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VFS Global

Company type	Private company
Founded	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India (July 2001 (2001-07))
Headquarters	Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Zubin Karkaria (Founder & CEO) Dhiren Savla (CIO) Bernard Martyris (CCO) Jiten Vyas (CCO)
Number of employees	8960 (as on 30 November 2022)
Parent	The Blackstone Group
Website	vfsglobal.com

VFS Global is a visa and passport administration outsourcing company for governments and diplomatic missions. Zubin Karkaria founded the company in 2001 while he was chief executive Zubin Karkaria at Kuoni Travel. Formerly based in India, the company is now headquartered in Dubai with offices in 147 countries. In 2018, VFS processed approximately 25 million visa applications, often containing passport details and financial histories, on behalf of the British Home Office and 61 other governments.

History

Origins and revenue model

Founder Zubin Karkaria got the idea for VFS Global when they were working with the Kuoni Group. Karkaria believed they could circumvent embassy's wait times and administrative work required for processing visa applications by outsourcing administrative work required for processing visa applications.

The organization claims that outsourcing visa processing improves and personalizes the service that applicants receive by using enhanced physical and technological infrastructure. Moreover, it claims that the service lowers the security risk at embassies and consulates due to less crowding. Furthermore, it is believed to improve cost-effectiveness at embassies by helping them to focus on the decision making stage of the visa application process. According to Karkaria, the U.S. government has reservations about his proposal but he convinced them "to allow us to run the purely administrative part of a visa application process" considered to be an arduous process. The company opened its first visa processing centre in Mumbai that same year.

In 2003 it landed a UK Government contract to process visa applications from India to the United Kingdom.

The organization serves governments, payment gateways, banks, and courier services. It has expedited its client's visa application service with technologies such as chatbots, digital document checks and by providing visas on customer's doorsteps. In Europe, the company complies with GDPR compliance norms. Many of its innovations came from its lab in Mumbai.

The company's growth was primarily due to its revenues from service fees paid directly by visa applicants. In 2009, financial records indicated that VFS Global's parent company at the time, VF Worldwide Holdings, was an offshore corporation which had been "incorporated in the African tax haven of Mauritius."

By 2007, the company had obtained its first global account from UK Visas and Immigration for operations across 33 countries. Within one year of gaining its account with the UK government, the company's image was tarnished by a data breach which exposed the sensitive information of UK visa applicants. Despite this breach, the outsourcing company nevertheless obtained a major contract with the United Kingdom in 2014 to administer the majority of the UK's visa applications. The contract was a significant change in how British visa applicants to the United Kingdom were charged to have their applications processed.

During the past two decades of its operations, VFS Global has attracted considerable criticism. It has been criticized for allegedly exploitative practices and for its lack of transparency. The company has been "accused of pressuring visa applicants" into purchasing premium services which "they often don't need and can't afford." In 2019, the British Home Office was deluged by complaints from customers applying for visas using VFS Global, many of whom accused the company "of exploiting vulnerable applicants for profit." Applicants—"the majority of whom are from lower-income countries"—asserted they "missed flights and were wrongly denied visas due to delays and administrative errors, including apparent failure to scan vital documents."

Expansion and growth

In August 2017, the outsourcing company acquired the UK-based visa service provider TT Services (TTS) for an undisclosed amount.At the time of the acquisition, TTS operated 51 visa application centres in over 35 countries with 216 employees. Later that year, in November 2017, VFS Global expanded its visa services in Cyprus with new centres launched in the additional cities of Thiruvananthapuram, Goa, Gurugram, and Jaipur. These expansions increased the amount of visa centres where applicants were offered additional services, such as SMS updates, courier services, and online tracking services.

By December of that year, VFS had over 2,800 application centres with operations in 141 countries.

In January 2019, the parent company of VFS Global, EQT AB, declared their intention to sell the company. In August 2019, an in-depth financial investigation by the British newspaper The Independent revealed that VFS Global had experienced exponential growth in recent years and its shareholders had "extracted about £567m via 'distribution to owner' payments and writing off inter-company loans in the past two years." The newspaper attributed this growth to the outsourcing company's "exploitative" business practices.

In October 2021, Blackstone acquired a majority stake in VFS Global. Kuoni and Hugentobler Foundation remains a minority stakeholder. Prior to October 2021, the outsourcing company was owned by a private equity fund and, as VF Worldwide Holdings, is incorporated in the African tax haven of Mauritius. Investors in the outsourcing company include the Chinese and Emiratis investment authorities, the Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund, and Theo Müller.

In 2017, the outsourcing company partnered with Atout France, the France Tourism Development Agency, to promote France as a tourist destination for foreign travellers.

Criticisms and controversies

UK government investigation

Following this data breach and media outcry, the UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs appointed an independent investigator to uncover the reasons for the breach of security in the VFS online visa application website. The subsequent report, released in July 2007, highlighted "organisational failures" by VFS. VFS had purportedly underestimated what was necessary in order to protect personal data to the levels expected by the UK Data Protection Act. The report also recommended that the VFS online visa applications not be resumed for applications from India.

In November 2007, the UK Information Commissioner's Office announced that it had found the Foreign Office's contractual relationship with VFS Global to be in breach of its obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998. The Information Commissioner's Office required the Foreign Office to sign a statement that it would comply with the Data Protection Act and would not reopen the VFS UK visa online facility. As a result of this ruling, the Foreign Office reviewed its relationship with VFS and briefly sought to significantly reduce its outsourced work, especially in the area of IT. After the report was issued, VFS spent "$2 million on online security in the next year," and introduced various measures to ensure safe and secure business environment. One of them was to make all its centres ISO compliant.

Following this incident, several governments were critical of VFS Global's abilities and raised concerns over its lacklustre security protocols. "There's the accountability issue, the privacy issue and why are we outsourcing to a for-profit entity something that belongs in the security mandate?" asked Victor Wong, executive director of the Chinese Canadian National Council. Likewise, Liam Clifford, an immigration expert working for Global Visas, raised security concerns associated with VFS Global's operations: "Once you put this work in the hands of private companies overseas, you no longer have the same protection."

2015 data breaches

VFS Global's online security again came under scrutiny in July 2015 when its online visa forms for Italy allowed any user to access the personal information of other applicants—including their date of birth, passport details and addresses—if they input the ID number of another person when logging into the system.

Following the discovery of 2015 security issues, the outsourcing company stated in 2016 that they had instituted new security protocols. VFS Global claims to annually renew its ISO 27001 audit and certification.

2023 English-only service in Canada

In March 2023, VFS Global faced criticism for requiring a French-speaking applicant for permanent residency in Canada to respond only in English, despite that it is legally obligated to provide services in both official languages of Canada. Quebec's Minister Jean-François Roberge called it "completely unacceptable" and "all citizens should be able to interact with the federal government in their language of choice". VFS Global did not apologize for the incident.

See also

• BLS International

References

1. ^ Ram, Aliya (13 July 2016). "Kuoni chief Zubin Karkaria on his passport to profit". Financial Times. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
2. Parwaz, Aryaan (10 June 2021). "Leaders owe their entire success to their teams:Dhiren Salva". The Economic Times. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
3. "Bernard Martyris has been appointed Group Chief Human Resources Officer at Kuoni Group in Dubai". Hospitiality Network. 8 December 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
4. Viyas, Jiten. "How can public outsourcing be made to work?". The Parliament Magazine. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
5. "Milestones". www.vfsglobal.com. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
6. "How VFS Global will use AI to improve visa processing". The Times of India. 29 April 2024. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
7. Gibbs, Margot (18 August 2019). "VFS: Who is the company subcontracted by the Home Office to process visa applications?". The Independent. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
8. ^ Gibbs 2019a. sfn error: no target: CITEREFGibbs2019a (help)
9. "Dubai: Latvia Opens New External Visa Centres in UAE in Partnership with VFS Global". Dubai, United Arab Emirates: BelleVision Media Network. 5 February 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
10. ^ Nsehe, Mfonobong. "Meet Zubin Karkaria, The Man Who Built The World's Largest Visa And Consular Services Company". Forbes. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
11. ^ Nsehe 2018.
12. ^ Gibbs, Margot; Bulman, May (22 November 2019). "How Home Office makes millions a week from outsourcing visas to Dubai-based firm accused of exploitation". The Independent. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
13. Amin Ali (7 September 2022). "How VFS Global transformed visa processing". The Times of India. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
14. ^ Gibbs 2019b. sfn error: no target: CITEREFGibbs2019b (help)
15. ^ Bulman & Gibbs 2019.
16. Ballard 2007. sfn error: no target: CITEREFBallard2007 (help)
17. ^ Shifrin 2007. sfn error: no target: CITEREFShifrin2007 (help)
18. ^ Saurabh, Sinha (23 August 2017). "VFS Global completes acquisition of visa service provider TT Services". The Times of India. Mumbai, India. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
19. Srivastava 2017.
20. Schuetze & Hirt 2019.
21. Dhanjal 2021.
22. Chandavarkar & Pujari 2017.
23. ^ Baker 2009.
24. Goodin 2007. sfn error: no target: CITEREFGoodin2007 (help)
25. Information Commissioner's Office 2007.
26. Johnson 2007.
27. ^ Taylor 2008.
28. Kelekar 2008. sfn error: no target: CITEREFKelekar2008 (help)
29. Harper & Leapman 2007.
30. Dehghan 2015.
31. ^ Raval 2016.
32. ^ Lesage, Valerie (19 May 2023). "Immigration: le Canada répond "in English only"". Le Journal de Montréal. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
33. "Services and communications from federal institutions". Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages.
34. "Réponse "in english only" pour une demande en immigration: "Complètement inacceptable", dit Roberge". TVA Nouvelles. Agence QMI. 19 May 2023.

Works cited

• Baker, Linda Costelloe (5 November 2009). Report of The Independent Investigation: Breach of Data Security in the VFS Online UK Visa Application Facility (PDF) (Report). London, United Kingdom: Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Retrieved 13 September 2012.
• Bulman, May; Gibbs, Margot (17 August 2019). "How Home Office makes millions a week from outsourcing visas to Dubai-based firm accused of exploitation". The Independent. London. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
• Chandavarkar, Aishwarya; Pujari, Anjali (16 May 2017). "Now apply for a French visa in Bengaluru". The Times of India. Mumbai, India. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
• Chauke, Hlomani (12 March 2019). "Committee Says VFS Monopoly at Home Affairs Is Indefensible". Parliament of the Republic of South Africa (Press release). Cape Town, South Africa: Parliamentary Communication Services. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
• Dehghan, Saeed Kamali (17 July 2015). "Users' data compromised after technical glitch at Home Office contractor". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
• Dhanjal, Swaraj Singh (7 October 2021). "Blackstone to acquire VFS Global". Livemint. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
• Donnelly, Lynley (27 June 2014). "Visa Services Under Investigation". Mail & Guardian. Johannesburg, South Africa. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
• Foreign Office in breach of the Data Protection Act (PDF) (Report). Wilmslow, Cheshire, United Kingdom: Information Commissioner's Office. 13 November 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 August 2008. Retrieved 13 September 2012.
• Harper, Tom; Leapman, Ben (8 July 2007). "Interpol boss criticises immigrant checks". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
• Hunter, Murray (1 August 2013). "Australian Immigration – the Snowden Link?". Dissident Voice. United States. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
• Johnson, Bobbie (14 November 2007). "UK government failed to protect privacy of online visa applications". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 13 September 2012.
• Nsehe, Mfonobong (17 December 2018). "Meet Zubin Karkaria, The Man Who Built The World's Largest Visa And Consular Services Company". Forbes. Jersey City, New Jersey. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
• Onyeji, Ebuka; Ayitogo, Nasir (14 May 2018). "How Visa Processing Firm, VFS Global, 'extorts', 'mistreats' Nigerians". Premium Times. Abuja, Nigeria. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
• Raval, Abhishek (11 June 2016). "Security is of paramount importance to us". Mumbai, India: Express Travel World. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
• Schuetze, Arno; Hirt, Oliver (15 January 2019). "EQT to launch sale of Swiss outsourcing company VFS". Reuters. London, United Kingdom. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
• Srivastava, Priya (23 November 2017). "16 Indian cities to have Cyprus Visa Application Centre from now". Times of India. Mumbai, India. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
• "Statement of VFS representative before the European Parliament" (PDF). European Parliament (Press release). Brussels, Belgium. 10 July 2018. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
• Taylor, Lesley Ciarula (13 October 2008). "Private firm's work with visas raises concerns". Toronto Star. Toronto. Retrieved 13 September 2012.

• Outsourcing companies
• Companies established in 2001
• Indian companies established in 2001
• Companies based in Dubai
• Trade monopolies