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After issuing a record 1,40,000 student visas last year, the US consular team in India is all geared up to meet the expected rise in number of applications from Indian students in 2024, with a senior official at the embassy here saying that the projected total number this year will be "similar or in excess" in comparison to last year. The US Mission in India on Thursday held its eighth annual Student Visa Day countrywide with consular officers from New Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai interviewing Indian student visa applicants. At the US Embassy in Delhi, a long queue of students was seen since morning. American universities attract a large number of Indian students, and last year, the US consular team in India issued over 1,40,000 student visas -- higher than for any other country setting a record for the third year in a row. Syed Mujtaba Andrabi, acting Consul General at US Embassy in New Delhi, in an interaction with PTI at the embassy, said, "by the end of the da
International students, including Indians, starting courses at British universities this month will no longer be able to bring family members on all but postgraduate research courses and courses with government-funded scholarships under tougher UK visa norms effective from Monday. The UK Home Office said the changes, first announced by former home secretary Suella Braverman in May last year, are aimed at clamping down on people using the student visa as a backdoor route to work in the UK and will see an estimated 140,000 fewer people come to the UK. The tougher rules are geared towards cutting what Home Secretary James Cleverly dubbed as an unreasonable practice of overseas students bringing dependants, which official figures show have risen by more than 930 per cent since 2019. "This government is delivering on its commitment to the British public to cut migration. We have set out a tough plan to rapidly bring numbers down, control our borders and prevent people from manipulating o
A proposed visa fee hike announced by the British government will become effective from Wednesday, when a visit visa for under six months will cost GBP 15 more and student visas will be GBP 127 more expensive for travellers from around the world, including Indians. Following the legislation tabled in Parliament last month, the UK Home Office said the changes mean that the cost for a visit visa for less than six months will rise to GBP 115 and the fee for applying for a student visa from outside the UK will rise to GBP 490 to equal the amount charged for in-country applications. "It is right and fair to increase visa application fees so we can fund vital public services and allow wider funding to contribute to public sector pay," a Home Office spokesperson said. It comes after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had announced in July that the fees and health surcharge paid towards the UK's state-funded National Health Service (NHS) by visa applicants are set to rise significantly to
British Home Secretary Suella Braverman is said to be on a collision course with the country's education department over plans to cut the period of stay allowed for overseas students under a post-study visa route, according to a UK media report on Wednesday. The new Graduate Visa route, which allows foreign graduates including Indians the chance to stay on to job hunt and gain work experience for up to two years without the requirement of a specific job offer, is expected to be cut under Braverman's proposed review. According to 'The Times', the Indian-origin home secretary has drawn up a plan to "reform" the Graduate Visa route requiring students to obtain a work visa by getting a skilled job or leave the UK after six months. The newspaper refers to leaked advice to say that the UK Department for Education (DfE) is attempting to block the changes as they fear it would harm the UK's attractiveness to international students. A government source who backs Braverman's plan said the .