Much before the Tri-Valley University scam that affected many Indians was exposed in the US, the American Consulate in Mumbai had expressed concern over a huge jump in lesser qualified student visa applications, a leaked US diplomatic cable has said.
According to the cable over the past years, Mumbai recorded a noticeable increase in the number of lesser qualified student visa applicants, many of them even applied to the same universities. A study of student visa revealed that multiple transfers were not unusual and almost 40% of transfer were to a lower level degree programme.
It said, “In a second random sample of applicants issued only for study at universities identified by adjudicators as attracting a higher number of unqualified applicants, the completion rate was lower, rate of terminations higher, and the number of transfers down was greater.”
An extraordinary number of repeat refusal increases the refusal rate per application to 33 per cent. It said, “Unqualified F1 visa applicants appear for third, fourth, and sometimes seventh interviews hoping for a different decision.”
The cable said, “Mumbai's refused student applicants are characterised by difficulty communicating in English (with or without anticipated English training on their I-20s), few or single university applications submitted, poor standardized test scores, financing by extended family dependant on agricultural income, and a rehearsed script of the reasons they selected the particular university.”
Cable also mentioned, “Many of these applicants state that they found the school on the internet, but when pressed during the interview acknowledged that they applied based on a local recruiting agent's presentation.”
The US Consulate in Mumbai carried out a detailed investigation into the students visas issued by it and questioned as to how an Indian student admitted to a university in California was doing a job in suburb of Washington.
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