Student visa
Mehedi Hasan Uttara Model Town, Dhaka
An ever-increasing number of students from Bangladesh, in recent years, are going for higher or further education programmes around the world, especially to the USA, UK, Australia, Canada and Japan. The growing tendency toward overspecialisation, which is also a national demand, is needed for higher positions in business, industry, and government. Many students over the years after successful completion of Undergraduate, Postgraduate or Doctoral degrees are now back to their motherland and serving the nation. But more recently the limited and controlled student visas and the stringent visa processing system make it difficult for students to get entry into some countries and they are often not granted visa, despite having all the requisite qualifications.Many of them even with excellent academic background and already enrolled in reputed foreign universities have not been granted student visa. This trend is frustrating and discouraging and dissuades good students from higher studies. One of my friends, a graduate from SUST in Computer Science with brilliant academic results, failed to get a student visa to Canada and then went to a university in England. Another one, a chemical engineer, failed to get visa to England and left his ambition for higher studies for good and joined a company! Students applying for entry visas are normally required to present documentary evidence of their status as responsible and law-abiding citizens of their own country. They are to submit to a mental and physical examination and establish their eligibility to receive a student visa. Students are to spend almost a year of hard work and their parents' valuable money for all requirements of student visa. After a long year of hard work with determinism and enthusiasm, if someone possessing all authentic papers and documents is denied a visa his tribulation reaches its climax. Embassy officials may refuse entry visas to students only on specific grounds set forth in the student visa regulations. This may include conviction for crimes, fraud or wilful misrepresentation in procuring a visa, membership of certain proscribed organisations, believed to be prejudicial to the public interest or dangerous to the welfare, safety, or security of the nation etc. But these specific grounds should not be on mere 'suspicion' or 'lack of authenticity' for being ineligible for a student visa. A precise scrutiny is justifiable before denying a visa to a student. All the embassies and High Commissions, I believe, should think about the issue a second time. "A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste." isn't it?
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