Yes. The average spend has been about £15,000 sterling per person per annum. New policies and procedures being implemented by the new immigration officers in Beijing have resulted in the virtual closure of the Chinese EFL market to Irish schools to the advantage of our competitors in the UK, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. This advantage was painfully driven home to our schools at a recent conference in Austria, at which a senior person in the British Council expressed to the chairman of theMEI-RELSA committee, Pat Shortt, her delight at the huge refusal rate at the Irish Embassy in Beijing which was resulting in a significant increase in business to UK schools.
There is a perception that under the new policy, visa applications submitted in 2001 are now being subjected to new criteria, without any notice to applicants by the visa officers who took up their duties in June 2002. As a result, since June of this year, 80% of EFL student visa applications are being refused. The consequences for English language schools are immediately catastrophic. The consequences for third level institutions in October 2003 will be equally catastrophic. Relevant figures are provided in the document entitled "Economic Implications of Current Visa Processing Procedure in Beijing", along with relevant background data regarding the problem facing our organisation and a suggested solution.
We are aware of the extremely difficult task faced by the new visa officers in Beijing and wish to support them in every way. We recommend that the bona fides of agents sending students to Ireland be established, that a smoother working relationship be established between all interested parties and that additional temporary appointments be made in Beijing to deal with the huge backlog.
Russia, Libya and Iran have shown an improvement since 1999. The new visa office in Moscow has helped matters greatly. However, there are problems with the processing system in Dublin for these markets. They could be addressed effectively by increasing the staff numbers temporarily. EFL providers are committed to maintaining the integrity of the immigration policy in Ireland and at the same time supporting all stakeholders in the Irish education market in addressing the major issues referred to in "A Strategy for Long-Term Development of Foreign Earnings in Asia", issued by Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in 1999.
There are currently 12,000 applications for study visas awaiting processing in the visa office in Beijing. The study application waiting time is now 14 months. Although four new visa officers have been in place since June 2002 and a new visa office was opened in August 2002, the rate of processing all visas is approximately 800 per month. They are currently only dealing with applications made in October 2001. Additional staff are needed to clear the backlog.
As a result of these delays and the extremely high refusal rate, significant losses are now being experienced in English language schools throughout Ireland. These losses constitute full-time teaching jobs and lost tuition fees to MEI/RELSA schools and lost foreign exchange revenues to the Irish economy. They are quantified in the document " Economic Implications of Current Visa Processing Procedure in Beijing".
The United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada are all increasing their marketing in China. Study visas for language studies for these destinations are all issued in six weeks. A wait of 14 months makes Ireland an unattractive destination for students and one away from which students and agents are now turning in ever increasing numbers.
In addition to the long delays in processing, the visa section has introduced new application requirements concerning the financial and social background of applicants. These new requirements are being applied retrospectively to all outstanding visa applications. As a result, some agents are reporting visa refusal rates of 90 per cent.
Since May 2000, the student intake from China has slowed to a near halt. Schools absolutely accept the study visa system should not be open to abuse. If there are abuses, those who perpetrate them should be pursued with vigour. Irish schools and their Chinese partner agents are anxious to maintain a properly managed intake consistent with visa requirements. It is our legitimate aspiration to encourage as many students as possible to choose Ireland for the quality of its educational facilities. In this we are competing with destinations such as New Zealand, Canada and the UK. All of these destinations are taking active measures to encourage more Chinese students to study there. We now find that obtaining a study visa to Ireland is considerably more difficult than for any competing educational destination. Since students are effectively and administratively prevented from coming here, the result is that fewer students are applying to come to study in Ireland.
Enterprise Ireland, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the Department of Foreign Affairs have all actively encouraged English language schools to recruit students from China. On this basis, schools have invested in premises, recruited additional staff and undertaken costly marketing in China. Furthermore, students who applied in good faith to study in Ireland are now in danger of being refused and thereby suffer a negative visa history which will disqualify them from study elsewhere.
In addition to the manifest unfairness to these individuals, there is a broader consideration of damage to Ireland's image as a study destination, a potential tourism destination and a business partner. If Ireland is to significantly disadvantage students who apply to study here, then we will quickly lose our hard-won reputation in China and the advantages will flow to our competitor destinations.
To stem the current losses and pre-empt further ones in terms of jobs and revenue while at the same time preserving the integrity of our immigration policy, MEI/RELSA proposes that the present methodology of assessing visa applications in Beijing he replaced by the previous system for an agreed "transition" period between the old system and a consensual new one; clear guidelines be issued concerning the conditions an applicant must fulfil and the supporting documents required to obtain a study visa for Ireland and that three months notice of the introduction of such guidelines be given to agents in China and schools in Dublin; resources be applied to clear the visa application backlog in Beijing as a matter of urgency; visa application waiting time be reduced to the norm pertaining in other countries such as UK, Canada and New Zealand, that is, six weeks; a speedy, fair and transparent system of appeal should be in place to deal with applications which have been refused; the cultural differences between China and Ireland be taken into consideration, especially with regard to the manner in which Chinese conduct their financial affairs; students applying for a study visa extension must produce an attendance letter from the school who sponsored them - this letter should be signed and stamped by the sponsoring school. It is also proposed that once a fair system of visa processing has been agreed, an official launch of that system should be orchestrated in Beijing at which agents, schools, the ambassador and the immigration officers would be present and would be seen to be working in unison in the promotion of Ireland as a quality educational destination for quality students; the number of staff dealing with other visas in Dublin be increased - even if only temporarily.
