The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that it will intensify its verification of applicants for student visas in connection with massive student visa fraud. Most foreign students either did not start their studies at all or did not even complete their first year. Private universities lead the way in these statistics. Importantly, for those not intending to work in Poland, the student visa was becoming an easy way to work in Poland without the need to obtain additional permits. Another purpose of such foreigners was to emigrate to other Schengen countries. The legal basis for efforts to normalise the issuance of student visas are the guidelines of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of 31 July 2024, which are grounded in the Consular Law.
When it comes to the universities themselves, there have been pathologies in which foreign students have not had the foreign high school diploma verified, despite the existence of such an obligation. As a result, Polish students were treated unequally in relation to foreign students, to the detriment of the first, who were obliged to submit the high school diploma.
Over the course of several months, the effects of the verification of the issuance of student visas can be seen. The Polish consul in Kuwait now requires, in addition to the high school diploma with a transcript of the grades from the high school diploma examination, also a decision of the competent Polish education authority on the recognition of the diploma issued in Kuwait (nostrification). Foreigners, from countries with a high risk of migration, will also have to get used to enforcing the regulations. Already today, three to four times fewer visas have been issued among Pakistanis, Yemenis or Bengalis.