New Zealand Denies Visas to Thousands of Indian Students

New Zeland has denied visas to thousands of Indian students after immigration authorities determined that most of the applicants from the country were not “really coming for studies”, a media report said today.

According to figures provided under the Official Information Act, 51 institutions, including half of the country’s polytechnics, have visa decline rates for Indian students of more than 30 per cent.

At most of the institutions more than half of applications are being turned down and at one the decline rate is 86 per cent, Radio New Zealand reported.

The figures covered the six months from the start of December 2015 to the end of May 2016 and were only for institutions with at least 10 visa applications from Indian students.

They showed that Immigration New Zealand turned down 3,864 visa applications for the institutions, and approved 3,176 during that time.

Immigration New Zealand said Insight programme that most of the declined applications in the first four months of this year were because it did not believe the applicant was really coming to study, or because it did not believe they had enough money to support themselves.