Indian students are rushing to get visas to bring their dependants to the UK in time to beat a Government ban in January.
Education agents are charging Indian students inflated prices secure places at UK universities before the Home Office deadline for banning dependants from coming to the UK from Jan 1.
One example saw a couple pay £30,000 to secure a student visa and a dependant’s visa to travel to the UK together.
Some universities have opened up applications in November and December amid a surge in students who have brought forward their UK plans to avoid the ban.
Rishi Sunak announced a crackdown earlier this year barring masters and postgraduate students from bringing their dependants to the UK unless they were on research programmes.
It followed a sharp rise in study-related visas for dependants of students.
They almost doubled from 80,846 in the year ending June 2022 to 154,063 in June 2023, accounting for nearly a quarter (24 per cent) of all sponsored study related visas.
The disclosure comes ahead of Thursday’s migration figures which are expected to show net migration has stuck at around 500,000, down from a peak last year of 606,000 but still five times higher than David Cameron’s pledge to bring that figure below 100,000.
Students represent around 40 per cent of all visas.
