Students urge German Embassy in Dhaka to keep visa section functional, expedite process

Hundreds of Bangladeshi students waiting for German visas demanded that the consular section of the German Embassy in Dhaka keep the visa section functional and expedite the visa issuance process.

They also urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take necessary steps for ensuring presence of the Bangladeshi staff at the German Embassy in Dhaka during the lockdown in compliance with the notification of the government, said a press release.

Due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, the German embassy in Bangladesh was closed for a long time on several occasions.

The outbound students demanded regular office hours and presence of staff for continuing the visa consular as asked by the government.

The students claimed that after thousands of tweets on social media, especially Twitter, overnight, the German ambassador in Dhaka tweeted an apology for the visa delay, citing staff crisis, the release added.

Recently, after 40 days of break, a new visa team has arrived in Bangladesh, but they are yet to begin the consular services, the release said.

Earlier, when the Bangladesh government exempted student visa activities from lockdown restriction based on suggestions from the Ministry of External Affairs, German Embassy did not take action.

Local staffs of the Embassy are not coming to the office citing lockdown restrictions, the release said.

Whenever calls were made to the embassy about visa related issues at different times, the caller was told that the visa process was shut due to the lockdown.

In the last year, more than a thousand Bangladeshi students were admitted into various public and private universities in Germany for their higher education. They are taking online classes for the last 3 semesters, according to a social media survey.

Almost everyone has already deposited Euro 10,332 in a blocked account, while many are paying their tuition fees worth thousands of Euros, it said.