Pakistan students complain about German visa delays

For Farooq Rasheed, getting admitted to the University of Bonn's Geodetic Engineering program this year was one of the best things that happened in his life. He was supposed to begin his studies in the western German city last week but he's still stuck in Pakistan waiting for a visa.

The 23-year-old student from Lahore city said that he had applied for a visa in July but has yet to receive it.

"My classes started last week but the university has given me exemption, and I am attending online classes for the next two-three months," Rasheed told DW, adding that he has no idea when he will receive the student visa.

It's not an isolated case. Many other students have complained of long waiting times for visa appointments at German missions in the South Asian country.

Fatima Saleem, 23, is enrolled for a masters program in entrepreneurship management and marketing at the Otto Von Guericke University in Magdeburg. She said she has been waiting for a visa appointment since May.

"I didn't know I would have to miss my first semester due to the delay in appointments from the German Embassy, as the website stated that the waiting time is 2-3 months," she told DW.

"My classes started on October 10. I hope to get my visa soon. My university has allowed me to join later, before exams. But since there are no online classes, I am facing many issues and have to study all by myself," she noted.

Students fear losing admission

Students say they risk losing their admissions if the German missions in the country fail to make an appointment for them on time.

"I am afraid, if I won't make it before exams I might lose my whole academic year, which would have a devastating effect on my future. I request the German Embassy to  kindly expedite the process now and make us a priority so that we can reach there at least before exams," said Saleem.

Students who apply for a visa appointment at the German Embassy in Islamabad are receiving an auto generated message, pointing to the long waiting times.

"Given the high demand for appointments, please note that you have to wait approximately up to more than twelve (12) months for the allocation of your appointment," it reads. 

The embassy hasn't so far responded to DW's repeated requests for comment as to why students are facing such long delays in getting visa appointments.

What could be the reasons behind the long waiting times?

Rasheed believes the long waiting times are due to the fact that anyone with a passport can apply for a visa appointment and they don't actually need an offer letter from a German university to do so.

This means that people book appointments long before they have even applied for university, resulting in their taking up appointment slots that would otherwise go to deserving visa applicants who actually have offer letters. 

"This creates a backlog and many serious candidates get left behind," he said, adding: "The embassy should ask the candidates to provide at least an admission letter at the time of applying for appointments so that only serious candidates who have all the documentation can be considered for visa interviews."

A visa consultancy firm in Islamabad said that there's also greater demand for German student visas this year as universities restarted in-person classes after over two years of the COVID pandemic.

"Many students had deferred their applications because of the pandemic, and now these students from the past three years are applying for visas," Osama Malik, an immigration attorney and visa consultant, told DW. 

Another factor that could have contributed to the problem is the growing number of Afghans who are applying for visas from Pakistan following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan last year. 

The embassy in Islamabad is also responsible for processing their applications, creating a huge workload for the visa staff at the mission and causing delays.

"All of these factors combined have created an application backlog that the German diplomatic mission in Islamabad seems unable to resolve efficiently and swiftly, resulting in many genuine students being unable to join their classes in time," underlined Malik. 

When Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto visited Germany earlier this month, he said the visa issue is a big concern and that Islamabad hopes to "continue to be able to engage and make that process more easier."

His German counterpart Annalena Baerbock, at the joint press conference on October 7, said that the issue is high on her ministry's agenda and promised to address the problem.

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru