US, UK to source out visa work

It is now the turn of countries like the United States, Great Britain, Italy and France to outsource their non-core operations by handing over visa processing to private agencies.

The primary objective is to offload visa application work which is as high as 300,000 applications per year for some embassies, leading to severe constraints in terms of space and staff.

"This trend has started during the last 18 months and is due to the high number of applications that the embassy receives. Outsourcing has ensured that the time-period for processing has reduced to a maximum of 48 hours per application," said Jeff Wilson, Press Attaché, British High Commission.

Thus, all non-assessment work like providing information, collecting fees, creating applicant databases, scheduling interviews and handling the return of passports had been outsourced to private agencies leading to reduced time-lines and better service to customers.

Unlike last year, when applicants had to travel to Delhi and queue up outside the embassy, outsourcing has ensured that applicants go to private agencies which have regional offices.

"The long lines outside the embassy and the travelling that visa formalities entailed have now been taken care of," said David Kennedy, Press Attaché, US Embassy.

This process has helped visa sections of embassies focus resources on assessments and background checks, which have helped travellers.

With visa applications reaching 26,000 for UK from northern India alone and a total of 304,734 visas being issued for the US last year, outsourcing to private agencies was a natural progression, embassy officials said.

According to industry sources, the industry stands at Rs 100 crore with the turnover of VFS alone being somewhere between 70-80 crore.

'The number of visa applications from Delhi alone for Italy touched 25,000 last year and for Canada the number reached 100,000 for India,' said Anil Katoch, MD,VFS, one of agencies which handles visa applications.

Improved quality of service and reduction in the time-period has, however, come at a price for travelers with private agencies like VFS and TTS, working in tandem with embassies and charging applicants differently for different countries.

As a result, while the increase in the prices can range from Rs 500 for a Canadian visa to Rs 400 for a UK visa, the Irish and the New Zealand Embassy internalise the entire costs of better quality service to the travelers.

Most embassies feel that the improvement in the quality of services justifies the additional charge that the applicants are required to pay. The outsourcing of such work has, however, not led to any retrenchment at the embassies, instead, the British High Commission has witnessed a 20 per cent increase in its workforce. Ditto for the Italian Embassy.

Witnessing the trend, most companies expect an even greater number of applications to be processed and a wider array of services being provided to the users, albeit at a higher price.