A Rainy Afternoon and an Unwelcome Choice
When Vrinda arrived at a VFS Global visa center in Pune, India, she was already exhausted. The 71-year-old, who relies on a walking stick, had waited through torrential rain for a taxi and spent an hour in traffic. She was 15 minutes late for her appointment to apply for a Belgian visa so she could visit her son and meet her new granddaughter. After explaining the delays and her back problems, the officer presented two options. She could go home and book another appointment, or she could pay the equivalent of €35 for a premium service fee. For Vrinda, that amount covers roughly a month of groceries. “They said no, you can come back another day or pay. I was quite shocked,” she later recalled. “But whatever they told me, I had to follow.”
Vrinda is one of at least 19 applicants who told investigators they were pushed, misled, or left with no practical choice but to pay extra fees. Ten current and former staff members confirmed that such practices were widespread. They described a system where low-paid workers face sales targets for optional extras, sometimes adding charges without consent. Meanwhile, the European governments that contract VFS have documented repeated failures in the basic tasks the company is paid to perform. Inspection reports reveal data protection lapses, appointment irregularities, and poor service quality. Despite these findings, the firm has faced limited consequences and continues to process visas for nearly every EU member state.
The Invisible Gatekeeper to Europe
Most Europeans have never heard of VFS Global. Accustomed to visa free travel across much of the world, they are unlikely to stand in line at one of its centers or navigate its appointment portals. Yet across much of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, the company is widely known and often resented. For students, workers, tourists, and families trying to reach Europe, VFS frequently serves as the unavoidable first encounter with the border: a private checkpoint where access to a consulate begins with a booking form and a menu of fees.
The company was founded in 2001 by Zubin Karkaria, then an executive at travel firm Kuoni, who noticed embassies struggling to manage rising visa demand. A Zoroastrian priest and entrepreneur, he persuaded the United States embassy in Mumbai to let him run a pilot outsourcing scheme. The model proved successful. Today, VFS Global holds contracts with more than 70 governments across 167 countries, operating over 3,500 application centers. It is the largest firm in the sector, followed by competitors BLS International and TLS Contact. Headquartered in Dubai and majority-owned by private equity giant Blackstone, VFS has transformed consular paperwork into a major commercial enterprise.
The outsourcing formula is simple. VFS does not decide whether an applicant receives a visa. Governments retain that authority. Instead, the company handles initial administration: managing appointments, receiving applications, collecting biometric data, and forwarding paperwork to consulates. Under the EU Visa Code, VFS may charge a mandatory service fee for these core administrative tasks. The arrangement costs contracting nations nothing directly because applicants bear the full cost. As travel demand surged and security requirements grew more complex after 2001, budget conscious immigration departments found the private model attractive. Critics worry, however, that migrants are being commodified, with corporations pushing expensive extras while handling vast troves of sensitive personal data.
Pressure, Profits, and Optional Extras
VFS Global has built a highly profitable business around supplemental services. SMS notifications, courier delivery, document scanning, premium lounges, and home appointments generate enormous revenue. Financial statements filed in Luxembourg show these value added services accounted for an average of 30 percent of revenue across a sample of Swedish visa receipts from 16 countries. SMS alerts alone represented about 5 percent of revenue. In Kenya, where former employees allege fees were frequently added to bills without permission, more than 90 percent of applicants paid for SMS services, generating roughly 10 percent of local revenue.
Current and former workers across multiple countries describe a workplace driven by sales targets. Rohit Taneja, who worked as a visa operations officer at the Delhi center between 2016 and 2017, said staff were under constant pressure to sell extras. In a statement to investigators, he explained the tactics. “We had targets on SMS and courier numbers. We had to pitch, try to convince, even if the applicant said no. People think that we are from the embassy and whatever we are saying is right, especially visitors coming for the first time. So, we got very few denials.” Taneja added that employees received training in the art of selling and were taught to identify emotional weak points to compel purchases.
In Nigeria, a current visa officer speaking anonymously for fear of retaliation said bonuses for selling United Kingdom visa extras could approach twice the base salary of contractors, who earn just over €125 per month. A former senior officer who left in 2020 described the arrangement as highly exploitative and said low wages encouraged aggressive behavior. “There is always a need to sell optional extras. You have to be persistent in making sure the applicant sees reasons to buy them,” the current officer stated. Several former employees across East Africa and South Asia said it was common for staff to include SMS or courier services on bills without customer approval. One former Kenyan staff member noted that most customers would just accept this. European monitoring reports back up these patterns. A 2024 inspection by Czech authorities found VFS applied excessive pressure to promote their additional services, leading some applicants to believe that buying them would guarantee visa approval. Swedish authorities noted over multiple years that VFS was not always explicit that the value added services were optional.
Data Risks and Appointment Scandals
While supplemental services drive profits, internal government documents reveal serious failures in basic obligations. Inspectors from the European Commission and 22 Schengen countries identified 21 instances where VFS mishandled personal data under the General Data Protection Regulation. In 2022, Luxembourg reported that applicant biometric data was transported across the city on an unencrypted compact disk. Norway found that some centers failed to delete data within legal deadlines every year from 2021 through 2024. Swedish inspectors discovered a lack of knowledge among staff when it comes to GDPR. For a process that involves passports, fingerprints, financial records, and travel histories, such lapses expose millions to potential identity fraud.
The appointment system has also become a source of controversy. EU regulations explicitly prohibit outsourcing firms from selling additional appointment slots. Yet a 2022 European Commission inspection found that in Senegal, VFS systematically made extra slots available for a fee under its contract with the Italian consulate. Latvia reported that in Istanbul, premium appointments could be purchased while regular slots showed no availability. Five EU countries noted that bots or external agents hoard free appointments and sell them on, leaving genuine applicants stranded. Michael Tiffany, founding partner of security firm Human, said simple measures against bots, such as CAPTCHA, do little against determined scalpers. “Anti-bot measures must match the stakes. A profitable botnet demands dedication and expertise to defeat.”
Software problems on the VFS portal have pushed applicants toward paid alternatives. A lawyer based in the United Kingdom described a recurring glitch that falsely flagged merged documents as viruses, forcing him to ask clients to pay for VFS scanning instead of uploading files himself. A software engineer in Cape Town reported identical errors when applying for a British visa. “I know they do not contain viruses. I work with software every single day, this is my job,” he stated. The company also operates a parallel chain of concierge firms called OneVasco, often located beside official centers. In India, OneVasco profit margins hit 53 percent in 2024 and 70 percent in 2023. Several governments are concerned that travelers confuse these commercial helpers with official consular channels. A French diplomat said authorities demanded an action plan to clearly separate OneVasco from contracted services.
From Sri Lanka to Nigeria: A Global Pattern
The controversies extend far beyond Europe. In Sri Lanka, a 2024 government decision awarded VFS a monopoly lasting 12 years over electronic visas and visa on arrival processing, replacing a simple state interface with a cumbersome portal requiring social media handles and extra documentation. Fees for tourists from regional neighbors jumped from $20 to $75, while travelers from India, China, Russia, and several Southeast Asian nations lost visa free privileges and now face a $25.77 processing charge. A state telecommunications agency had reportedly offered identical facilitation for only $1 per visa. Opposition politicians have alleged corruption, and a popular online content creator highlighted a potential data breach after his private email began receiving personal details of other tourist applicants.
In Nigeria, investigative journalist Theophilus Abbah later discovered that the amount he paid exceeded the official South African visa fee by more than threefold. More recently, applicants in Abuja and Lagos describe camping outside centers before dawn, facing unexplained surcharges and verbal abuse. In South Asia, student visa hopefuls in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and India report that agents hoard free appointments and resell them at extortionate prices. Syed Nooh, an international education specialist, warned that universities have been forced to extend deadlines for late arrivals because students cannot secure appointments in time. He suggested governments should introduce multiple outsourcing providers to break bottlenecks, noting that a similar reform in tuberculosis testing for visa applicants solved prior congestion.
Indian police arrested two VFS employees and one former worker in Ahmedabad in 2023 after Canadian authorities detected forged biometric data. The suspects allegedly enrolled fingerprints for 28 applicants without their presence and issued fake appointment letters, charging between ₹5,000 and ₹7,000 per person. These cases illustrate how the privatization of visa administration can create openings for fraud when oversight is weak and profit motives dominate.
Why Governments Struggle to Act
European authorities have not ignored these problems. Nine EU governments that responded to questions said they issued sanctions where appropriate and took allegations of aggressive upselling seriously. Seven noted they were generally pleased with outsourcing, and two said they were specifically satisfied with VFS. Internal documents paint a more troubled picture. A 2023 EU working group in India documented persistent data entry failures, scanning problems, weak IT infrastructure, and dismal communication between VFS management and local offices. The Czech Republic told members it had raised issues repeatedly but saw only temporary improvement before conduct deteriorated again. Switzerland conceded it had no other option but to work intensively with VFS because its own consulate could never manage the volume alone.
The European Commission has now launched a comprehensive study on visa outsourcing, aiming to draw up options to prevent system abuses. Some countries have fined VFS or switched providers at contract expiry. Spain stands as the only EU member state that currently does not use VFS for visa processing, according to the company website. Yet alternative outsourcers face similar accusations. Internal monitoring reports accuse TLS Contact and BLS International of aggressive upselling and GDPR breaches, leaving governments with no clear escape from the privatized model.
Belgium has resisted the trend in at least one location. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Belgian diplomat Joris Salden kept visa processing inside the embassy rather than contract it out.
“What we see in other countries is that having a third-party partner does not automatically solve all problems. If you outsource, you no longer have direct control over the problem. And a third-party partner does not work for free.”
His stance highlights a fundamental question about whether the control of borders, a core state function, should be delegated to entities accountable to shareholders rather than citizens.
Key Points
- VFS Global, majority-owned by Blackstone, controls visa processing for more than 70 governments across 167 countries, including nearly all EU member states.
- Investigations and internal government documents reveal aggressive upselling of purportedly optional services, with staff pressured by sales targets to add fees without consent.
- Operating profits quadrupled between 2017 and 2024, far outpacing the 15 percent growth in application volume, driven largely by high margin extras like SMS alerts and courier fees.
- European inspectors documented 21 GDPR violations, including transport of biometric data on unencrypted disks and failure to delete records on time.
- Appointment slot scalping, software glitches pushing paid scanning services, and hoarding scams have plagued applicants in South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
- Despite documented failures, EU governments remain dependent on VFS because consulates lack capacity and alternative outsourcers face similar accusations.
- The European Commission has launched a comprehensive study to examine outsourcing abuses, while Belgium has kept some visa processing in-house to retain direct control.
