Demo on VFS services well received

The community gets an insight into the working of specific procedures undertaken on behalf of the Indian government

Continuing the Community Familiarization programme from its Melbourne presentation in early September, VFS Global geld its NSW version at its offices in Sydney recently. This programme seeks to reach out to community stakeholders to provide an insight into how consular services are delivered through VFS Global, the service provider authorised by the High Commission of India in Australia to accept applications for specified services. These services include Visa, Passport, Overseas Citizen of India (OCI), Persons of India Origin (PIO), Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) and India Drivers Licence Verification (IDLV).

The Consul General of India (Sydney)Arun Kumar Goel presided over the function and shared his views on how VFS Global and the Consulate work together in sync to ensure ontime processing of applications. He congratulated VFS on the professional work they have undertaken to ensure smooth running of the various activities they perform on behalf of the Indian government. “Turn around times for processing of paperwork are now at excellent levels,” said Mr Goel. “VFS has even provided great facilities at their lodgement offices for people to use such as photographic booths to assist with applications”. He was addressing a small but select audience at the familiarisation programme. Country head for VFS in Australia, Harpreet Singh also shared the organisation’s ongoing passion for excellence, and their commitment to making the processes simpler and better for the community to access their services. These include doorto-door services with document tracking services and quicker response time by staff at VFS. The audience was taken through a brief presentation based on the core objective of the programme, and then on a tour of the Visa Application Centre to demonstrate how stringent procedures are followed, and the emphasis on Physical and Information Security. An important part of the programme was to also to inform key community stakeholders how they could assist with passing key information to other members of the community especially with reference to why certain procedures need to be followed (for example, completeness of an application, photo specifications and procedures for applications in an emergency, etc.)

The feedback was positive and community members gathered were pleased that they were now more aware than before of VFS Global’s role and how the organisation played an important part, although performing mainly administrative tasks.

VFS Global is the world’s largest outsourcing and technology services specialist for diplomatic missions worldwide with over 708 Visa Application Centres located in 83 countries across 5 continents as at 31 August 2012. It serves the interests of the diplomatic missions of 37 sovereign governments. It has successfully processed over 48 million applications since its inception in 2001.

VFS Global serves the High Commission of India/ Embassy of India in 19 countries worldwide.