The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Bhutanese applicants facing rejection since they would earn more in part time work in Australia
The financial year 2022-23 saw the largest ever number of Bhutanese getting Australian visas at 15,552 people.
By comparison, the first six months of the 2023-24 from July to December 2023 saw 6,585 Bhutanese getting the visas. There is a slowdown.
However, the slowdown in 2023-24 is not uniform. In fact, in the first three months of July, August and September 2023 far more Bhutanese got visas at 3,266 visas compared to 1,850 in July, August and September in 2022.
This rush even went on to October 2023 with 1,182 getting visas compared to 671 in October 2022.
The slowdown set in marginally on November 2023 when 1,077 people got visas compared to 1,298 in November 2022.
However, the biggest drop came in December 2023 when only 1,056 visas were granted compared to more than double the number in December 2022 at 2,680 visas granted.
The drop in numbers were due to a two-fold reason with the first being due to lower numbers applying and secondly due to a higher rejection rate in 2023 December.
Of the 1,735 who had applied only 1,077 got their visas in December 2023 which is both a lower application rate and visa grant rate.
The visa grant rate of 80.9% in 2023-24 is the lowest in many years.
The sharp drop in December 2023 happened in the backdrop of the Australian Government announcing tough new visa conditions on 11 December 2023 with the aim of halving the migration rate by 2025.
At the time measures like increasing IELTS scores, restricting Temporary Graduate visa holders from transferring back to student visas while onshore, maximum eligible age for a Temporary Graduate Visa reduced to 35, Genuine Student Test replacing the current GTE, additional scrutiny to international students applying for another student visa, measures to further strengthen integrity, quality, entry requirements, strengthening of requirements for international education providers etc. were announced with many of them to start implementation by early or mid 2024.
Chairperson of the Association of Bhutanese Education Consultancies (ABEC), Palden Tshering said the numbers are going down with fewer applicants and the rush is no longer crazy. He said people are still going but the numbers are down.
Palden predicted that the numbers will go down to higher than the pre-pandemic numbers.
He said what is happening in Australia is that there are Assessment Level (AL) 1,2 and 3 Universities and Colleges with 1 being the highest and 3 the lowest.
He said the issue is more with AL 2 and 3 Universities who are rescinding their offer letters to student who have not got visas for 2 to 3 months saying they are unlikely to get visas and doing it before outright rejections which will affect their rankings and ratings as their assessment is coming up.
He said even AL 1 level colleges have started sending such letters.
The visa applications of AL 2 and 3 institutions take far longer to reach approval status as migration officials put them under more intense scrutiny for fear they are not genuine.
AL 3 at the lowest level of the system is mainly made up of private vocational education colleges.
Ministerial Direction 107, puts priority on student visa applications for universities with a good track record and to give the lowest priority to those for institutions with a history of problems.
He said that Bhutan’s neighbours like India, Nepal and Bangladesh have been particularly hit with such letters but Bhutan has been spared such treatment.
“Fortunately, the collective work that ECPF’s have done in Bhutan have proven that we are a low risk country so we are not seeing the kind of issues of mass rejections being faced regionally,” said Palden.
However, Palden said that Bhutanese visa applicant are seeing a different kind of rejection. Rejections are now being reported regionally with the reason that students could potentially earn more in Australia than their own country.
The rejection letters from the visa officers now says that while an applicant has met all the requirements to be a genuine student, but given the circumstances in the home country, they will be earning more as part time work in Australia than their current income. This is becoming grounds for rejecting Bhutanese students.
Australia is trying to bring down student visa grants by 20 per cent, which is the biggest shift in two decades.
Palden said the indication is clear that those Bhutanese seeking to extend their student visas will likely be unsuccessful. This is for those who have been extending their stay in Australia doing diploma level courses.
The online site honisoit.com said University of Western Sydney, Macquarie University, and the University of Wollongong are among those who have all sent letters or emails to students cancelling their enrolment.
A University of Sydney spokesperson said they are seeing significantly more students still waiting on their visa outcomes than in previous years.
The site said University also urged students who think the new laws may impact their ability to start Semester 1 this year to contact the university in order to discuss their options which may include suspending or deferring their enrolment if their visa is not approved by the end of week 2.
The main concern for the Australian government is the highest ever net migration rate of 510,000 in the last financial year 2022-23 well above the initial forecast of 235,000.
The largest segment of these migrants is foreign students at around 60% and within these students the Australian government wants to target the lower quality courses and institutes.
The aim is to bring down migration to 250,000 by 2025.
When one analyses the age groups of Bhutanese getting visas from July to December 2023 there are 593 children going from babies and toddlers to children of 14.
422 are from age 15 to 19, 1,319 from age 20 to 24, 1,670 from age 25 to 29, 1,358 from age 30 to 34, 801 from age 35 to 39, 338 from age 40 to 44, 75 from age 45 to 49 and 10 above 50.
