Wednesday Nov 13, 2024
Wednesday Nov 13, 2024
Friday, 7 April 2023 00:30 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Darshana Abayasingha
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| VFS Global South Asia COO Prabuddha Sen |
Popular outsourcing and technology services company to governments and diplomatic missions, VFS Global, said yesterday visa applications from Sri Lanka will return to pre-pandemic levels by end of this year.
In 2022, VFS says visa applications from Sri Lanka grew 332%, but this was in contrast to 2021 when the country and much of the world was still caught in Covid lockdowns.
The applications received in 2022 was 68% of total applications VFS had received in 2019.
VFS Global’s Chief Operating Officer for South Asia Prabuddha Sen, says there is heightened interest in the South Asian region as developed markets seek skilled migrants to support their industries. He encouraged applicants to send their applications early. Sen pointed to growing competition from grey market operators for ‘slots’ afforded by diplomatic missions and countries, which is the reason behind occasional slowdown in processing applications.
“We are 100% compliant with the laws of the land. In the grey market, passports with many visas get stolen. Worldwide, governments are getting stricter on these parameters. So, people must be extremely cautious of protecting personal identification details. Hackers always try to get into our systems. We continuously push our systems to ensure we are protected.
Everything we do is governed by diplomatic missions. Despite attempts to ringfence the process, what grey market operators do is run bots to try and take seats. We are putting in systems to ensure a name and passport number has to be there to get appointments,” he said.
There is once again a steady rise in student visa applications from Sri Lanka, VFS says, noting it will work additional hours to accommodate traffic in students’ travel over the coming months. VFS Global currently operates five centres in Colombo and one in Jaffna, but will look to consolidate its presence for greater efficiencies, control and governance.
Health considerations continue to be a key determining factor post Covid, and as a result increasing numbers of travellers opt for services that offer a seamless visa experience, VFS says.
Another defining trend noticed in travellers’ behaviour was wider adoption of personalised services since the pandemic. Premium optional services such as Visa at Your Doorstep that enables travellers to book the entire visa experience at a location of their choice had doubled in 2022 in comparison to 2019. The company caters to 19 direct client governments and 17 represented client governments in Sri Lanka and Maldives.
“We witnessed unprecedented demand from Sri Lanka and the entire South Asia region as a whole in 2022, which led to an extended peak outbound travel season with steady volumes. We are confident the momentum will further grow and hence it is advisable for applicants to apply for their visas in advance to avoid last-minute surprises,” the COO for South Asia added.
