Immigration tightens rules for issuance of student visas

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has tightened the rules in the issuance of student visa and special study permit (SSP) to foreigners enrolled in various schools in the Philippines, following reports about alleged fake foreign student visas. Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. on Wednesday said he issued the new memorandum last month after receiving reports that unscrupulous travel agents have been conniving with foreigners in submitting fake or fraudulent transcript/school records for the student visa and SSP applications. David said the student visa is issued to foreigners, at least 18 years old, who will be taking up a course higher than high school at a university, seminary college, or school authorized to admit foreign students. On the other hand, SSPs are issued to foreign student below 18 years old who will study in the elementary, secondary, tertiary levels and those who will enroll in a special course of less than one year. The new rules specify that only schools accredited by the BI, the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and Federation of Accrediting Agencies are authorized to accept foreign students. It also requires schools to establish a foreign student unit and submit to the BI a periodic report on foreigners enrolled in their school. Each school shall designate its representative who will transact at the BI and apply for the issuance or renewal of study visas or SSPs in favor of the foreign students. Under the new memorandum, David said, the school’s designated liaison officer or representative, who must be an employee of the school, shall exclusively represent or assist the foreign student in applying for a visa. “We have to make sure that only foreigners actually studying in the Philippines are given these visas," David stressed, adding, that fake foreign students are blatantly violating Philippine laws. David instructed BI intelligence chief, Ma. Antonette Bucasas-Mangrobang and Anna Katrina Sy-Gil, BI student desk head, to identify fake alien students so that they can be arrested and deported and their visas cancelled. - VVP, GMA News