Germany is one of the top destinations for international students as it offers quality education for free (for the most part).
However, the process of getting a visa appointment from the German embassy in Islamabad is quite cumbersome.
Sindh and Balochistan residents are a bit lucky here as they book their appointments from the German Consulate General Karachi. The Karachi office usually has a lot of appointments open as relatively few people apply from Sindh and Balochistan to Germany.
The residents of Punjab, however, go through a lot of sleepless nights to get an appointment at the German Embassy. The portal opens at around 3.00am for a few seconds only.
The applicants themselves are at fault here too. Many students applying for the appointment don’t even have an offer letter from any German university yet. During all this, the deserving students who already have offers from universities fail to get an appointment.
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In desperation, many go for the consultants who charge hefty fees for appointments. Many such “consultants” are a scam as they take up an extravagant amount of cash but guarantee no bookings. The so-called consultants also book fake appointments and take up the free slots so they can attract more desperate students.
The German Ambassador to Pakistan highlighted this pathetic and irresponsible behavior by consultants, saying;
Urgent!! really angry about these so called visa consultants! https://t.co/b9ZFt8lX8f[email protected] blocked 70!! appointments with fake name Arif Khan and fake passport numbers! this is irresponsible behaviour! avoid any consultants and book directly!! please retweet!
— Alfred Grannas (@GermanyinPAK) June 1, 2018
Apparently, there is nothing that German or Pakistani authorities can do about such scammers.
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What Can Be Done?
There are a few things that German authorities can do to make visa processing more lenient for deserving people. Firstly, the appointments for work visa and study visa are booked through the same portal. The embassy can separate the appointment booking portal for the work visa and student visa.
Students apply in huge numbers as compared to the work visa applicants. In the process, people having job offers fail to get an appointment as students take up all the appointments.
Secondly, the Embassy can introduce an advance visa fee so the scammers stay away from the application portal. Currently, the appointments are free-of-charge. An advance fee will make sure that only applicants with complete documents including the acceptance letter will apply. In case the application gets rejected, the embassy can refund the fee as well.
Lastly and most importantly, people need to have a sense of responsibility as well. It doesn’t take the most pious person in the world to realize what you are entitled to. Meaning that, apply only if you have all the relevant documents complete. Wait for the university to give an answer to your application. Apply after getting the acceptance from the university. Advance bookings won’t do anyone any good if you get rejected.
That shows, how desperately Pakistani students want to run away :(
Politicians to sharum se doob marna chahye.. agar koi sharum naam ki cheez baqi hai to.
Same is the trend with other Asian countries. Why blame politicians for this? Pakistan is equally ruled by military, isn’t it? But was this the topic ?
2nd sustainable study programs in Germany attract everyone, if you are aware.
Asia is a big continent, I think you mean, 3rd world countries.
Politicians are the key for this disaster (& of course those military Generals too, who govern out of law)
It is indeed a sad state that such so called consultants are creating problems for general and genuine travellers. But I must say the Embassy and Consulate is to blame too. For example in Karachi everyone knows Mrs. Khan (German) and Ms. Aisha (Pakistani) for their corruption. It is an open secret that both of them have been accepting gifts (read bribes) from Travel Agents such as Naqi Khan (ANS Travel and Tours), Arshad (ANS Travel and Tours), Shahid Gujjar (Polani Travels), Naeem ul Haque, Aftab (MRD Travels), Imtiaz (Travoola). Mrs. Khan has been accepting bribes for the better part of the first decade of the 21st Century which includes expensive mobile phones, tickets for herself, her son Adil and other family members.
It is has been reported that Naqi Khan got her house re painted for over PKR 200,000. Similarly Polani Travels has been guaranteeing visas for obvious reasons.
Mrs. Khan has been giving appointments over phone to people while ordinary citizens are just limited to accessing the website to obtain appointment.
On the other hand Aisha’s brother Sahibzada Ali Qadir (From Junagadhr State family) has been extorting money on the pretext that his sister will get them visas. Ali as of now is in Sri Lankan prison on account of drug trafficking (along with his wife).
Now that Mrs. Khan has been moved to back office Aisha is handling all affairs. One might ask Aisha why does she ask client who their travel agent is? Perhaps she wants to extort money from them on account of visa.
No too long ago a simliar case happened in Swiss Consulate Karachi after which the visa staff was sacked, the consular staff replaced.
Corruption of Mrs. Maritna Khan and Ms. Aisha must come to an end.
No matter who they blame, the embassy people are at fault. Period!
They should learn from US Embassy.
1. Prepayment for appointments.
2. Work, Student and Family Visa appointments should be handled separately.
3. They are charging good amounts so they should hire some extra staff.
4. For family visas they are taking 5-8 months just for documents processing after charging 42000 rupees per applicant.
5. They should stop going after records in union councils and rely on NADRA for data. This will save alot of time and energy. All embassies except germany and Italy are following NADRA docs and not sending private detectives to Union Councils to verify shady records.
If they are doing so it is purely their right and decision. 2nd Pakistanis (mostly less educated class) have intention to flee in these countries and not study, these countries have every right to stop that.
Dude these are category D visas, means student, work or family visas. For student vida every student deposit upfront payment of 8000+ euros, for work every employee pays 42.5% of salary as tax and for family its same as work. No one is saying its not their right but its their responsibility to ease the process as espcially in case of family visas sponsers are paying half salary as tax since months to bring their famiilies. And there is no possibility to exploit category D visas for less educated class. Mostly thr are highly educated professionals, their families or students going for higher. education.