The Bhutanese Leading the way.
In what will come as bad news for Bhutanese students hoping to study in Australia, the Australian Department of Education has sent out a notification dropping Bhutan’s student visa Assessment Level (AL) from the current AL 2 to AL 3.
This essentially means stricter scrutiny of Bhutanese student visa applications, which may lead to longer turnaround or wait times and a likely rise in rejection rates.
According to the news site thekoalanews.com, the Assistant Minister for Education Julian Hill told the CEO of the International Education Association of Australia (IEAA), Phil Honeywood, that on his recent trip through South Asia, he was provided with what he believes to be clear evidence of an upsurge in fraudulent financial and academic aspects of applications.
As a result, the Assistant Minister has a strong view that the only way to better filter genuine students is for documentary evidence to be prioritised.
The Assistant Minister for Education is also the Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs, and he made it clear that Australia has now become the least worst country of choice amongst the Big 4 (USA, UK,Canada and Australia).
The same article quotes the CEO, Ravi Lochan Singh, of Global Reach, a major agency which recruits students to Australia and other destinations from South Asia, who says that fraud is evolving and becoming increasingly challenging to detect promptly. He talked about financial documents that appear to be genuine and due to the complicity of bank officials, they somehow pass the verification by agents and universities.
Bhutan is not the only country to drop as India and Nepal have also moved from AL 2 to AL 3 while Bangladesh has moved from AL 1 to AL 3 and Sri Lanka from AL 1 to AL 2.
The AL levels are from 1 to 3, with AL 1 being the best and AL 3 being the worst.
According to the Immigration Agent Perth website, the countries in this category (AL 3) are subject to the strictest checks because of the increased perceived risks. Applicants must provide extensive evidence, often listed in the student visa assessment level 3 checklist, including financial statements, detailed study justifications, and strong ties to their home country.
AL 2 countries face moderate requirements. They are required to have some form of proof of funds and English language competency, but have faster approvals than Level 3 countries.
AL 1 nations have low documentation demands. When their provider has high compliance records, applicants do not need detailed financial documents or the results of English tests.
Such students enjoy a reduced processing time and a lower likelihood of rejection.
The Chairperson of the Association of Bhutanese Education Consultancies (ABEC), Palden Tshering, did not mince his words.
He said, “We’ve failed. The actions of a few in our industry have now jeopardized the future of every Bhutanese applicant, and we are to blame. Until a higher standard is collectively put in place, Bhutan will be categorized as the highest risk for Australia, and that’s a shame on us.”
“Early last year, I went on record and stated that it was only a matter of time before Bhutan became an assessment level 3 country, if we continued marketing Australia without self-restraint. This discussion was had with our industry colleagues, this paper and BQPCA,” he added.
Palden said that preventive measures were not put in place, and now, the result is evident.
The problem started after the COVID-19 pandemic, as consultancies aggressively began promoting Australia as a destination that requires low English Language Proficiency scores, low academic scores, and allowed counsellors to write generic statements on behalf of clients for an additional fee.
He said there was a campaign of misinformation geared towards one end, attracting as many students as possible and finally pushing migration services in the mix.
He said, “A complete conflict of interest with immediate financial benefits.”
Palden said ECPFs began pushing admissions into private colleges that accepted this category, and it resulted in higher visa rejections, applications submitted with false information, students jumping courses and providers, leading to students breaching their visa conditions while in Australia.
He said these were contributing factors to their downfall.
Palden Tshering stated, “The responsibility of Bhutan categorized ‘highest risk’ falls on two sectors. Number 1 is our industry not pushing for compliance from clients to meet entry requirements, aggressively promoting part truths, which is misinformation to get more clients. Number 2 is the Ministry of Education and Skills Development for not being tougher on us. We have a policy in place that’s not enforced. Why should we follow it?”
Palden said that compliance is not meant to be easy; it sets a standard.
There are now two consequences for Bhutan. One is that all students will face higher requirements, documents will be heavily scrutinized for genuineness by the institutions and the visa officers, longer visa approval times, and more likely higher visa rejections.
The second related impact is that Australian tourist visa applicants from Bhutan will be screened with a higher bar to prove that they are a temporary visitor, and the inevitable influence of Bhutan now being highest risk leads to tourist visa refusals.
He said there are changes taking place in the industry. First, education consultancies have begun announcing this assessment level on social media, changing their tune from previous messages because business is affected by the forced implementation of a higher standard. Second, he asked students to be aware of agents not registered in Bhutan promoting their services, claiming to offer a lifeline for those applicants that are panicking.
He said applicants should be aware of the changes taking place in the market.
One university representative from Australia recently highlighted the change. “Bhutan is now aggressively pushing for numbers. In my last visit our discussions revolved around compliance. That’s an unfortunate shift in the way of thinking.”
He said the only advice when deciding on which services to use is to do your due diligence and make an informed decision.
Palden said for some ECPFs the process will not change, the standard for documentation and compliance with results continues to be pushed at a high level which made them unpopular amongst applicants when other ECPF’s offered ways to cut corners.
Palden said the wider implications are far-reaching, Bhutan categorized as highest risk by Australia, has an effect on New Zealand, Canada, United States and the UK for visa applicants. “We need to understand how our country is now viewed.”
He added, “My intent is to be as blunt as possible, we need to change, and if being direct leads to that change, that’s what we need. During the next assessment level review, if we do enough, maybe it can change, and if we don’t, it won’t.”
Palden said for students, the average wait time AL 1 visa turnaround time is within 4 weeks, AL 2 visa turnaround time within 4-6 weeks and AL 3 visa turnaround time 8-12 weeks regardless of when travel dates are.
The only other time Bhutan was in the AL 3 category was in November 2005 but at the time there was AL 4 level too. The system changed in 2016 with only three levels.
This means that this is Bhutan’s lowest ranking yet.
