The new rules aim to prevent the misuse of student visas by people seeking to enter the EU and work illegally.
WARSAW: Poland’s government has announced conditions for issuing student visas following a shocking scandal that rocked the nation in May.
Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski has announced that from now on no foreign national without a high school diploma will be granted a student visa, a change officials believe will prevent visa abuse.
The new rules aim to prevent the misuse of student visas by people seeking to enter the EU and work illegally.
The change comes after Polish daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna exposed a major scam where foreign nationals were given student visas despite not being qualified for university in their home countries. Once in Poland, many people don’t even bother to visit their supposed universities, instead using their visas to work in the Schengen area.
“The student visa gives the right to work for one year, which has led to countless cases of people getting visas and never stepping foot in a classroom,” the foreign minister told TVN 24.
The minister stressed that the crackdown is about ensuring that only genuine students receive visas to protect Poland’s education system.
It should be noted that the new laws are not new laws, but rather a tightening of the existing laws. The Ministry of External Affairs admitted that there should have been a standard process for diploma verification, but some universities were unable to do so.
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‘In practice, this puts foreign applicants in a privileged position compared to Polish nationals applying for higher education,’ the Foreign Ministry said in a press release.
This visa tightening has also been linked to a major visa-for-hire scandal, where corruption was uncovered in issuing visas to migrants. The scandal, which dealt a major blow to the former Law and Justice regime, has seen several arrests, including former Deputy Foreign Minister Peter W., accused of expediting work visas in exchange for bribes. was arrested.
According to media reports, between 2021 and 2023, up to 350,000 visas can be issued to citizens of various countries in return for bribes. However, subsequent investigations indicated that these figures were greatly exaggerated.
