Estonia cancels 52 residence permits, visas issued for study in 3 months
During the first three months of 2016, the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) canceled the right of 52 people from outside the EU to stay in Estonia after it was established that these individuals had incorrectly stated study as the purpose of their stay in the country.
"In the first three months of 2016, the PPA canceled 37 fixed-term residence permits for the purpose of study and the visas of 15 citizens of Bangladesh on the grounds that it was not the actual intention of these individuals to take up studies in Estonia," Director of the PPA's Identity and Status Bureau Margit Ratnik told BNS on Monday.
Ratnik stated that in addition to students who seek a visa or a residence permit despite having never intended to come to study in Estonia, there are students who lack necessary qualifications to study in Estonia or have insufficient command of the Estonian language.
Ratnik added that the students whose residence permits issued for the purpose of study had been declared invalid this year mainly hailed from Bangladesh, Cameroon and Nigeria.
In 2015, a total of 1,231 applications were filed with the PPA to obtain an Estonian residence permit for the purpose of study, of which 1,144 individuals from third countries received permission to begin studies here. The top three non-EU nations fro which students come to Estonia are Nigeria, South Korea and Bangladesh.
Ratnik described cooperation between the PPA and Estonia's universities as important and stated that the two parties have made efforts to make their cooperation more effective in recent years.
Editor: Editor: Aili Sarapik
Source: BNS
