The Consulate General of Italy in Bengaluru and VFS Global have opened a new VFS Global Visa Application Centre, exclusively dedicated to Italy, at Vasant Nagar.
Alfonso Tagliaferri, the Consul General of Italy, said, “The new centre will allow us to significantly increase the quality of service provided to the public.” It would be able to meet the ever-increasing demand for travel to Italy by Indian citizens, he said. A demand that will grow even further with the implementation of the Mobility and Migration Partnership Agreement, which was recently signed by Italy and India, he added.
The Bengaluru Consulate, opened a year ago, has been serving Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh. The new VFS centre is expected to allow the Consulate to further streamline, speed up, and smoothen visa application procedures.
In the first six months of this year, the visa applications processed by the Italian Visa Offices across India increased by 28%, with 54,200 processed applications. And, there is a prospect of crossing 100,000 visa applications in India by the end of the year.
Ms. Yummi Talwar, Chief Operating Officer – South Asia, VFS Global, said, “The company shared a long-standing relationship with the Government of Italy since 2004.”
It may be noted that in 2022, the Italian visa offices across India processed a total of 67,000 visa applications. In 2023, the embassy of Italy in New Delhi, and the Italian Consulate Generals in Mumbai and Kolkata increased their collective output by 36%, reaching a total of 91,600 visa applications.
Published – November 15, 2024 11:09 pm IST
