Twenty-year-old Mumbai student Pallavi Singh had her priorities set straight even when her classmates were busy enjoying their college life; she had dreams of achieving bigger things in life. So when the third-year psychology student got an opportunity to intern for five weeks with a well-known university in Canada, she jumped at the chance, reported Mid-Day Mumbai.
Her dreams, however, were left shattered after she failed to get a visa even after three attempts.
Officials told her that during her interview for the visa application, she failed to convince them that she would only be a temporary resident and leave Canada after the course concluded.
Pallavi Singh’s father took a loan so that Singh could go for the internship
After receiving an invitation to intern with the Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Singh applied for a visa in the last week of May this year. After repeated rejections from the Canadian High Commission, she finally gave up as her internship period was supposed to begin in the last week of August.
As per the visa application process, a candidate has to provide documents stating why s/he wants to visit the country. Those who look for a temporary or travel visa have to submit appropriate documents and state reasons to prove that they will return back to their home country within the designated period.
In Singh’s case, the internship was for five weeks and she submitted letters written by her parents and college clearly stating that she would come back to India after the internship. Her reasons, however, didn’t convince the citizenship and immigration officer of the Canadian High Commission, who stated in his reply that “a candidate must fulfill the requirement to establish to the officer that the applicant will respect their terms and conditions of admission and will leave Canada by the end of the period authorised for his/her stay.”
Every time an application is submitted, candidates end up shelling Rs 5,450, which is a non-refundable amount. After her application was rejected twice, Singh chose to shell out Rs 15,000 for a consultant to apply for her, who ensured all her documents were in place. “I worked hard to apply for this internship. Since two years, I’ve been saving money by teaching Hindi to expats in the city. My father took a loan to conform to the financial standards that is necessary to apply for this internship. Now, all that has gone waste,” she said.
The final rejection letter also mentioned that the application doesn’t show “sufficient funds, including income and assets, to carry out the stated purpose.” However, Singh maintained that her accounts showed enough funds, as prescribed in the visa application process. “Since it was supposed to be an internship and I was to stay on campus, I would have needed very little money for daily expenses,” she added.
Authorities at the Canadian High Commission were unavailable for comment. However, a senior official told Mid-Day Mumbai , on condition of anonymity, “The exit rules in Canada are not very strong so the authorities have no mechanism to find out how and when a person has left the country. So, it’s very important that at the time of applying for a visa, a candidate must show significant ties to the home country to prove that they will return within the designated period.”
Senior officials at several colleges and universities across Canada which are seeking to attract more Indian students to study at their institutions, said Singh’s case highlights the need for a better streamlined process for visa issuing officers.
“We can’t be taken seriously when we go to India to invite students and at the same time many of them get rejected,” said a BC based education entrepreneur.
“Sure there are cases of fraud and we need to be diligent but sometimes a certain amount of discretion needs to be used…the rejection rates are very high and if these keeps up, we will loose out on the education market,” he said, echoing the sentiments of several others interviewed.
Another senior official of a university said Prime Minister Stephen Harper just last month talked about Indian students making it big in Canada.
He was referring to Harper addressing a programme to commemorate India's 68th Independence Day last month where he said that in 2005, fewer than twenty-five hundred student visas were granted to Indian students.
Harper said that last year, Canada granted more than fourteen thousand such visas. "More Indian students than ever before are studying at Canadian universities, and because our Government has made it easier for these bright young minds to qualify for permanent residency and to work, we hope these students, many of them, will stay and put their Canadian degrees to use right here in Canada," he added.