New Zealand Drops the Number of Issued Student Visas to Indian Students

Following the UK, it appears New Zealand has also tightened its student visa rules. In the last five months, New Zealand has issued half as many new student visas to Indian students compared to the same period last year. This has resulted in a lot of potentially capable Indian students being turned down. 

From the beginning of July to end of October 2016, New Zealand consulate approved 3,102 visas which is just 48% of the 6,462 approved in the same period for the year 2015.

New Zealand's public radio broadcast channel 'Radio New Zealand' reported that the fall was due to tighter rules and monitoring of student visa applications from India because too many Indian students were “arriving with too little money to support themselves and too little English to study here.”

Richard Goodall, the international education spokesperson of Independent ITENZ (Tertiary Education New Zealand), said the number of visa approvals was lower, but the calibre of students was higher. So the reason behind the stricter rules is essentially maintaining quality intake of students.

Early in 2016 Radio New Zealand released a statement claiming that the Immigration New Zealand rejected student visas of Indian students because most students from the country were “really not coming to study or because they did not have enough finances to support their study and stay costs.”