Eased New Zealand visa rules multiplied bogus students

New Zealand, 23rd July: Relaxed New Zealand visa rules have led to an increasingly high number of fake or bogus students sneaking into the nation.

This has been confirmed by a staff official of New Zealand immigration department-INZ(Immigration New Zealand) in Beijing.

New visas issued to bogus student visa holders—As per the reports, several foreign students on fake or fraudulent New Zealand student visas were issued new student visas in Palmerston North. This was revealed by an informant with INZ’s inside knowledge of working.

And it has been further stated that new student visas were granted through a rubber stamping unit named Palmerston North student visa branch. The information provided to Winston Peters, the New Zealand First Leader.

Rules for New Zealand student visa eased for keeping figures up—Fake or bogus foreign students were provided entry to New Zealand by easing New Zealand student visa rules. This was done to keep the number of foreign student enrollments in New Zealand up, the informer claimed.

The rules were relaxed in July 2011 in Beijing. As a result of such relaxations, all checks of educational qualifications were not undertaken of applicants in China.

No wonder, it resulted in arrival of as many as 279 applicants from Beijing to New Zealand. All such applicants either were found to be having false bank statements or false or bogus educational qualifications. The worst thing is that New Zealand student visa scam did not remain limited to only Beijing.

Rather, it was quite widespread, the letter forwarded to the Herald by another New Zealand immigration official reveals.

The staff official further maintained that the reason for stopping checks of educational qualifications as cited to the officers during last June was said to be eliminating sheer wastage of time in such verifications.

So, New Zealand soon became a top destination for unscrupulous agents wanting to push in fake or bogus foreign students in New Zealand due to elimination of the ruling to check educational documents.

And the fact why agents cashed in on such a rare opportunity was because of their awareness that all such relaxed student visa norms were not going to be available in nations like Canada, Australia or even Canada, the informing official clarified.