Finland outsourcing visa application handling in Moscow

Russia considers similar move in Helsinki

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The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is outsourcing its visa service in Moscow to the Indian company VFS Global as of June this year.
      The company is to set up a visa centre in Moscow which will receive applications by Russian citizens for visas to Finland and will give completed visas to the applicants. The actual processing of the visa applications will remain in the hands of officials at the Embassy.
      A similar arrangement will begin in the Ukrainian capital Kiev in the autumn.
     
According to Embassy official Vesa Häkkinen, the aim of the move is to speed up the application process and to save money.
      “Conditions in the visa section in Moscow are crowded. By outsourcing we can focus personnel resources on making decisions on the visa applications.”
     
The Russian Embassy in Helsinki is considering a similar outsourcing of the visa application service to a company that is to set up a special visa centre in Helsinki.
      “The aim would be to speed up visa work and to bring more efficiency”, says the Embassy.
      The Russian Embassy says that it it has received bids from many companies, one of whom is VFS Global, whose services Russia is already using in London.
     
Concerns have been voiced in the travel business that the move might reduce travel both from Russia to Finland and from Finland to Russia.
      The fee for a tourist visa to Finland is EUR 35 for a Russian citizen, and VFS Global charges an additional fee of EUR 21 for its service.
      However, Häkkinen says that outsourcing will ease travel, because it will reduce queueing. In addition, customers who want to avoid the extra service charge will still be allowed to do business directly with the Embassy.
     
Data security is at a high level with VFS Global, Häkkinen says.
      “We will make background checks on the personnel. Electronic data will be kept secure, and the entire process will be monitored by security cameras. Finished documents will be delivered to the visa centre in a sealed envelope.”
      If the arrangement works out in Moscow, Finland will consider the possibility of outsourcing visa handling at the Finnish Consulate in St. Petersburg and at Finnish diplomatic missions in other countries as well.
     
Häkkinen says that outsourcing in St. Petersburg will be needed in two or three years when visa applicants will be asked to submit their fingerprints.
      Last year the Finnish Embassy in Moscow handled 125,000 visa applications, and the Consulate in St. Petersburg processed 550,000.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Foreign ministers Stubb and Lavrov discuss visa-free travel between EU and Russia (10.3.2010)

Helsingin Sanomat