With an aim to make visa services faster, hassle-free and efficient, the Indian Consulate in Toronto has decided to outsource its consular services under a new visa regime which will become functional from May 22.
Preeti Saran, Consul General of India, said
“The government has decided to outsource consular services in Canada. VF Services (Canada) would be the nodal agency which would have collection, processing and distributions centres (for visa services) in Toronto and Brampton, The applications would continue to be decided by the Consulate General of India,”
The centres managed by VF Services (Canada) which would become operational from May 22, will receive applications on behalf of Indian Consulate for an additional fee of CDN19.25 for:
- visas, except Diplomatic and Official,
- issue of new passport or renewal of old ones and other passport related services like change of name, etc.
- Persons of Indian origin (PIO) cards and Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cards
On the same date the Consulate would stop receiving applications for consular services including visas, passports, PIO and OCI cards.