The Tertiary Scholarship and Loans Service

The Tertiary Scholarship and Loans Service has issued 1, 477 statements to students who required clearance for various travel reasons.

Chief Executive, Hasmukh Lal says these statements were issued from August 1st 2023 until January 8th.

Lal says as per the arrangement between TSLS and the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service, students need to obtain a statement from them first to apply for clearance.

“So once you provide a statement, the student takes the statement of FRCS to seek bond clearance and travel clearance, whether it be temporary travel clearance or travel clearance for medical purposes, for any other purpose, FRCS has got the mandate to or legal powers in terms of approving or disapproving the students for travel clearance.”

Lal says 201 students stated that they have applied for permanent migration and needed a statement from them.

129 students wanted the statement to be able to apply for student visa for overseas studies, 165 statement were issued for employment purposes, and 614 to those who wanted to go abroad for holidays,

Lal says five statements were given for medical purposes, 22 for sports related travel and 121 students obtained it to travel for official duties.

He further states 224 students obtained statements to apply for blanket exemption.

Blanket exemption is given to people who are working in Fiji but the nature of their work requires them to travel regionally and internationally.