Getting a student visa should be simple. At least it was when I had applied for the student visa to go to US. All I needed was my F1 documentation from the university. As I had full scholarship I did not even have to prove that I had enough resources to support myself. The only thing that was going to be impediment was that I had hordes of relatives in the US and there was no guarantee that I would come back. However, the visa officer was very nice. He forbore to ask me too many probing questions and I had my visa that evening.
Now I am the foreign student adviser and I realize that things are really not that simple. At least not where India is concerned. For one, the Indian embassies do not seem to have a protocol as to what documents they need from the student. For another, they seem to be very happy asking for things the administration and I are clueless about. So the last few days I have been grappling with queries from foreign students who have got admission to help them with the paper work. There was a frantic email from a student in Greece. The Indian Embassy wanted a tuition fee receipt. Of course a receipt will be issued as soon the student pays the tuition fee. But the tuition fee will be paid at the time of registration. And the registration can happen only when the student comes to India. How do we issue the student a receipt?
The next was a email from a student from South Korea. The Indian Embassy in South Korea wants certification of business register. We had no idea what this certificate was. I searched the internet and found the nearest thing to this in ISO certificate but JNU does not have one because we were created by an Act of Parliament. The nearest thing to this we have is the NAAC accreditation which we dispatched to the student. I hope it suffices.
Today I got a call from Bangaldesh. The Indian High Commission wants an affiliation certificate. Fortunately, they have been considerate enough to provide the student with a format of the certificate. On Monday, I will have to get it filled, signed by the registrar and send it off to the student.
I am now waiting to see what else the Indian Embassies/High Commission asks. But what really bothers me is that why each Embassy/High Commission has its own list of paperwork. Shouldn't it be the same for all and shouldn't we be informed about it? But I guess this is Indian Bureaucracy.
Now I am the foreign student adviser and I realize that things are really not that simple. At least not where India is concerned. For one, the Indian embassies do not seem to have a protocol as to what documents they need from the student. For another, they seem to be very happy asking for things the administration and I are clueless about. So the last few days I have been grappling with queries from foreign students who have got admission to help them with the paper work. There was a frantic email from a student in Greece. The Indian Embassy wanted a tuition fee receipt. Of course a receipt will be issued as soon the student pays the tuition fee. But the tuition fee will be paid at the time of registration. And the registration can happen only when the student comes to India. How do we issue the student a receipt?
The next was a email from a student from South Korea. The Indian Embassy in South Korea wants certification of business register. We had no idea what this certificate was. I searched the internet and found the nearest thing to this in ISO certificate but JNU does not have one because we were created by an Act of Parliament. The nearest thing to this we have is the NAAC accreditation which we dispatched to the student. I hope it suffices.
Today I got a call from Bangaldesh. The Indian High Commission wants an affiliation certificate. Fortunately, they have been considerate enough to provide the student with a format of the certificate. On Monday, I will have to get it filled, signed by the registrar and send it off to the student.
I am now waiting to see what else the Indian Embassies/High Commission asks. But what really bothers me is that why each Embassy/High Commission has its own list of paperwork. Shouldn't it be the same for all and shouldn't we be informed about it? But I guess this is Indian Bureaucracy.
No comments:
Post a Comment