New Zealand rejects more than half of Indian study visa requests

Immigration New Zealand is turning down more than half of the study visa applications it receives from India, while the refusal rate for Bangladesh remains about 70 percent, the agency's director visa, Celia Coombes, said. She attributed the high decline rates to fake work experience and bogus qualifications, alongside a surge in applications from both genuine and non-genuine students.

Key facts

• More than half of study visa applications from India are now being declined.
• The refusal rate for applications from Bangladesh is about 70 percent.
• Refusals for prospective full-fee students from Bangladesh spiked to 70 percent in the past three months, and to 39 percent for applicants from India.
• India is New Zealand's second-biggest source of students after China.
• Immigration New Zealand is preparing for a jump in applications for the start of the 2027 academic year.

Why are more applications being refused?

Coombes said more people were trying to study in New Zealand because of its migration and study visa settings and because other countries were limiting their intakes. As other countries tightened their immigration settings, New Zealand was seeing more applications from genuine students who were approved as well as from non-genuine students or those who did not meet requirements, she said.

She said some applications contained fake documents or information. One issue that had risen to prominence was the use of recycled bank documents, where an agent reuses one person's genuine funds information for multiple students. At one point about 85 applications were ring-fenced because the same documentation appeared in them.

Similar problems were detected in applications from India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, Coombes said. Other fraud seen in the Bangladesh and subcontinent market rested on work experience, often used to pad applications or make a study plan seem more credible. The team also found diploma mills operating in Bangladesh producing non-genuine qualifications for visa applications, and false sources of income or rental receipts created to explain where money had come from.

Which countries are sending more students?

Coombes said the number of applications from Bangladesh had grown very quickly. She said Bangladesh was not even among the top 10 source countries for New Zealand at the same time last year, but by April or May 2026 it had become the third highest volume entering the immigration system within four or five months.

What is Immigration New Zealand asking of education providers?

Coombes said not all declined applications were fraudulent and it was important students knew what information they had to provide. Immigration New Zealand alerts education providers when it encounters fraudulent applications so they can deal with the agents involved.

She said the agency had asked tertiary institutes to take more care before offering places to foreign students, including improving recruitment practices, interviewing students by video and managing agents. If providers were more discerning about which students received an offer of place, the system would improve and be more efficient, she said.

What this means for travellers

Students planning to apply for a New Zealand study visa should expect close scrutiny of supporting documents, particularly evidence of funds, work experience and qualifications. Applicants from India and Bangladesh face especially high refusal rates, and Immigration New Zealand has said it is preparing for a jump in applications for the start of the 2027 academic year.

Immigration New Zealand said its job was to facilitate good students and get them to New Zealand quickly. No changes to visa rules, fees or processing times were announced.