|
Another high commission (HC) in Dhaka has outsourced the visa processing system to a private company to make the system more convenient.
Under the new arrangement, the VFS Bangladesh Pvt Ltd took the charge of processing of all categories of Australian visa (except refugee/humanitarian) in Dhaka.
"We began operation of Australian HC (AHC) from December 20 and the response of visa seekers is so far good," one official of VFS told the FE Thursday.
He said on an average 30 visa applications are being submitted daily with the new Australian visa application centre in city's Gulshan area.
He further said it is too early to evaluate the performance of the new system which could be clear from the first week of next month (January).
The ensuing few days will remain almost closed due to hol idays on the occasions of Christmas and New Year's Day.
Outsourcing of visa system became operative in Bangladesh to make the visa processing system hassle-free, simple and convenient.
VFS, a Switzerland-based private company, provides similar services to the Australian Government in the United Arab Emirates. The VFS has experiences in providing visa support services to other diplomatic missions in Bangladesh, India and Singapore.
Announcing the new arrangements, Australian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Lorraine Barker said: "I welcome the introduction of this new service, which is designed to provide a convenient arrangement for our clients to lodge their applications and pay fees while reducing congestion and waiting times at the Australian High Commission."
The new arrangement is a response to strong recent growth in the demand for Australian visas, particularly from Bangladesh citizens wanting to study in Australia.
"Australian education is highly sought after by Bangladesh students and we, in turn, welcome them to our internationally reputed institutions. We expect to see continued growth in the number of Bangladeshis visiting and studying in Australia," she added.
The VFS began operations in favour of British High Commission's (BHC) Dhaka office from March 29 this year. It started operations at Sylhet office from April 5.
Visa-seekers won't have to wait in a long queue after VFS took over the charge, one BHC official told reporters a few days back.
An announcement of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs of Australian government said with the outsourcing of the visa procedure system there will be no change in Australian immigration requirements.
"The decision-making process for the grant of Australian visas will remain with the AHC and all applications will continue to be assessed on their merits in accordance with Australian legislation and policy," the announcement said.
It further said there will be no change to the existing Australian policy relating to the lodging of applications for entertainers, general skilled migration, parent migration and provisional entry to Australia on business skills ground.
"These applications should continue to be lodged directly with the relevant processing office in Australia," the announcement clarified.
The VFS does the same job on visa processing by US mission also in India.
Apart from Bangladesh and India, the VFS is operative in Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.
"Our services will be available in China and Ghana from February next year (2005)," one VFS source added.
The VFS takes Tk 450 as service charge for each application in the BHC while Tk 500 in the AHC.
Meanwhile, the BHC has suspended the receipt of visa applications by post, with effect from November 8 and until further notice.
" All applications should forthwith be submitted directly to one of the two offices of the VFS Bangladesh Pvt Ltd located in Dhaka and Sylhet and once we are able to accept postal applications again a further announcement will be made," a news update of the BHC website said.
|