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Indians in Australia & New Zealand - A
Portal for Indians in Australia and New Zealand
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31 December 2007
OUTSOURCING OF VISA, PASSPORT AND OCI SERVICES
A message to the Indian community
I am happy to inform
that starting from early 2008, the High Commission of India in
The decision to
outsource this work is in order to ensure that our visa, passport and OCI
application process is as efficient and customer friendly as possible. The
growing Indian community in
The outsourcing contract
has been awarded to an Indian firm M/s VFS Services Australia Pty Ltd.,
which will be opening six visa & Passport Services Centres all over
Centre
Date of Opening
M/s VFS has considerable
experience in handling visa applications in various countries.
They are partner to 19 foreign diplomatic missions across the world,
with operations spanning 39 countries.
VFS has also been trusted with outsourcing visa services by the
Indian Diplomatic Missions in
Visa, passport and OCI
fees and service charges for all applications with effect from the
respective dates of opening of the six Visa & Passport Services Centres
(V&PSC) will be payable to M/s VFS Services Australia Pty Ltd.
Our
commitment to offering efficient visa, passport and OCI services will be
reflected in the six customer friendly and easily accessible Visa & Passport
Services Centre (V&PSC).
All the six Centres are at places easily accessible by public transport and
with nearby parking facilities, which will be convenient to those who prefer
to apply for visas in person.
The Centres will also offer prompt and efficient
responses to all queries including telephone and e-mail queries relating to
these services.
The visa, passport and
OCI fees and service charges can be paid in cash,
drafts or money orders. Arrangement for payment by credit card/ debit card
will be in place by May.
There will
be an on-line tracking facility for all visa, passport & OCI related
documents, functional elegant office space for personalized service with
user-friendly computer facilities and bi-lingual staff to handle
applications submitted in person, and a Call Centre.
With regard
to telephone queries in particular, I seek the understanding, cooperation
and support of all those availing of our visa and other consular services.
I fully understand the exasperation of those who cannot get through
to us on dedicated telephone lines, either because the lines are busy or the
voice mail boxes are full. An
analysis made by us reveals that most telephone calls and e-mails, often
fairly lengthy, either seek information which is already available on our
websites or are in the nature of enquiries on the status of receipt or delay
in dispatch of documents. Our
experience has been that delays in turn were mostly due to incomplete forms,
or delay in submission of applications routed through travel agents or on
account of inadequate or no mailing fees.
The end result has been that timely access has often not available to
genuine seekers of information and even to those who require emergency
services. We obviously cannot
allow such a situation to continue.
Our aim is
to respond to every genuine enquiry in a timely manner.
At the same time, we will not follow the practice of some Embassies/
High Commissions which do not accept telephone queries.
I would appeal to all those who seek consular services from the High
Commission and the Consulates General to help us provide better and quicker
service by carefully reading and following the procedures spelt out in our
websites, completing all applications in full, enclosing all documents and
fees required, including for return mail, and using tracking facilities to
ascertain the current status.
For individual enquiries, brief and succinct e-mails could be sent to the
designated addresses given in the websites for respective services.
Telephone queries, if any, may please be brief.
This would help supervisory officers to monitor and audit responses.
While we
will outsource the collection and delivery process of our visa, passport &
OCI applications, the Consular Wings of the High Commission and Consulates
General and Honorary Consulates will continue to offer services after office
hours or on holidays for emergency travel on extreme compassionate grounds
(death in the family).
In our
continuing effort to improve consular services, the websites on consular and
visa services in the High Commission and all the Consulates General in
Australia are being streamlined and harmonised We will endeavour to further
improve dissemination of current information on a range of issues of
interest, covering economic, commercial and other developments and related
information on customs duties, investment regulations, etc., by offering
convenient links to the websites.
I would
welcome suggestions on how we may further improve our consular services.
Concise and constructive comments or suggestions, with the full name
and contact details of the sender may please be sent to the
While this is a lengthy
message, I thought it would be useful to keep the community informed in some
detail about the steps we are taking to improve our services in areas that
are of interest to all of us.
It is our hope that 2008
will usher in, through all these measures, a qualitative improvement in the
visa, passport and OCI services offered.
I would like to wish all
of you the very best for a successful, happy and prosperous 2008.
Sujatha Singh
High Commissioner
OUTSOURCING OF VISA, PASSPORT AND OCI SERVICES
In order to
ensure that the visa, passport and OCI application process is as convenient,
fast and customer friendly as possible, the High Commission of
2.
Our commitment to offering efficient visa, passport and OCI services
will be reflected in customer friendly and easily accessible Visa
Application Centres. The
Centres will also offer prompt and efficient responses to all queries
including telephone and e-mail queries relating to these services.
In addition, the Centres would accept fees in cash, drafts/ money
orders, and starting from May, through credit card/ debit card.
They would also be open without break for longer consular hours –
from 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM, on all working days.
3.
M/s VFS will set up Visa & Passport Services Centres (V&PSC) in the
following cities:
Centre
Date of Opening
[Note: Passport and OCI applications in respect of the areas covered by
Consulate General of India in Melbourne, i.e., Victoria and Tasmania, will
continue to be received by the High Commission of India, Canberra till the
opening of V&PSC in Melbourne].
4.
The V&PSCs would accept applications for the following services:
1.
Issue of visa for travel to
2.
Issue of passports;
3.
Overseas Citizenship of
5.
Application forms can be collected from the V&PSCs and also
downloaded from the High Commission and Consulates General websites.
A service charge of A$ 16.36 plus GST per applicant will apply
in addition to regular fees.
Details of fees for various services can be seen on the
websites of VFS and the High Commission/ Consulates General.
6.
In case the applicant wishes the Passport to be sent through
courier/express post etc., separate postal charges will be required to
be paid.
7.
Once the V&PSCs are operational, the High Commission of India in
8.
The High Commission and the Consulates General in Sydney & Melbourne
will, however, continue to receive applications for other Consular Services
as follows:
·
Consular Attestations
·
Miscellaneous Consular Services like Police Clearance Certificate,
Birth Certificates, Life Certificates etc.
9.
In case of requirement of
urgent travel to
10.
The Honorary Consulates in
11.
Details regarding locations and telephone number of the V&PSCs will be
intimated shortly.
12.
For further details, please visit the website of the High Commission of
India,
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