Australia refused 50% of student visa applications from India in 2022. Visa approval rates for vocational education students have been below 50 per cent for most of 2022. Only 34 out of 900 student applications (3.8%) in vocational study were granted visa.

In higher education too, visa success rate declined to 56% for Indian students, 57% for Pakistani students, 33% Nepali students (Visa success rate for Nepali students is 15% in vocational education).

Most of the visas have been refused on the ground of ‘non-genuine entrant’. It is reported that that in the Indian subcontinent a Mafia of dodgy agents has been trying to arrange visas on basis of fake documents including bank statement and educational certificates.

In 2020–21, the Australian Department of Home Affairs uncovered over 600 cases in which forged documents were used to obtain education visas to Australia involving students from Punjab and Haryana states of India.

The Canadian High Commission uncovers more than 2,500 cases annually in which fake documents are used in student visa applications from India. Similar incidents have been reported by the US, UK, and New Zealand embassies.

Currently the Canada student visa refusal rate is 41% for Indian students. According to the recent report of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, 225,402 study visa applications were processed in 2021, with 91,439 of them being rejected.

Visa officials found that many non-genuine or non-students seeking entry to introductory diploma or vocational type courses to enter this countries under the pretext of studying. Students from India, including business and non-medical students, apply for visas to Canada for courses such as caregivers, salon management diplomas, and culinary craft certificates, among others at colleges whose integrity as providers are questionable too.

Authorities have found students using fake documents to cover long study gaps, dodgy work experience letters, forged academic certificates, English test report, discrepancies in birth certificates and passports, false financial documents among other paperwork.