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Gbemisola Oluwabusayo
2 months ago
Overview
Meet The Man Making Billions From Your Visa Applications
If you've ever applied for a visa, chances are you've interacted with VFS Global, the world's largest visa and passport services provider.
At the helm of this colossal enterprise is Zubin Karkaria, a visionary entrepreneur who transformed the cumbersome visa application process into a streamlined global operation. In the 1990s, while working with the Swiss travel company Kuoni in India, Karkaria observed significant inefficiencies in the visa application process.
Applicants endured long waits at embassies, often travelling across cities and queuing overnight to submit their documents. Embassy staff were equally overwhelmed with administrative tasks, leading to delays and frustration on both sides.
This birthed VFS Global. Mr Karkaria was determined to find a way to make the process more efficient and systematic. So he approached the US embassy in Mumbai and for 18 months tried to convince them to outsource the administrative part of the work to his company. He went to the head of the visa section at that time and said:
Let's work out a process where you still remain in control of the decision-making. But the way we do it is we scan everything and do all the administrative parts of your work... your visa officer gets the documents one day before, we do appointment scheduling that means you know who's coming at what time … so you spend 90 percent of your time in decision making.
The proposal worked, and VFS began operations in 2001, still a part of Kuoni, to support embassies with their administrative tasks including collecting documents, scheduling appointments and managing the logistics of delivering passports.
Source Pulse Nigeria
