ETW Staff – Mumbai
Australia’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) and VFS Global have agreed to provide visa application services through three new and 10 upgraded Australia Visa Application Centres (VACs) across the region. Travellers to Australia from India and Nepal can now apply for their visas more conveniently from nine upgraded VACs located in Indian cities of Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai (North) and New Delhi, and one in Kathmandu, Nepal. In future, visa applicants can lodge their visa requests from three new Australia VACs, to be rolled out in Jalandhar, Mumbai (South) and Pune over the next two weeks. This enhanced service network will save time and travel expense, and will speed up the entire visa application process.
While inaugurating the Australia VAC in Mumbai, Mark Pierce, Australian consul general, Mumbai welcomed the new facilities and hoped that they would help lead to increased numbers of Indian business leaders, students and tourists to Australia. “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 percent in the first three months of this year. This is a real milestone for the bilateral relationship,” said Pierce. This follows a 50 per cent increase in Indian student visa applications over the last year.
Anil Katoch, COO – South Asia, VFS Global stated, “VFS Global is privileged to partner the government of Australia since October 2007 in India and Nepal, besides serving the client government in 21 other countries globally. 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. This extension of our association with the government of Australia reflects their faith in our abilities, and we are sure this will go a long way in forging a longstanding partnership with VFS Global.”
The key features of the new centres include:
- Conveniently located and easily accessible state-of-the art Visa Application Centres
- Dedicated counters for applicants and travel agents/ tour operators
- Premium Lounge facilities available at Chennai and Bengaluru locations
- Facility for “witnessing” copies of original passports and documents
- Internet kiosk with scanning and mailing facility
- SMS service for tracking application status
- Video conferencing facility for interviews
