Travelling to Belgium made easier

From now on, south Indians need not travel all the way to Mumbai for a visa to Benelux countries (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg).

The consulates of Belgium and Netherlands have set up a visa application centre in Bangalore, which will start functioning from April 17 (Tuesday).

Between 3,000 and 4,000 applications were received from India for Benelux visas in 2006 and this number is growing at 45 per cent.

With a significant number of visa applications for visiting Benelux countries from south India and with quite a few IT professionals in Bangalore needing visas to travel on the job, the consulates of Belgium and Netherlands decided to set up a visa application centre in Bangalore, said Mark Neel, Consul, Consulate General of Belgium, Mumbai. This will speed up the application processing time to about 48 hours, he added.

"At the Bangalore centre you can apply for a Schengen visa (temporary visas given for countries that have signed the Schengen Agreement of 1985 among European countries on harmonisation of border controls) that cost Euro 60," said Jan F van Vriesland, Consul, Consulate General of the Netherlands.

The Schengen Agreement was signed by 30 countries including western European countries except Britain and Ireland. Fifteen countries have already implemented it. It also includes provisions on common policy on the temporary entry of persons.

The visa application centre has been outsourced to VFS Global, a subsidiary of the Swiss Kuoni Travel Group. VFS Global is a business process outsourcing firm, which focuses on serving visa sections of diplomatic missions by providing administrative support and managing non-judgemental tasks relating to visa applications, thus enabling diplomatic missions to focus on assessment and decision-making. To help in the efforts to make it easier for Indian visitors, Belgium will be directly connected to Mumbai by air from August 5.