Visas rejected & face future ban, due to fake invitation letters

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A prestigious Chinese university is investigating after media reports alleged a staff member leading an exchange programme fabricated invitation letters from Cambridge University, resulting in more than 20 students being rejected for visas and facing a future ban by Britain.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Zhejiang University’s school of economics said it had filed police reports after receiving student complaints on December 6 about alleged fraud in their visa applications to attend a joint forum in Britain.

Acknowledging the incident as a grave concern for the university and students, the university said it had also set up a team to conduct an in-depth investigation of the incident and “make every effort to safeguard the rights and interests of students”.

It said the team would “continue to negotiate in various directions and through multiple channels”, and try to minimise the impact on students. It also vowed to “sternly punish” anyone found guilty of illegal behaviour.

Several mainland media outlets have reported that a staff member in charge of the international exchange programme and a visa agent allegedly fabricated an invitation letter from a Cambridge University professor.

The students had their visas rejected and said the alleged fraud jeopardised the chances of students who wanted to do further study in Britain.

Dutenews, an online news portal owned by the official Shenzhen Special Zone Daily, on Tuesday quoted a whistle-blower who claimed to be one of the affected students who said the British embassy had checked with Cambridge University when he applied for his visa and found the invitation letter was fabricated.

“The [British] embassy believed that our materials were forged,” the whistle-blower said, adding he was afraid that all the students whose names appeared on the invitation letter would suffer the consequences.

On Thursday, the British embassy in Beijing confirmed that “the applicants were refused because false documentation was provided in their application”.

It is understood that if the rejected applicants apply again and knowingly use false documents, they could be banned from entering Britain for 10 years.

The report also published a screengrab from “The Fifth Joint Doctoral Student Forum Zhejiang University-Cambridge” group chat which went viral on Chinese social media platforms in early December.

According to the chat, a student warned that he would hold the person in charge of the exchange programme accountable if his 10-year UK visa application was rejected because of this incident.

Another student complained that he had called the UK visa centre to withdraw his application according to instructions from the person in charge of the programme, but was denied.

The university’s website lists details of the “Fifth Zhejiang University-Cambridge University Graduate Joint Forum: Digital Economy and Global Innovation” exchange programme, which was scheduled to start on December 13 and run until Friday .

It includes seminars, special lectures and discussions about the digital economy, international business management, hi-tech finance and innovation in Cambridge. It also includes city tours and visits to other academic institutions, including Oxford University.

A staff member who answered the Post’s phone call to the dean’s office said the matter is “being investigated and the school will announce its findings in a timely fashion”.

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