Attention: Swedish Embassy
Recently, the Swedish Embassy in Dhaka introduced a new procedure for the issuance of student visa.
All applicants must apply for the visa through VFS, a servicing agency, based in Bombay, India. We were advised to apply for a visa at least six to eight weeks before the start of the class. Hundreds of us applied in May-June 2009 for our autumn session starting in August 2009. However, VFS is giving us an interview dates between mid August and end of September 2009. After the interview, they send the file to migration board in Sweden and it takes another 4-6 weeks to be processed in Sweden. As a result, hundreds of these applicants can not avail their sessions in August 2009. In addition, at the interview, Swedish Embassy simply rejects the case only because it's too late to attend the class for the applicant. We pay Tk. 8,000 visa fee, plus Tk. 700 service fees to VFS, in addition to gathering all the supporting documents.
It takes at least three weeks to have the papers collected, attested by a 1st class magistrate then authenticated by the ministry of foreign affairs. It is the VFS who assigned us an interview date in late August or September, even though we applied 10-12 weeks before our arrival date, instead of 6-8 weeks the Embassy asked. If it is too late to attend the class, then why the Embassy or their agent VFS collect visa fees from us, and give us an interview date too late?
We cannot enter the Swedish Embassy, except our assigned interview date and we do not get any reply of our email requests. In this situation, some dishonest educational consultants in Dhaka are charging Tk. 20,000 from applicants promising to bring the interview date forward and many students are giving them the money as we have no choice.
It is our earnest request to the Swedish Embassy to expedite student visa processing, so that we can attend our classes in time.
Comments