The UK Borders Agency, formerly known as the UK Immigration Service, has recently halted the application process for UK student visa from Nepal, Bangladesh and northern India after a remarkable increase in numbers and accusations of fraud.

The suspension order will be imposed for at least one month while backlog of applications is reviewed but the period will be extended if deemed necessary. In that period, all applications will be subjected to heavy examination.

The problem appeared to have started with the UK’s implementation of a points-based system which gives visas to anybody who can establish that they have taken a slot at a UK educational institution. In the UK, there are more than a few hundred universities and other higher education institution.

The UK Borders Agency has known this issue for years, but was usually utilized by Eastern Europeans and Africans in reasonably low quantity. They enrol themselves in a small institute, most commonly language schools, rather than in larger university.
The structure is simple, the school or institute accepts the payment from the foreign student and issues a certificate of enrolment which is sufficient enough to secure a UK student visa.

As a result, there was an immediate surge in applications, rising from below 1,000 in the fourth quarter of 2008 to 1,800 in the same period last year. The figure is rising yet again to 13,500 in end of the fourth quarter of 2009. The agency has said that the increase in demand for education is most unlikely due to the global economic downturn.