€60,000 Owed to Visa-Refused Students as ICOS Ring-Fences Escrow Account

(IRELAND) — The Irish Council for International Students said 10 English language schools in Ireland owe about €60,000 in refunds to around 30 non-EEA students whose visa applications were refused, despite a rule requiring repayment within 20 working days.

ICOS said the complaints involve students from countries including Senegal, Cambodia, Cameroon, Morocco, and Myanmar, and added that the real number of affected students is likely higher. The students had paid course fees upfront because schools require proof of payment for visa applications.

Brian Hearne, policy and communications manager at ICOS, said an “exceptional number” of students had contacted the group since early 2026 about delayed refunds. The cases center on English language tuition providers that appear on Ireland’s Interim List of Eligible Programmes, the register tied to student immigration permission.

Under Department of Justice rules, ILEP providers must place those advance fees in a ring-fenced escrow account. Once a school receives notice that a student’s visa was refused, it must return the money, apart from any handling charge that was flagged in advance.

Those rules exist because non-EEA students often have to pay before they travel. The escrow requirement is meant to keep tuition funds separate from a school’s day-to-day cash flow and ensure money remains available if a visa application fails.

Department of Justice oversight sits behind that system. Schools that want to stay on the Interim List of Eligible Programmes must meet the terms attached to student recruitment, fee handling, and refund procedures.

One of the cases tracked by ICOS involved Lorena Prasca Ramirez, a student from Colombia who paid €2,810 to NED College in Limerick in February 2025 for a 25-week course. Her visa was refused in June 2025.

Prasca Ramirez then waited 10 months for her refund. The payment was finally processed on April 22, 2026.

NED director David Russell blamed the Department of Justice and government for the delay. His school is not among the 62 schools represented by English Education Ireland, the main industry group that said its own members comply with the escrow rules.

Another cluster of complaints involved English Talks in Cork. Students who contacted the school faced delays after being asked for more evidence of visa refusal.

Asef Muhammad, director of English Talks, said the school operates an escrow account and has “no problem refunding.” That response placed the dispute on process and documentation rather than on whether the money should be returned.

English Education Ireland said the cases have caused concern across a sector already operating under tighter standards. The group represents 62 schools and said the escrow rules were recently strengthened.

EEI does not include NED or English Talks among its members. It called for stronger Department of Justice enforcement, including removal from ILEP for schools that do not follow the refund rules.

Earlier in 2026, EEI wrote to Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan seeking data on compliance inspections carried out over the past five years. The request pointed to a broader question inside the sector: whether the state has audited the escrow and refund system often enough to catch schools before unpaid cases mount.

ICOS has framed the issue as more than an administrative delay. Students who seek Irish study visas often assemble large sums for fees, submit proof of payment, and then remain outside the country after a refusal while trying to recover money from a school they cannot visit in person.

That leaves ICOS handling complaints from students who are not in Ireland but whose funds remain tied up there. Hearne said the volume of contacts since early this year stood out from normal casework.

Labour Party figures urged immediate action to ensure fair treatment for students whose visa applications fail. Their intervention added political pressure to what has so far been driven by student complaints and industry warnings.

The dispute also cuts into Ireland’s effort to present itself as a reliable destination for international education. A refund regime tied to a ring-fenced escrow account is meant to reassure applicants that paying upfront will not expose them to long disputes if the visa process ends in refusal.

Where schools follow the rules, the system is straightforward. A student pays in advance, uses that proof for the visa application, and receives the money back after a refusal, less any handling charge already disclosed by the provider.

Where schools do not follow the rules, students can be left waiting months. ICOS said that happened in about 30 cases already identified, with roughly €60,000 still owed across 10 schools.

The figures, though limited to the cases that reached ICOS, suggest the problem is not isolated to one provider. The countries listed in the complaints, Senegal, Cambodia, Cameroon, Morocco, and Myanmar, also show that the delays are spread across several student markets rather than one national cohort.

Students considering Irish English-language courses now face a practical question before they pay: whether a provider complies with ILEP rules and how it handles visa refusals. The escrow arrangement matters because it determines whether the tuition fee remains protected if the application fails.

Schools face a clear requirement as well. Providers on the Interim List of Eligible Programmes must keep upfront fees in a ring-fenced escrow account and return them after a refusal within 20 working days, apart from any pre-indicated handling charge.

ICOS said it continues to assist students and track the cases that come in. EEI has pressed the Department of Justice to enforce the rules more aggressively, and the schools named in complaints now sit under sharper scrutiny as students seek money that should already have been returned.