Two charged with immigration fraud in New Zealand

Jul 27, 2010, 11:04 GMT

Wellington - New Zealand immigration officials are reviewing the visas of 200 foreign students after laying fraud charges against two men Tuesday.

The students are enrolled with the Kingsland Institute, a private education institute in Auckland, providing courses in business, information technology, cooking and English.

Immigration New Zealand head Nigel Bickle said Donald Han, a manager at Kingsland and Chheogyal Jah Om Sandyang Lepcha, a licensed immigration adviser, appeared in Auckland District Court on charges related to providing false and misleading information and were remanded until August 17.

Radio New Zealand quoted immigration official Simon Smith as saying the pair allegedly accepted students who failed to meet visa requirements that they could support themselves while studying and had paid course fees.

'The students were given false information to provide,' he said. 'This is still being investigated, so that's what the prosecution is for at this stage.'

Smith said no student visas had been revoked. 'We are reviewing the situation for other students - we can't rule out the possibility that this is more widespread.'

The charges carry a maximum penalty of seven years in prison.

Bickle said Immigration New Zealand had suspended processing of applications for international students to study at Kingsland and was reviewing some approved applications.

Bickle said the arrests were the result of complaints by two prospective students at the institute, which Radio New Zealand said had about 350 international students.

'At this stage we do not know whether the matter goes wider than these two complainants or this institute, but we need to check, for the sake of the integrity of our immigration system,' he said.

Bickle said 88,500 applications for foreign student visas had been approved in the last fiscal year.