Ukrainian Students Feel Visa Scandal Pinch

They meant to spend two weeks improving their German at Dresden's Technical University. But for the 29 students and the dean of the European studies faculty from Luhansk University in eastern Ukraine, the trip ended before it even began. The German embassy refused to issue visas to the group, which had hoped to be the first to come to Dresden and take advantage of the cooperation agreement between the two universities.

The group collected all the necessary documents and traveled to Kiev, over 800 kilometers (500 miles) away, for individual interviews in the German embassy there. "We were at the embassy the whole day, from 11:00 to 4:00. And a few days later, when President Yushchenko was in Brussels, we got the rejection," said the European studies dean, Marina Nedopjokina.

The embassy did not even provide an explanation for its decision, despite a query by Nedopjokina.

Lawyer Ulrich Drenkelfort, who helped the students apply for the visas, suggested that the embassy's once too liberal issuance of visas had now reverted to the opposite. He said people can expect a higher rate of rejection since the commission of inquiry in Germany started its work to examine the details of the visa scandal caused by Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. Fischer supposedly ordered German consular services to be more lenient in issuing visas to visitors.

At the same time, it's hard to follow the embassy's logic in rejecting Nedopjokina's visa application. She had visited Germany only a few weeks ago to fine-tune details of the project with the university in Dresden. "That's incomprehensible in legal terms," said Drenkelfort.

Searching for the logic

He said the students had done everything possible to avoid their applications being rejected. Each one presented a personal invitation from the German university and signed a guarantee assuring they would cover all possible costs during their visit. The Dresden college's chancellor, Alfred Post, even wrote a letter to the embassy on behalf of the students to ensure that they would be able to come to Germany. But he didn't receive a response either. Now the project -- which eventually would have seen Ukrainian students completing part of their studies in Dresden and receiving a double diploma -- may be in threat.

"The cooperation naturally requires mutual visits and that the students can also come here," Post explained. "We can't have a cooperation agreement including student exchanges if no visas are issued."

Still, the students aren't yet ready to give up. They are drafting appeals to the embassy's decision and banking that political pressure will result in them getting permission to go to Dresden.

No compensation

But it's not just the bureacratic hassle that's bothering the student group. Each of them had to pay a non-refundable 35-euro ($45) fee along with their visa application. For students in a country where the average monthly income is around 80 euros, that's a lot of money.

"We don't know what we've done wrong," said Nedopjokina. "The students and their parents ask how such a thing is possible, above all, in our world today, after the political changes, after our President Yushchenko was in Brussels and met with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Joschka Fischer in early March."

It remains doubtful whether those questions will ever be answered. But, for the time being, the university in Dresden plans to work around the problems. Until things settle down concerning issuing visas, the college will send language teachers to instruct students at the Ukrainian university.