VFS Global has recently launched the On Demand Mobile Visa service in India for UK Visa applicants. Moreover, VFS is now planning to extend this service for the Shenzhen Visa applicants as well. Through this new service, UK visa applicants can complete the entire visa application procedure and enroll biometric data from smartphones.
Paul John Maliekkal, Deputy CEO-Visa Services, VFS Global said, “Our aim is to make the visa application procedure simple and convenient for our customers. As of now the on demand mobile service is for the UK, but we are planning to roll it for the other Shenzhen countries also. As we have to first get an approval, we are now waiting for the missions to approve it. The UK has already approved it. This service is basically for the HNI’s segment and we are also targeting the corporate and the MICE segment for the same.”
In 2015, many nations witnessed a dip in tourism numbers. But, VFS has witnessed a steady growth in China and India, which are the top two markets them. Speaking about the growth Maliekkal said, “In India, there was no dip in the number of applications. In fact there was a good growth in 2015. India and China were the nations were we have seen the numbers growing. These are the two nation’s travelling across the globe. I am not surprised as more and more Indians have that amount of disposable incomes now. People want to explore all the new destinations. Globally, in some countries there has been a slowdown in growth rate. But the number of applications has not come down drastically as compared to previous years. There is growth in other markets but not as compared to India and China.”
With the introduction of biometric system in India, initially there was a lot of hue and cry amongst the tour operators and travel agents. VFS has organised many trade engagement activities to familiarise the travel trade about this system. Maliekkal added, “We have done a lot of travel trade engagement activities in 2015. We have given trainings to the trade. In the last six months, after the introduction of biometric we have trained a lot of tour operators and travel agents. This is the reason the numbers of visa application has not gone down, despite the introduction of biometric system. We have many new initiatives such as the on demand mobile biometrics, which will further make it more and more convenient for the travellers.”
Speaking about the expansion plans he said, “We have got seven new countries in India. Globally, we have now touched 50 client government, the latest being Turkey which we recently signed on March 29. We are gradually growing and more mission wants service from us. We are already present in 17 cities in India. We will expand these services as and when the client governments want us to. Currently, South Africa is in discussion with us. Kuwait is also in discussions with us. Kuwait we have two centres right now, we plan to start four more centres in a phased manner.”
VFS is all set to open up another 100 Visa Application Centres in China by the end of this May, some of which have already been opened. He added, “We have got permission from the Chinese Government to open more centres. For Shenzhen we are opening another 12 centres in China. There is a plan to open more than 100 visa application centres by end of May, some of them have already been launched. The issue with china was there was no permission to open earlier.”
Speaking about the performance of the Indian account, Maliekkal said, “We represent India in UK, France, Korea, Saudi Arabia and we have just won tenders in Netherlands. There are many more nations where we are bidding right now for India. India is a big destination for most of the countries. Now, our main segment will be the MICE and corporate segment for India, as India has started e- tourist visa. We see the MICE segment picking up in UK and in Korea.”
“We are also expanding in the Latin America market. We are already present in 123 countries. We are targeting people who are going from Latin America to other countries and also targeting the client governments. Last year, we got our first Latin American client that is Brazil. We started Brazil in China. Now we look forward to open more and more centres in other countries. We are also pitching to open Brazilian centres in India.”
