BY DEBAJYOTI CHAKRABORTY
KOLKATA, 30 OCTOBER 2022
More than one thousand and three hundred Indian students have received Chinese visas to study, but they are facing problems as direct flight services between India and China are yet to resume leading to high cost in air travel.
According to Mr. Liu Jinsong, Director General of Department of Asain Affairs of the Foreign Ministry of People’s Republic of China, so far over 1300 Indian students have received visas.
The journey to China has become very high due to absence of direct flight services between New Delhi and Beijing.
The students are forced to board transfer flights either from Hong Kong or Bangkok. These students have already received No Objection Certificates (NOC) from their respective universities and have to reach China within the stipulated time otherwise their visa will expire.
A large number of Indian medical students are from Jinan University of Guangzhou and have received NOC are facing problems.
Talking to The Travel and Tourism Times, Mr. Anil Punjabi, Chairman ( East) of Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) said that before the covid outbreak the prices of direct flight air tickets between India and China was about Rs.40,000. But now it has shot up to about four to five times as high as people have to take connecting flights either through Colombo or any other Asian countries.
Most of these Indian students have taken loans to study in China and the prices of air tickets of Rs.1.5 lakhs to Rs.2 lakhs have been becoming an additional burden for them.
“It seems that some students have just started going back, some students are still stuck, so we will keep a tab on the situation and see how we can help these students so that they can go back and finish their courses,” said Mr. Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs of India in a press statement in New Delhi in the middle of this month.
About 23,000 Indian students are stuck in the country since March 2020 after the outbreak of the covid -19 pandemic.
While the new students should produce original admission letters issued by the various universities in China, the old students need to submit a ‘Certificate of Returning to Campus’ issued by the universities in China.
Student visas has been open for applications from August 24 this year, since the Chinese Embassy in India updated “Application Procedures and Material Requirements of China Visa,” with the resumption of a total of 10 categories of visas, including business, family visit and student visas.
The other categories of visas announced by the Chinese embassy in Delhi included M-Visa issued to those who intend to go to China for commercial and trade activities, F-Visa issued to those who intend to go to China for exchanges, visits, study tours and other non-commercial activities and Z-Visa for those who intend to work in China.
“China welcomes Indian students. The first batch of Indian students to resume studies in China in the near future. Concerned departments of both countries are working together,” said Sun Weidong, Chinese Ambassador to India recently.
India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in a meeting with his counterpart, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has discussed earlier the requirement to resume Visas to Indian students.
There are over 200 universities across China who enroll international students. The number of international students pursuing higher education in China has increased about 30 percent before the pandemic outbreak . Indian students studying in China are amongst the top five country’s out of total international students studying in that country.
Recently some 300 odd Indian businessmen took chartered flights to Yiwu in East China’s Zhejiang Province.
Advertisement:
Add Comment