Representative image of visa.
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Even as the tensions between India and Canada have grown, visa applications of Indian students wanting to study in Canada have not been affected.
The success rate of student visa applications, surprisingly is between 85 per cent to 95 per cent. Even students who have scores close to the required minimum are getting their visas.
Amid tensions between India and Canada, students with an overall International English Language Testing System (IELTS) score of six bands, including a modest 5 in one or two modules, are securing a study visa.
Even after a standoff between India and Canada made headlines, the IELTS and PTE centres in Punjab, particularly in the Doaba region -- thought to be a core hub -- continue to see a success rate for students' visas between 90 per cent and 95 per cent, reported The Indian Express.
Some centres said that over the previous month, their visa success rate increased by as much as 18–19 per cent.
After Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested that India may have been involved in the murder of militant and Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, relations between the two nations deteriorated.
Despite this, visa offices have noticed a spike in requests for student visas; the majority of these requests have been handled since the crisis started.
“We have been processing between 250 to 300 students visa files every month and in the past month also we did the same. Our visa success rate is between 90 to 92 per cent in the past month and the majority of these files were processed post-crisis,” said Sumit Jain of Jain Overseas in Jalandhar which is one of the biggest IELTS centres and Overseas consultancies in Punjab.
Adding that his consultancy had received 205 visas in a single day recently which were applied for after August 10 and in September, Jain said, “It is a nice gesture on the part of both the countries that they have not created any hindrance in the path of the students aspirants and because of this the visa success rate is so high and even the visas are coming between a period of 12 to 20 days only.”
Even in the Pearson Test of English (PTE) Exam, students with scores of 57, 58, and 59 have received the visa stamp where a score of 60 is the benchmark for visa consideration.