Stricter immigration rules for Indian students, but not for Chinese

From The Australian:

Tougher immigration rules for Indian students

Guy Healy
September 03, 2008

AN immigration crackdown will make it harder to recruit students from India, the fast-growing big market in Australia's $12.5 billion education export industry.

University of NSW's pro vice-chancellor (international) Jennie Lang told the HES all universities were likely to have urged students to get their visa applications lodged and processed before the September 1 change in immigration risk levels, which affects a host of overseas markets.

"We will also be encouraging (Department of Immigration and Citizenship) staff in offshore posts to ensure that university sector applicants are given priority," Ms Lang said.

A spokesperson from the department said "genuine applicants had nothing to fear from the changes".

According to the latest official data, there were 65,000 Indian students in Australia in the year to June, mostly in vocational education. Although they make up a smaller market than the Chinese, the Indian growth rate is much higher: student numbers from India grew by 55 per cent, compared with 19per cent from China.

The China market, however, benefits in the latest revision of immigration risk, which is based on factors such as rates of document fraud, visa overstay and asylum claims, as well as applications for non-skilled residency for a spouse, for example.

*snip*

India was not alone in moving up the risk scale. Visa applicants from Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, Jordan, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Romania and Zimbabwe will have to do more to show they are genuine students.

They will have to give extra evidence of their capacity to support themselves financially, especially with savings histories.

The status of these nine countries had been changed "to combat increased levels of immigration risk", the department spokesperson said.

The risk levels are set across various sectors, including English language courses, vocational education and higher degrees.

The higher risk assessment affects all sectors of the Indian education market, which moved up by one level.

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