Interview with Sumanth Kapoor, Business Head, KSA and Bahrain
VFS Global at a glance
VFS Global is the world’s leading outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions worldwide. The company manages the administrative and non-judgmental tasks related to visa, passport and consular services for its client governments. VFS Global has a Swedish-Swiss ownership.
What was once an unknown concept of visa application process outsourcing has now become the norm because of the many benefits it has afforded governments, in terms of effective management of application volumes, as well as conveniences for customers.
Indeed, the growth has been commensurate to the benefit, with VFS Global managing visa applications from one client government 19 years ago to today when we are proud to serve 64 client governments with 3510 Application Centres and operations in 144 countries across five continents.
In KSA, VFS Global serves 28 client governments through 88 Application Centres spread across nine major cities.
Mr. Sumanth Kapoor, Business Head, KSA and Bahrain
Service benefit to governments and customers
Our aim is to help governments to deliver safe, high quality services to their citizens in a hassle-free and convenient manner.
Visa application processing and consular support and passport services offer diplomatic missions an integrated process from submission to delivery. These services include operations, information, and financial solutions for an end-to-end process, depending on specific consular requirements.
Leveraging on robust experience in the visa application processing domain and an extensive global network, the company provides governments with holistic administrative solutions for processing of passport applications and provision of efficient consular services. This enables client governments to better achieve their key objectives of streamlining operations, accelerating decision making and improving customer satisfaction.
We are proud to say that throughout the recent difficulties, there has not been significant impact on our passport and consular services that we offer to the Indian and the Philippines’ citizens in KSA. Our centres offering passport and consular services have remained operational even during the pandemic with utmost safety and preventative measures in place.
Moreover, we are conducting special tours to collect Indian passport renewal applications from various remote locations across KSA due to the high demand from Indian nationals. Several successful tours were conducted in 2020 covering Bisha, Jizan, Medina and Najran in the western region. Similar tours were organized in the eastern region across, Sakaka, Arar, Hafr Al Batin, Khafji and Wadi Dawasir.
Impact of COVID-19 on visa processing
The official re-opening of all Visa Application Centres (VACs) is dependent on approval from both local authorities and the respective Embassy/ Mission. We have seen a gradual rise in the number of our VACs re-open globally, including in the KSA, which has been very reassuring for us. Out of 28 governments that we serve in the Kingdom, operations have resumed for 21 countries as of January 2021.
Although we have re-opened around 75% of the VACs across the country, the circumstances are new to everybody connected – customers, client governments, local authorities, and ourselves. It is also important to note that the mindset of travellers – and their travel plans – will likely change moving forward. Health and safety before and during travel will play a much more critical role, and we are observing a gradually changing customer requirement trend towards more personalized, digital and at-your-doorstep services.
As borders re-open and travel restrictions gradually ease, a convenient and reliable pre-departure COVID-19 testing solution may become a catalyst in the recovery process of international travel. As a major risk mitigator, such a solution would provide assurances to destination countries, airlines, and travellers. In response to interests expressed by some governments and airlines, VFS Global has launched booking of COVID-19 PCR testing service in KSA. While we provide a seamless online appointment booking system, tests at the laboratory or at customer’s doorsteps are conducted by trained medical professionals from approved and certified testing laboratories that we have partnered with.
VFS Global
Website: www.vfsglobal.com
Facebook and Instagram: @VFSGlobalOfficial
Twitter: @VFSGlobal
LinkedIn: VFS Global
