete or wrongly completed applications.

The UK government recently introduced changes to the student visa route and the changes were designed to reduce the abuse of the student immigration system by those seeking primarily to work and also to protect legitimate students from being misled by questionable institutions.

This causes delays to visa applications and in most cases applications are rejected. However, in some cases fake documents are also submitted by these agents, risking a 10-year ban on travel to the UK by the applicants.

The embassy proposes that applicants do not need an agent to make a UK visa application. If applicants want to take additional help, they should choose an agent carefully. They suggested the agents that they should charge a reasonable fee and should not make any guarantees about a visa application, as they had no influence over the decision. The embassy intimated that students should report about cheating agents to the police.

“To ensure that applications are processed as quickly as possible we ask that students carefully follow the appropriate guidance in filling out the application form and supplying all the relevant information. To avoid delays, applicants can also apply for a visa three months prior to their intended date of travel. Applicants can find additional information on how to apply for a visa at the following website: http://www.ukvacpk.com

The current and forthcoming Points Based System Tier rules for student visa can be reached on the UK Border Agency website.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk

The embassy officials maintained that the UK recognised the important contribution to Pakistani students made to the UK and they wanted to encourage genuine students to come to the UK for study.