Your plans for a Thailand holiday just got simpler.
VFS Global, the global outsourcing and technology services specialist for diplomatic missions and governments, opened an expanded Visa Application Centre (VAC) for Thailand here on Thursday.
The VAC, launched by the Consul General of the Royal Thai Consulate General, Chennai, Chanchai Charanvatnakit, will accept visa applications from the residents of Karnataka.
The applications will be assessed and processed by the Consulate General in Chennai.
The VAC will have long operating hours, a dedicated website, visa information including visa types, applicable fees and application status, dedicated staff to handle visa queries, a dedicated call centre unit, e-mail support, and door step delivery of passports.
The firm will charge a service fee to be paid while submitting the visa application. The VAC will be open from 8 am to 3 pm.
The expansion of Thai VAC in Bangalore became necessary as the number of Indians, especially from South India, visiting Thailand each year for both business and tourism is going up. The expanded VAC is one of the 530 such centres operated by VFS Global worldwide.
The firm has tied up with 37 governments, including 27 in Asia, to provide visa application process.
So far, the company has processed 41 million visa applications across the globe.
The staff at the expanded VAC had been trained by the embassies concerned, Vishal Jairath, Regional Head, South Asia, VFS Global, said.
In all, the VAC will process the visa applications of 14 countries — the US, the UK, France, The Netherlands, Austria, Malta, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Thailand, Australia, and Canada at the Bangalore VAC.
According to Jairath, each visa application will be forwarded to the respective diplomatic missions overnight for processing. Thereafter, the diplomatic missions would approve or reject the applications, he added.
The relevant embassy would send its reply only in sealed covers. There would be no way for VAC to know the fate of an application, Jairath explained.
One can apply mainly for short-stay visa applications for business, tourism, higher studies, etc at the VAC. Long-term visa applications would be processed sporadically.
The VAC is located at Prestige Atrium, 2nd Floor, No 1, Central Street, Near Shivajinagar.