External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna on Thursday said India would take up the matter of several Indian students left in the lurch owing to the closure of a U.S. university, after receiving a report from its Washington embassy.
“We have asked for a report from our embassy and when a report is issued, we will be taking it up with the U.S. government,'' the Minister told journalists here. Till the issue is sorted out, Indian missions have been told that they would have to look after the welfare of the students. At the same time, Mr. Krishna found it “strange'' that the affected students had not approached the Indian missions in the U.S. so far.
According to a U.S. government complaint filed in a California court, the university had helped foreign nationals acquire immigration status illegally. According to reports, Tri-Valley University was shut down on suspicion of immigration fraud and the overwhelming majority of the students were from India. The reports further said the Indian students, mostly from Andhra Pradesh, could be deported as they had lost the student visa status.
According to State Department transcripts, its spokesperson P.J. Crowley said with regard to the issue that, “any activity involving visa fraud would obviously be of great concern to us. The investigation of that is done by law enforcement, obviously with our cooperation, since we are the ones who issue visas.''
