By Ghazanfar Ali Khan. India has announced plans to extend a visa-on-arrival facility to Saudis, Omanis and Emiratis in a bid to make the country a more tourist-friendly destination and promote foreign exchange earnings. A meeting, to be attended by top officials, will be held in New Delhi on Monday to discuss the plan and its feasibility.
“This is an important step that will go a long way in promoting direct contact between Saudi Arabia and India,” said Sibi George, deputy chief of Indian mission in Riyadh. “The Indian Embassy is awaiting formal communication from the government.” More...

A proposal by the UK government to charge visitors from “high risk” countries a £3,0000 visa bond has stirred reactions from  parents and potential students in the UK’s third largest student market, Nigeria, as well as an outcry from members of the government.
Despite assurances from the UK’s ambassador to Nigeria Andrew Pocock that the scheme, if introduced, would affect very few people, there is still palpable confusion. Last week, senators said the proposed bond is “selective, discriminatory, obnoxious, vexatious and unprecedented”. More...

By Kang Soon Chen. SINCE commencing operations in February, Education Malaysia Global Services (EMGS) has been plagued by complaints on its inefficiency in processing visa applications for foreign students intending to study in local private institutions of higher learning (IPTS). 
Chief executive officer Mohd Yazid Abd Hamid was frank in acknowledging that EMGS had failed to achieve its client charter of processing the visas within 14 working days in some cases. 
“A lot of the delays were caused by incomplete documentation submitted by some IPTS operators (institutions). In the case of the student from Brunei who was stranded in the country, his college was partly responsible for being late in making the necessary payment,” said Mohd Yazid. 
The student Mohammad Wazini Awang had been left without a passport and visa for four months and it was reported that the IPTS concerned bypassed EMGS and applied directly to the Immigration Department. More...

Some international students' visas trapped in strike action by foreign service officers.
Universities in Nova Scotia say they are scrambling to deal with a possible shortfall of international students because a strike by foreign service officers is delaying some visa applications.
The federal government and the union representing diplomats and immigration officers abroad — the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers — have been locked in a contract negotiation battle for months. As part of escalating job action measures, diplomats at key visa application centres abroad have scaled back some of their services, including processing visas required for international students studying at Canadian universities and colleges.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada officials said processing times are within a two-month standard, but university administrators say some students have already decided to go elsewhere. More...

By Kamila Hinkson. Schools are informing prospective students of options, which include starting later, in the hopes that overseas students won’t choose to study elsewhere. Canadian universities are being proactive and offering support to international students caught in the visa backlog created by the labour dispute between federal government and foreign diplomats. More...

By David Matthews. Home Office ‘looking into’ partnership between Glyndwr University and London School of Business and Finance. A university has suspended entry to a programme in which it sponsored overseas students so they could work in the UK while a private college provided teaching and collected tuition fees. It is understood that the Home Office has been looking into the partnership between Glyndwr University and the London School of Business and Finance, although there is no suggestion that any rules have been broken. The breakdown of the arrangement follows the end of a similar partnership that the LSBF had last year with London Metropolitan University. Read more...

The Irish Universities Association (IUA) recently announced the findings of a survey which looked at the impact of the fast track scientific visa scheme in Ireland.
According to the IUA, “over the last six years, 1 720 researchers from 78 different countries have come to Ireland using the fast track Scientific Visa which is part of the Commission drive to create a European Research Area”. The scheme is operated by the EURAXESS Ireland office based in the Irish Universities Association (IUA) and supported by government through the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, and with the close involvement of immigration authorities. Read more...