Indians planning their summer travel to Europe may have to face lesser waiting period at visa centres this year as visa services provider VFS Global expects an improvement in visa processing time for foreign destinations on the back of deployment of additional staff by client governments to handle the visa applications traffic.
“The Swiss have given us 25% more appointments. Also, earlier, their appointments would be concentrated in 2-3 months, now they have spread the appointments across the entire year. Austria has indicated that it wants to increase appointments and have a quicker turnaround time,” Vishal Jairath, head – South Asia, VFS Global told Mint.
“The UK has priority service which is available to them. Canada is geared up. For the US as well, we are seeing narrowing of gap between availability of appointments as earlier it was two years and now, it is 8-9 months and, in 2024 it will only improve further,” Jairath said.
A ban on international air travel for two years had put brakes on the visa business, resulting in shortage of staff when the restrictions were lifted in March 2022. This resulted in a massive backlog of visa applications with wait period surpassing even 1,000 days for a US visa application.
“In 2024, many of our client governments have confirmed to us that they have hired additional local staff or brought in expat staff. They are far better equipped. We can see that translating into higher percentage of appointments that they are making available or planning to make available in 2023,” he added.
Despite the roadblocks in receiving visa for travelling abroad for certain countries, the company continues to see a surge in demand to travel to international destinations.
The volume of visa applications for VFS Global, which does front-facing administrative work for visa to 67 countries, has seen a 16% growth on year in India in 2023. As a result, the visa applications volume in 2023 rose to 93% of pre-pandemic levels of 2019.
“We expect to surpass pre-covid visa application volume this year. Initial signs are very positive. So far, the visa applications received for travel in the summer season are higher than the levels seen at the same time last year,” Jairath added.
As per the visa applications received, VFS Global saw the maximum interest for the US, the UK, and Canada. In addition, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland were also popular among travellers from India, VFS Global data showed.
In addition to a sustained interest for international travel, VFS Global is also witnessing an emerging trend of more travellers opting for personalized services on the back of higher disposable income and an increased focus on safety and comfort.
This has been more visible since the covid pandemic. As a result, the company has seen a 5X jump in visa at your doorstep service facility in 2023 from 2019 as well as a 4% growth since 2022. Heavy demand also led to an increase in the company’s premium lounges count to 34 from 14 earlier in 2023.
“…we’ve had to expand our application centre, specifically our premium lounges because it was becoming unmanageable,” he said.
In line with rising demand and improving economy in tier-2, 3 cities, the company is open to expanding its reach. After a 10-year gap, VFS Global recently opened its latest centre at Lucknow.
“We are operating a small centre of 3,500 square feet in Jaipur. That is expanding to 18,000 square feet and we have reached out to all our client governments to ask them if they would like to be represented there,” he added.
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Vikram Sharma is a globe-trotting journalist with a global perspective on international events. His articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing insights into the world’s most pressing challenges.
