1900 banks banned by the UK Student Immigration Department
The British Government has released a list of approximately 1900 banks in India (mainly co-operative, scheduled urban cooperative banks and non-scheduled urban coorperative banks) of which the financial statements shall not be entertained when students apply for visas. According to this new law, which kicks in from November 24th, 2011, the financial statements of only 85 banks that currently conduct operations in India will be accepted during the visa process, and students providing statements from any other bank shall not be considered at all.
Checking of financial statements is an essential part of the student visa process and this new development will almost indefinitely shatter the dreams of thousands of students applying to universities across the island nation. Rumors suggest that this drastic step has been taken because the British visa officers only consider international banks, national banks with private banking presence in the UK, or regulated national/state banks as reliable sources.
As per an official statement made by the British Home Office, this reform is just a smaller part of overall changes that will be made to the student immigration route, so as to better verify a students ability to pay for their chosen courses and independently support themselves during their stay.
Another reason for refusing to accept statements from these banks is that post document submission verification checks with such banks have proved to be pretty unsatisfactory, with either no response from the concerned banks, a lack of sufficient detail in the response, or being absolutely unable to get in touch with the bank at all.
After constantly having to deal with such repetitive incompetence it becomes easier to completely ban such institutions rather than indulge in frustrating means to acquire the requisite details.
Although this ruling will come into effect from November, amendments will be made periodically as considered appropriate.
This is not the first time such a list has been released. A few years back similar laws were applied to students from Pakistan and the Philippines, and two years back in 2010 to students from north India, where constant misuse of the visa system was discovered.
