Education agents and consultants recruiting and ‘guiding’ students in admission into U.S. universities can no more control or influence students’ choices as the U.S. Government has asked the universities to release I-20 forms directly to students.
The Form I-20 is issued by the institutions to students expressing their willingness to admit them.
The I-20 is a must for students to obtain visa. The decision, in a way, would put an end to the practice of agents getting the I-20s directly to their offices.
If the students are minors, the forms should be issued to their parents or guardians, a recent release from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) clarified. The existing norm, which was not implemented for various reasons earlier, is to maintain privacy, security and prevent fraud.
Indian recruiters, on whom a majority of students depend for assistance in admission into U.S. universities, are alleged to have be collecting additional money to release the I-20s that are sent to them. “There is more to it,” says Nishidhar Borra of Atlas Consultants in Hyderabad.
“Many students do not even know to which university they have applied and what course they would be admitted to. Agents promise I-20s from some or the other university. They get the I-20s from low-ranked universities simply exploiting the desire of the students to study in the U.S.,” he says.
A majority of U.S. higher education aspirants, according to some consultants, are more bothered about the I-20 and visa than the university they would study in. Some are deliberately misled by the consultants who want to gain monetarily. They obtain the I-20 at any cost even if it is from a low-ranked institution. “The nexus between agents and poor institutions can be controlled now,” said a recruiter, wishing anonymity.
Visa rejections
Some recruiters reveal that visa rejections have been quite high in the recent times and one factor for it could be that the agents directly securing the I-20s giving their addresses rather than that of students’. Generally, a student gets an email confirmation and later, the I-20 is sent by the post for submission during visa interview. The variation in the address on the I-20 and other documents is clearly visible to the officer.
In fact, while guiding the students to choose an institution, consultants drive them to varsities where rejections and denials of visas are less.
At most times, choosing the institution depends solely on the trend of visa acceptance to that institution rather than the course quality offered by it.