VFS India

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VFS Logo For USA

VFS India, also known as VFS Global is the visa facilitation arm of the Kuoni Travel Group and was established in July 2001. VFS stands for Visa Facilitation Services. It is also known as VFS Global when the office is based outside India. This organization initially started as a courier intermediary between visa applicants and the Embassy of the United States, Chennai, India when the embassy was not able to handle the crowds outside the embassy. This service now grown internationally and has a near monopoly in many countries like India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Russia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Ukraine, South Africa for people applying for travel permission to countries like USA, UK, and Australia and providing visas for the B1/B2, L1/L2, H1/H2/H3 and other categories (explanation below) is their main occupation. They are the communication point between the embassy and the traveling citizens. VFS India has various branches all over India.

Today, VFS Global is a niche player in the visa outsourcing spectrum. As a specialist business process outsource agency, VFS Global focuses on serving visa sections of diplomatic missions by providing administrative support and managing non-judgmental tasks related to the entire lifecycle of a visa application process, thereby enabling the missions to focus on the key tasks of assessment and decision making.

According to their website, VFS Global serves 19 diplomatic missions in 39 countries worldwide, handling over four million applications every year.

[edit] Controversy

VFS Global ran into trouble in May 2007, when it was reported ^[1] that the company's online UK visa application system was flawed and insecure allowing applicants identities to be stolen. It was also reported that the security flaw had affected online applications from India, Nigeria and Russia. The VFS site was immediately shut down after the technical problem was brought to the attention of the UK media ^[2] and an independent government investigation was launched ^[3] by the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO).

The security breach which was first reported by an Indian applicant ^[4] in December 2005 after which no effective remedial action was taken by either VFS nor UKvisas, the joint Home Office and Foreign & Commonwealth Office unit which runs the UK's visa service through British diplomatic Posts overseas. The same applicant went public in May 2007 after he noticed that his earlier warnings were ignored. It is estimated that this security breach has resulted in approximately 50000 applicant's identities having been possibly compromised until its subsequent closure in May 2007 following the media outcry.

The report ^[5]^[6]^[7]of the investigation by the Independent Investigator, Linda Costelloe Baker highlighted "organisational failures" by both VFS and UKvisas.

The report also recommended that the VFS online visa applications not be resumed for applications from India. This will be replaced by the secure online applications made available directly at the UKvisas website.

In November 2007, the UK Information Commissioner's Office announced that it had found the Foreign Office in breach of its obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998. The Information Commissioner's Office required the Foreign Office to sign an undertaking ^[8] that it will comply with the Data Protection Act and will not reopen the VFS UK visa online facility. It has been reported ^[9] that as a result of this ruling, the Foreign Office will terminate its relationship with VFS. There has been no formal comment from VFS regarding this matter.

Other criticisms that have been levelled against the organization which serves as the sole and exclusive contact between visa applicants and embassies have been that the staff have taken upon themselves the role of visa officers and act in an arrogant manner and in some cases even damaging valuable documents and degree certificates submitted to them due to carelessness and even vindictiveness. Their tie-ins with various marketing firms also leave the applicants being hassled with marketing promotions while waiting in the lounge to be seen by the staff.

More recently, Mr Suprit Roy a former Project Head and senior VP of VFS Global Services has exposed that top management at VFS Global has been unwilling to enforce the discipline and best practices required to run a business in an ethical manner. As an example of the continued negligence towards IT security, Roy quotes the fact that even after resigning from the company in December 2007, his corporate email account remains active.^[10] Before Roy resigned from VFS Global there appears to have been a considerable conflict of interest resulting in a public interest litigation pending at the Bombay(Mumbai) High Court. ^[11]