3-day turn-around for

Officials promise an easing of services at the Consulates and at VFS

BY RAJNI ANAND LUTHRA

If you haven’t experienced it yourself, you probably know someone who has.

The hassles of dealing with the Indian consulates here to get visas to India issued reached a crisis point this year. Stories flew in thick and fast about long queues, outdated procedures, rude staff, queries not being answered, clients left high and dry with no clue about the status of the visa, being scuttled between the Consulate and VFS, forms difficult to fill in, clients sent away to bring back more forms or more information, varying charges, out-station travellers facing extra fees…..the list was endless. “Nightmare” is the term most commonly used to describe any dealings with the consulates.

And we haven’t even started talking about the OCI application procedure yet.

At a community-wide conference called by the Indian High Commissioner at Canberra in end-November, visa woes formed the major discussion point. The Indian government officials probably expected this to be the case, given that they had organized for an entire forum devoted to the issue. In attendance besides the High Commissioner Mrs Sujatha Singh, were Consul General of India (Sydney)

Amit Dasgupta, Consul General of India (Melbourne) Anita Nayar, and Loren D’Souza from VFS, the private company to which the administrative responsibilities of visa processing were outsourced just over two years ago, and who have recently had their contract renewed for an additional three years.

Participating, were community members not only from Sydney Melbourne and Canberra, but also from Tasmania, Western Australia and Northern Territory. Individual members stood up and spoke of their grievances, which at first elicited sympathy, but towards the end, caused much mirth, as complaint after complaint against the “ and “babudom” revealed the ridiculous nature of the operations in what some described as a basic requirement of an expat community.

The diplomatic corps sat by and listened patiently, as did the VFS officials (their “partners-in-crime”, if the indignant audience members were to be believed).

And then they took the floor to brave the torrent, led by High Commissioner Sujatha Singh herself, breaking the tension cleverlyand perhaps cheekily - by opting to take some of the blame herself as the “babu-in-chief” out here.

“It’s a badge I wear with pride,” she laughed, and then proceeded to make a textbook case of what makes a diplomat a diplomat, all credit to the “babudom”.

Explaining the backlog

“When we outsourced our visa processing to the private company VFS in Jan 2009,” Mrs Singh began calmly, “it seemed like we had solved our problems. Things seemed to be functioning satisfactorily – because we had no complaints. The processing time has gone down; yes, the cost has gone up, but that is the way of the world. In fact the letters of complaints on my desk were replaced by

The reason we’ve had such issues in the processing of visas apparently, among a few other things, can be traced back to the Mumbai attacks and David Headley. Yes, David Headley, the terrorist who has pleaded guilty to the charge of aiding and abetting the murder of innocent people in Mumbai on November 26, 2008. A PakistaniAmerican, Headley changed his name from Daood Sayed Gilani and was able to travel