Since October offers same-day service for the bulk of applicants who shows up in person instead of standing in interminable line for hours. The visa form is not only available online it can also be filled out online. The consular fees and processing charge can be paid with a credit of debit card. The prospective traveler then has to take a printout and faces two options, make an online payment mail the application with photographs and passports and expect the duly stamped passport back in less than five days guaranteed or to got to an office in person by a specified hour and get the visa on the same day.
Whether by mail or in person once the documents are received an automated email goes tot the applicant with a tracking number and the applicant can track the progress of the application FedEx style. There is no free lunch as economist Milton Friedman famously and applicants now have to add an extra $13 processing fee which goes to Travisa Outsourcing Inc. which has won a competitive bid to accept Indian visa applications in the US and send them to the consular office for processing.
When the Western perception of India has undergone a substantive change for the better, the visa makeover does not come a moment too soon and it is quite possible that most visa applicants will not begrudge the extra $13 charge for the added convenience. The sheer volume of visa applications were a daunting challenge often leaving consulate offices overwhelmed and applicants often frustrated and sometimes irate.
The Indian government had decided to bring in an outside firm to handle visa applications, Krishan Varma. The minister for consular affairs with the Indian embassy in Washington, D.C. This is a decision which has been by the minister of external affairs. Business is going up, services are going up. To keep up with this, the idea was to outsource this, however only the collection and the delivery process has been outsourced, the approval is still by the embassies.
The process is working well and the feedback has been great. There are some teething issues that is a bit inevitable in something of the nature and magnitude. Things are settled down, it is stabilized that they are getting a pretty good response even from the public. It is more timely when it is more streamlined, the general satisfaction of the public has been quite good. Tracking a visa applications is a unique service now offered only by the Indian embassy in the US.
They are very happy to deal with the Indian government and they are happy to introduce the new proprietary technology that is speedin g up the process and make it easier for anybody who is getting traveling to obtain the Indian visas. While most of the applications were routine, there were a handful that required personalized attention. The Travisa and the Indian embassy were quick to reassure the public that the visa applicants had nothing to worry about.
REFERENCE:
http://www.travisaoutsourcing.com/outsourcing/travisa_outsourcing_fact_sheet
http://www.travisaoutsourcing.com/outsourcing/news_1
https://www.indian-visa.com/news?id=1
