A consumer forum directed a visa consultancy to partially refund fee that it had charged to a complainant after it found that the former was aware a false work experience certificate that was submitted with the intention of obtaining a U.S. visa.
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum-III, Hyderabad, was dealing with a complaint filed by R.R. Rani, 22, a resident of Esamiya Bazar.
The complainant said she paid ₹41,432 to the United Educational Services for their services after which she was asked to submit relevant documents such as financial status certificate and others. The complainant claimed that she informed the consultancy that she has no work experience and maintained that the consultancy said it “would take care of it”.
Application rejected
The complainant said the consultancy submitted a work experience letter obtained from Nichole Infotech Private Limited. But during the visa interview, she was unable to answer questions related to work experience at the U.S. Consulate General and her application was rejected.
In its reply, the consultancy said it was the complainant who submitted all the documents and claimed that her visa application was rejected “as she could not meet the standards and requirements of the U.S. Consulate”.
The forum, in its judgement, said it was not for it to decide whether the consultancy prepared the work experience certificate or if the complainant obtained it, acting upon its advice. But taking a strong view of the same, the forum said that the consultancy should not encourage students to submit fake documents and opined that it ‘wrongly’ advised her.
The forum directed the consultancy to refund ₹40,000 to the complainant and pay compensation of ₹3,000.