Govt discusses long-delays in visas for Indian students with US, Canada, UK

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has had discussion with Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, New Zealand, Poland, UK and USA about streamlining student visas to Indian nationals.

People familiar with the situation said the MEA raised the issue of student visas and asked the Heads of Missions/senior diplomats of Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, New Zealand, Poland, UK and USA to expedite the process and bring clarity to it.

Official spokesperson of the MEA, Arindam Bagchi on Friday took to twitter to inform about the progress.

The number of Indian students studying outside India rapidly increased by 163% between 1999 and 2006 to reach 145,539 as compared to slower growth of 25% between 2006 and 2013 to reach 181,872, according to an analysis of UNESCO data. As of January 2021, more than 1 million Indian students are studying in 85 countries outside India. More than 50% of Indian students study in North America.

A total of 1,33,135 Indian students went abroad for higher studies this year, as on March 20, the Parliament was informed on Thursday.

As per information received from Bureau of Immigration (BoI), the number of Indian students, who departed India for higher education in the current year, is 1,33,135 so far while there were 4,44,553 students in 2021 and 2,59,655 in 2020, Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan told Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

On Friday, Passport Seva Diwas, Minister of External Affairs, S Jaishankar, said the External Affairs Ministry rose to the occasion to meet the increased demand for passport services built up due to two-and-half-years of the Covid pandemic, and recorded an impressive monthly average of 9 lakh.

In his message on the occasion of Passport Seva Divas, the external affairs minister said passport services were rendered with the same vigour and enthusiasm even during the testing times of the Covid pandemic.

The Passport Seva System has also been integrated with DigiLocker system to facilitate paperless documentation process, he noted.

The ministry in collaboration with Department of Posts operationalised 428 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKS) to reach out to our citizens at their doorsteps, Jaishankar said.

Recognising the need to continually improve the quality of passport services, the Passport Seva Programme (PSP) will be embarking on PSP V2.0, an improved and up graded version of P SP V1.0, which would ensure a digital ecosystem among all stakeholders and offer enhanced passport services to citizens, he said.