The Hindu Business Line : Now, French Consulate to outsource visa services

COME October, the French Consulate will join a host of foreign consulates in outsourcing a portion of its visa services to Visa Facilitation Services (VFS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kuoni Travel Group, India.

Essentially, the business process outsourcing company conducts administrative and non-discretionary jobs, allowing the consulates and embassies to focus on assessments and background checks.

According to the Head of Projects and Business Development, VFS, Mr Suprit Roy, the spurt in the number of Indians travelling abroad post-liberalisation (in 1991), followed by the growth of information technology and IT-enabled services, has made outsourcing of certain visa services a necessity.

The consulates and embassies have found themselves short of the requisite staff and office space to meet the sudden rise in numbers. For example, the British Deputy High Commission in Chennai, which originally expected to handle 20,000 applications a year, received more than 65,000 applications last year.

VFS has grown rapidly since setting up shop in the city in July 2001, with the US Consulate as its first customer.

"Three years on, we are serving six customers in six countries. Our footprint extends from West Asia to Singapore. In India, we have offices in 12 cities."

The French Consulate will be VFS' seventh customer.

VFS, he adds, is looking at growth opportunities, both in India and abroad. Growth could be either through the acquisition of new customers or territories. The company was also considering enhancing the scope of the services provided. "We are optimistic about growing future opportunities," he said.

The organisation has made presentations to all the major diplomatic missions.

According to Mr Roy, many of the missions were convinced that outsourcing was the way forward and were awaiting approvals from their Governments.

The organisation today handles over seven lakh applications each year, though it started with a volume of 1.20 lakh applications for the US Consulate in 2001.

While he was reluctant to give profitability figures, he said VFS' commercial outlook was long-term growth and stability, and not quick profits. "We prefer to grow through enhancing the volumes and scope of business."

VFS provides a range of services such as the dissemination of information; pre-scrutiny and acceptance of applications; collection of visa fees; scheduling of interviews; photo scanning and biometrics; and IT services.

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