The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Beware of ‘visa advisors’ Law and order

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Monday, Jul 30, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Beware of ‘visa advisors’ Law and order

Youngsters are falling into the trap of the visa consultants, says Marri Ramu

On the face of it, the complaint recently lodged by the American Consulate’s New Delhi office with the local police there does not appear to be a serious one. All that the complaint says is some candidates hailing from Andhra Pradesh, who have attended interviews seeking visas, submitted false details. The gravity of the issue lies in the fact that eight of the nine persons against whom cases were registered hail from Hyderabad. The ninth one belongs to Visakhapatnam district.

Subsequent investigation by the Delhi police after raiding houses of some suspects in Hyderabad revealed an organised racket of making fake documents required by persons seeking visas to other countries, mostly western.

After the alleged human smuggling racket involving Bharatiya Janata Party MP Babubhai Katara in Delhi and the passport fraud involving two MLAs in Andhra Pradesh were unearthed a few months ago, foreign countries began scrutinising every document submitted by visa seekers. That was how they found some documents submitted by nine persons from Andhra Pradesh were fabricated.

Interestingly, it was found that most of them had approached the consulate through visa consultants. These ‘visa advisors’ collect huge money from the candidates and are misguiding the visa seekers saying submitting fabricated papers relating to job experience, financial status and computer education is not a big offence.

In their desperation to secure the visas, youngsters are falling into the trap of the visa consultants and landing behind the bars. As in the case of passport agents, the Police officials say they react only if specific complaints are lodged against any visa consultants. For the police, cheating by visa consultants may be a routine crime but it is the future of the young candidates that is at stake. Shakeel, the prime accused in passport fraud, in his confessional statement when he was arrested by the police some three years ago explained how as visa and passport consultant he made fabricated documents and managed to send persons abroad presenting such false papers. However, the police failed to pursue the case and his modus operandi is now adopted by many offenders.

A onsiderable number of persons hailing from middle-class families borrow money from friends and deposit in their accounts to ‘prove’ their financial soundness. But making fabricated bank account statements or job experience certificates and presenting them at the consulates –be it by the visa consultants or by the candidates themselves, is being taken seriously now.

Instead of walking into the trap of visa consultants and spoiling their chances of securing visas permanently, visa seekers better keep off such fraudulent methods, the police say.

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