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Venezuela: what are the roadblocks to outbound study?

Crippling delays in foreign currency issuance through Venezuela’s Commission for the Administration of Currency Exchange (CADIVI) are having a serious impact on the international education sector as Venezuelan nations are finding it increasingly difficult to organise their finances and go abroad to study English.

Anti-government protests in February called for, among other things, economic reform

"As an industry we need to band together because this affects all of us"

Schools have reported seeing an upturn in applications for autumn courses, compared with previous years, however they are concerned that students won’t receive funding in time to commence their courses.

This concern is being noted in the UK, Ireland and the US, where many programmes are reporting enrolments are stalling and students in situ are in limbo.

The situation has been compounded by recent political and economic instability, resulting in new short-term visa regulations for Venezuelans going to the UK and Ireland, and drastically reduced flights from major airline carriers to destinations in the US, Europe and Canada.

“It’s a very difficult situation and we don’t know when it’s going to be resolved,” commented Luisa Cabezas, director of Tour Idiomas which has for the past 10 years been sending students to the USA, Canada, Australia and the UK for short-term language courses.

“There’s a huge demand among Venezuelan students to study abroad but how can they?”

Problems began when students caught up in Ireland’s visa fraud investigations were accused of falsifying attendance records at English language centres in order to exchange bolivars (BsF) for Euros.

“There’s a huge demand among Venezuelan students to study abroad but how can they?”

In June, the National Centre for Foreign Trade (Cencoex) said it would no longer authorise exchanges for Venezuelan students in Ireland, other than €1,000 to be used for their return home, and has threatened legal action against students from closed colleges for foreign exchange fraud.

Since then there has been no official statement made by Cencoex that the government has stopped granting foreign currency for all English language courses abroad and there continues to be fluidity for higher education funding requests.

But The PIE News has learned of delays of up to four months for some students waiting to begin their courses and of students already overseas having to cut courses short because funds were not received in time.

Sooh Park at the English School of Canada says that the number of Venezuelan students has dropped 35% this year and the summer teen programme has been completely cancelled because CADIVI no longer approves the programme.

Cancellation rates have also increased significantly due to CADIVI processing times. “CADIVI approval is taking three months or more,” Park said. “Students can only buy their flight ticket one month prior to the trip, but they cannot apply for CADIVI if they don’t have a flight ticket.”

Arturo Gonzalez, Regional Manager for Latin America at ISIS Education in the UK, agreed that CADIVI is the biggest challenge for Venezuelan students.

Students who have received funding through CADIVI are down 60% this year, he said, and funds granted only cover one to two months of living costs and course fees compared to six months or more previously.

Gonzalez said students who are able to leave the country probably use savings, rely on support from family overseas or have foreign accounts.

The rest have been left with few alternatives as CADIVI offers the best exchange rates, especially for students applying for an educational course which the government considers an “essential good”.

Currently, the government is buying BsF 6.30 x US$1.00 for educational courses however rates skyrocket to BsF 49.90 x US$1 through the country’s national bank SICAD II and are even worse on the black market where BsF 78.80 will buy US$1.

“The foreign exchange market isn’t very secure and is also very slow,” commented Omar Mendez at education consultant Globorama in Caracas. “One can get offers to purchase US$5,000 and only get US$1,000.

On March 19, Air Canada suspended all flights to Venezuela due to “on-going civil unrest”

“Many students, if it weren’t for the BsF 6.30 rate, could not leave,” he added.

After events in Ireland, the UK government began enforcing stricter visa requirements in May requiring all visitors from Venezuela – including tourists and business travellers with biometric passports – to apply for a visa in advance.

To align with the UK in the interests of the Common Travel Area, Ireland began requiring visas for all Venezuelan nationals in June.

“There were also some concerns regarding sudden changes in the pattern of Venezuelan immigration to Ireland and it was considered that a visa requirement that would assess cases in advance was prudent,” a spokesperson commented.

The impact of the new visa restrictions has already been seen in a drop of enrolements at some UK language schools.

Fahra Bellak, EC’s Regional Manager, Central & Latin America, said the global chain has seen numbers in Malta triple compared to 2013. “We attribute this largely to visa changes in the UK and also loss of Cadivi approval in Ireland,” she said.

However, in light of the currency exchange fraud allegations in Ireland, some UK operators welcome tighter border control.

“The visa is a positive change because the government is analysing the situation and screening students,” said Gonzalez at ISIS. “That means only quality students are getting visas.”

The government has made no official announcement explaining the delays, however rumours are circulating among industry stakeholders that they are a sign of a dwindling state treasury.

One thing that is certain is transport to study destinations has become more challenging due to surmounting sovereign debt. Since March most major airline carriers have announced serious cutbacks in flights to Caracas, citing the government’s inability to grant currency exchange.

On March 19, Air Canada suspended all flights to Venezuela due to “on-going civil unrest” in the country that has “exacerbated the challenges of doing business in Venezuela”.

“Among other things, this has resulted in onerous currency restrictions imposed on all airlines preventing them from recovering their funds from Venezuela,” the company said.

Many institutions have begun making exceptions to their pre-course payment policies

Both American Airlines and Delta had similar gripes with the government and reduced their flights from daily to weekly services.

“Since we are owed a substantial outstanding amount and have been unable to reach resolution on the debt, we have significantly reduced our flights to the country,” confirmed a spokesperson at American Airlines.

Flights to Europe have been similarly affected by the country’s economic default. “The sum of money in the end, which we cannot exchange in Euros/Dollars, is considerable,” confirmed a spokesperson at Lufthansa.

Over the past few months, both Bellak and Gonazlaz have been part of lobbying efforts with the British Embassy to make their concerns heard by the Venezuelan government.

“As an industry we need to band together because this affects all of us,” commented Bellak.

There have been reports that spats of funding have begun trickling in for applications made as recently as April. Mendez at Globorama said approximately 10% of all of the applications have been approved so far.

“I’ve spoken other agents who say they’ve had a few approvals for the USA, Germany and Spain,” he added.

For now, Mendez is telling students to enrol at least five months before their course starts in order to have time to apply for their visas and wait for CADIVI.

Meanwhile, many institutions have begun making exceptions to their pre-course payment policies in the case of Venezuelan students as the situation remains up in the air.

“It is frustrating because we do want to support our partners and students in every way possible, which can be very challenging with so many sudden changes and uncertainties,” said Bellak.

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