In addition to the existing VACs in New Delhi and Mumbai the cities that will soon have Swiss Visa Application Centres (VACs) include Chandigarh, Kolkata, Jalandhar, Cochin, Chennai, Pondicherry, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Pune and Hyderabad. Announcing the opening of the satellite Swiss Visa Application Centres, Kurt Grüter, Acting Head of Visa section, Embassy of Switzerland said, ‘‘Switzerland was one of the first countries to cement diplomatic relations with India after its independence. The opening of these VACs will strengthen our endeavours and strong will to intensify people-to-people contact through travel.” Werner E. Nievergelt, Consul General of Switzerland said “All this will make it easier for Indian applicants to undertake the visa application process, which will ultimately help in increasing Indian visitors to Switzerland.” He added that in 2011, Switzerland issued 76,700 visas to Indians travelling to Switzerland, compared to 61,686 issued in 2010. Additionally, 460,440 bed nights by Indian visitors were recorded in Switzerland in 2011, an increase of 17.2 per cent compared to 392,852 in 2010. The VACs will be completed in three phases. During the first and second phase which will be Visa Application Centre branches will be opened in Chandigarh, Kolkata, Jalandhar, Kochi, Chennai, Pondicherry and Bengaluru while the application centres in Pune and Ahmedabad will be completed in the third phase by mid-2012. Murali Raghavan, COO – South Asia and CIS, VFS Global informed that the VACs were a pilot project limited to two years. He added that all 130 VFS Global Centres across South Asia were certified with ISO 9000 AND ISO 27,000 and that the company was seeking the same status for its centres worldwide, which could be certified by mid-April 2012. The VACs would provide services such as collect visa applications and, if necessary, arrange an interview with the Swiss Embassy in New Delhi or the Consulate General in Mumbai.
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