Between 2016 and 2019, about 2,89,592 foreigners arrived in India on student visas. However, between the academic years 2016-17 and 2019-20, only 1,90,494 of them were enrolled in universities and colleges in the country.

This is according to the data available with the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Education (MoE). From the beginning of 2020 to November 30, 2021, another 44,000 foreign students arrived in the country.

According to an MEA spokesperson, the data mismatch occurs since the MoE data only captures the number of students who have enrolled to study undergraduate degrees and higher courses. “However, student visas are also allotted to school students and yoga practitioners,” he said.

While there is no data available on the number of foreign school students, according to the Study In India portal of the MoE, there are only two institutes that are offering courses in yoga to foreign students and they have 174 and 1,512 seats each.

Getting a visa

According to foreign students whom we spoke with, securing an Indian student visa is quite easy.

“In order to enable the foreign students to explore various options to study in India, he/she can apply for provisional student visa of six months duration from Indian Mission abroad and once he/she gets the confirmed admission,” reads the guidelines by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

It can be further extended to up to five years. “To extend it, one needs to provide a bonafide certificate from the university,” says a student from Afghanistan.

Faking till they make it?

A Subramanyeswara Rao, Additional Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru City Police walked us through a case that he had investigated four years back when he was the Mysuru city police commissioner. At that time, a team headed by Rao had found a group of more than 100 foreigners who were living in the city, beyond their student visa period.

“We were on a drive, where we decided to cross-check the documents possessed by the foreigners living in the city,” he said. “A lot of them were here on student visas but upon cross-checking with universities, we found out that they were not students. They were submitting bogus bonafides to the Foreign Regional Registration Office (FRRO),” he said, adding actions were taken against officers who had verified the documents.

“Also, the onus is not on the university to ensure that these people actually enrol in their courses after securing admissions,” he added. He also said that a few illegal residents have been arrested for narcotics-related cases and anti-India activities.

Where do these students come from?

According to the MEA, between 2016 and 2021, about 45,250 Bangladesh nationals arrived in India on a student visas. They are followed by 39,111 Afghanistan nationals and 20,758 Malaysians. A sizeable population from Sri Lanka, Sudan, South Korea and Iran have also come to India on student visas. In fact, 44 people from Pakistan also arrived during these years too.

However, according to the All-India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2019-20, the highest share of foreign students come from Nepal (13,380) and Afghanistan (4,504). Only 2,259 students from Bangladesh were pursuing higher education in India, two academic years ago.

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