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ShareMumbai: Thousands of students who have gained admission to colleges in the UK were left in the lurch after the British high commission abruptly shut visa centres across India citing security concerns.
The inconvenience stems from September 30 being the last date when a UK visa could be applied for under old rules. The new rules require a bank statement showing that the full required maintenance money for stay in the UK has been in the bank for at least 28 days.
Under the old rules, an applicant could submit the bank statement after keeping the money in bank for just one day, said an official at one of the UK Visa Facilitation Services centres.
Because of the new requirement, the period of processing a visa application has been doubled from 14 to 28 days. This means a student supposed to join a course by October end but yet to apply for a visa will have to pay the college £200 to extend the joining date.
The rush of students at the visa centres on Tuesday and Wednesday was to avoid the new rules. At least 14,000 applicants who had lined up at the centres in Mumbai, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, New Delhi and Ahmedabad were affected after the centres abruptly stopped receiving applications at 2pm on Tuesday.
In Mumbai, more than 2,000 students were turned away from the centres at Churchgate and Vile Parle. The police had to disperse the students, who had started protesting against the centres' closure. The centre in Pune was shut on Wednesday afternoon.
"The high commission ought to have anticipated the rush and made adequate arrangements," said a parent at Churchgate.
