Australia and visa processing company VFS Global have opened three new visa application centres in India, and upgraded a further nine.
At present, travellers from India and Nepal to Australia can apply for their visas more from upgraded visa application centres in Indian cities of Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi. The office in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu has also been revamped.
And three more facilities will be launched in Jalandhar, Mumbai and Pune over the next two weeks.
Mark Pierce, Australian Consul General in Mumbai said the new facilities followed a sharp upswing in demand for Australian visas among Indians.
“For the first time in its history, our high commission in New Delhi issued more than 100,000 tourism visas to Indians in a single financial year, with numbers increasing by 10% in the first three months of this year,” said Pierce. “This follows a 50% increase in Indian student visa applications over the last year.”
The new and upgraded visa centres will offer dedicated counters for individual applicants and the travel trade, video conferencing for interviews, a facility for “witnessing” copies of original passports and documents, an internet kiosk with scanning and mailing facilities, and an SMS service for tracking applications. Lounge facilities will also be available in the Chennai and Bengaluru centres.
“Catering to the growing demand of Australia bound travellers in India, we aim to offer high-quality applicant-friendly services to provide a seamless visa application experience to all travellers applying through our visa application centres,” said Anil Katoch, VFS Global’s chief operating officer for South Asia.
Pic caption: Mark Pierce and Anil Katoch inaugurate the Mumbai visa centre on 12 June
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