The ongoing visa scandal that has rolled through Polish and foreign media over the last few weeks has prompted VFS Global – one of the three companies providing visa outsourcing services for the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MSZ) – to state that any irregularities in visa issuance cannot be linked to its operations, simply as its employees have no influence over visa issuance decisions. The company has provided visa brokerage services for over a decade in markets such as Turkey, India, China, and Belarus. Currently, it has suspended the administrative processing of Polish visas in line with the MSZ’s decision but does not rule out continuing cooperation.
“We understand the decision taken by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland, we comply with it and respect it. At this moment we do not intend to take any legal action. We also plan to continue serving Polish embassies and consulates in the countries where we work with them, and to continue cooperation with the Polish MSZ if they express such a desire,” says Jiten Vyas, Chief Commercial Officer at VFS Global.
The Polish and foreign media have reported a scandal involving visa issuance irregularities for immigrants from Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. According to Gazeta Wyborcza, Polish consular services and brokerage firms were reported to issue such documents en masse for bribes. Visas to Poland allegedly cost around 4-5 thousand dollars, but if migrants came from countries such as Pakistan or Bangladesh, the charges were even higher. As a result, foreigners from so-called dangerous countries where there is a terrorist threat, reportedly gained access to the Schengen area without any verification. Sometimes, for 25-40 thousand USD, they were sent further on to the United States.
Last month, under pressure from foreign partners, officers from the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where they questioned the management of the consular department and secured data carriers. Deputy Minister Piotr Wawrzyk was dismissed. However, the consequences of corruption in the Polish visa system quickly moved to an international level. The issue is being closely monitored by partners from the European Union and the USA, and in late September, the head of the German Ministry of Interior, Nancy Faeser, announced the dispatch of federal police officers to seal the Polish-German border. According to information from Gazeta Wyborcza, it was Germany that had previously informed Polish authorities about irregularities in the visa system when masses of migrants with legally issued documents by Polish diplomatic services, which were not previously verified, began to appear in the country.
Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau recently decided to dismiss the director of the legal office of the MSZ, and ordered an audit and control in the consular department and all consular outposts. The MSZ has also decided to terminate contracts with all outsourcing firms that since 2011 were entrusted with tasks related to accepting visa applications. One of these is VFS Global – an international company engaged in visa outsourcing, that is, brokering the process of applying for a visa to various countries.
“Both for the Polish MSZ and the governments of other countries, we handle the administrative part of the visa process. As an external service provider, we create Visa Application Centers and provide trained employees who have the required security certificates. They check if all the required attachments to the application are there, they collect biometric data, but they do not verify documentation. It is then passed on to the embassy or consulate. It is the embassy or consulate that makes the final decision to issue or refuse a visa. In some places, people and agents appear claiming to be VFS Global intermediaries. I want to highlight that VFS Global has no agents or intermediaries, nor does it provide job brokerage services,” explains Jiten Vyas.
VFS Global is one of three firms providing visa outsourcing services for the Polish government according to agreements with Polish outposts. The conclusion of these agreements was always preceded by appropriate tenders. The company has been cooperating with the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs for over 10 years and handles visa processes in four countries – Belarus, China, India, and Turkey. However, it has never provided services for the Polish MSZ in Africa, and as it emphasised in a recent statement, it had no information about cases of visa sales.
“Our role comes down to purely administrative issues. We receive applications, collect biometric data and forward them to the embassy or consulate of the Republic of Poland. The final decision to issue or refuse a visa is made by its officials,” explains the Chief Commercial Officer at VFS Global.
The company stresses that any irregularities in visa issuance cannot be linked to its actions, as it simply lacks the ability to influence the decisions to issue or refuse any country’s visa. These decisions are taken solely within the competence of diplomatic mission representatives of each government.
“We work with 70 government clients in 147 countries, including 25 out of 27 Schengen zone countries and 26 out of 27 EU member states and NATO countries. We are also honored to work with the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance, which includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand,” adds Jiten Vyas.
It is essential that in none of the other countries where VFS Global operates have similar visa issuance irregularities been reported, as occurred in Poland.
“In 21 years of operation, we have gained the trust of 70 governments and we intend to continue offering our services as an external service provider,” says the VFS Global expert.
As he points out, the process of visa outsourcing itself is nothing extraordinary worldwide. Consular and diplomatic services of individual countries commonly use such services to relieve their outposts of simple tasks related to receiving applications and data from visa applicants.
“Individual countries’ governments understand the concept of outsourcing such services and use external service providers to reach visa applicants,” says Jiten Vyas. – “With the increasing demand for visas in particular countries, handling administrative processes and security procedures associated with it requires more and more work. IT systems are constantly attacked by bots and hackers, which requires constant improvement of security measures, and it costs. This burden is lifted from embassies and consulates by engaging external service providers, such as VFS Global. Our job is to run Visa Application Centers in many different cities, while the embassy or consulate is often in one or two cities. Providing a whole network of points along with serving employees who have the appropriate security certificates allows these diplomatic offices to focus exclusively on the decision-making process. Visa applicants pay for our work on behalf of the Polish government, not the state budget. That’s the benefit of outsourcing these types of processes to external providers.”
In line with the decision of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, VFS Global has suspended the administrative processing of Polish visas. Its contract, originally concluded until November 2023, was terminated last week. However, the company does not rule out continuing cooperation, which will depend on the decision of the Polish ministry.
VFS Global is currently one of the global leaders in outsourcing and technological services for governments. It provides a network of 3.3 thousand visa application service centers operating in 147 countries. Since its beginnings in 2001, the company has already served 268 million such applications. The majority shareholder is the Blackstone fund. Minority shareholders also include Hugentobler Foundation, a member of the Swiss Kuoni Group, and EQT Partners – a Swedish private equity fund.
