Licence to passport, VFS Global will soon introduce citizen services: CEO Zubin Karkaria

Licence to passport, VFS Global will shortly introduce citizen services: CEO Zubin Karkaria The $1.2-billion business handles almost 30 million visa applications a year throughout 168 countries.

Key points

• Began in Mumbai's Tirupati Apartments 25 years ago, VFS Global is now a world leader in visa outsourcing services.
• In an interview with The Indian Express, VFS Global founder and CEO Zubin Karkaria.
• We have been working with so plenty of governments for the last 20-25 years.
• There were allegations in the Lighthouse Reports investigation regarding appointment-slot irregularities and pressure to purchase premium services.
• So, individuals from tier 2, tier 3 cities are travelling more and more.

Began in Mumbai's Tirupati Apartments 25 years ago, VFS Global is now a world leader in visa outsourcing services. The $1.2-billion firm handles almost 30 million visa applications a year throughout 168 countries. It navigates a world where mobility, security and technology are increasingly intertwined.

In an interview with The Indian Express, VFS Global founder and CEO Zubin Karkaria. This person is additionally a Parsi priest, spoke concerning the company's push into citizen services, AI and additionally concerning its listing intends. Dubai-based Karkaria notes technology can produce the system more efficient and check frauds without replacing human decision-making. Excerpts.

In a new era of mass global travel, is the visa infrastructure equipped to handle the surge?

See, everybody is not travelling meanwhile. Even if there is a massive demand, every country has its own consulate, its own visa offices and different seasons. They can manage.

If there is like a ten-fold growth in one year suddenly, then it becomes challenging. But year-on-year, if there is a 15-20% expansion, I think it can be managed. We serve 71 governments, subject to rigorous oversight: VFS Global.

There were allegations in the Lighthouse Reports investigation regarding appointment-slot irregularities and pressure to purchase premium services. What steps have you taken to improve services and bring down complaints?

There was no EU investigation as was asserted. We have been working with so plenty of governments for the last 20-25 years. The governments themselves do thousands of audits on the system worldwide. We work in 168 countries. Meanwhile, the level of SOPs, technology, security and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation, the European Union's privacy and security law) that we have to put in is massive. We would not be the number one in the world in this business today, if we had something that you are talking regarding. When you handle 32 million visas, and another 30 million, say, citizen services, if you have four or five individuals complaining as something went wrong, that doesn't create that the main cause, now.

We have a particularly strict zero-tolerance policy. If we find out that something is wrong somewhere, or a guard outside is telling somebody that I can obtain you a visa or something, he is sacked on the spot. We have solid compliance and governance in our organisation. We have 20, 000 individuals in 168 countries.

We don't compromise on security, we don't compromise on customer centricity, we don't compromise on anything – that is a regulation. We have 10, 000 audits every year. Why? Since, for me, it is notable that the governments that I work with trust me. They check, they do mystery audits, they do ISO audits, they do GDPR audits.

VFS handles extremely sensitive personal and biometric data for millions of individuals. Have you been able to tackle problems concerning data security and application processing. What concrete safeguards can applicants expect?

We don't keep any data. If somebody is saying data security, all my machines in the front line are called dumb terminals. Nobody can download it. Nobody can save or print.

When I take your fingerprints, you put your fingers, you put your passport, and you put your face. And, there's a camera over there, where there's somebody from the embassy actually watching. They record everything. As shortly as a person gives that, and everything is green, that means I have taken everything properly. Then with a press of a button, it's gone out of my system. No, I am not keeping biometrics.

We have so plenty of security systems even on a van that carries passports. If they don't go by the same route, we will know on our system that this van is going in a different route. We will call the driver immediately. If that van stops for more than five minutes, somewhere, a flash will happen on the screen. This van, taking passports to a visa centre or to a consulate, is halted.

I don't have the data. I don't store any personal details. I only keep your name, telephone number and address till the time I return your passport. After that, automatically it's erased from the system.

How plenty of centres do you have in India? Are you planning to open more centres?

In India, we have more than 200 centres. We opened one in Lucknow last year. We are planning to open one in Odisha. In Bhubaneswar, we opened. So, individuals from tier 2, tier 3 cities are travelling more and more. (But) I cannot do anything without the permission of the embassy. Their officers come and check our premises. They approve the premises. They approve the staff additionally. Every staff in my office working for any country is approved by that country.

Do you think Artificial Intelligence will change the way the traditional visa centre model works?

It's not something new for us. We have been working on AI products for the last three years. We have already deployed AI products for eight governments throughout 1, 200 routes. Before we began on AI, what we did was we tried with Responsible AI. This is an institute in America. It audits the way you do your AI. So that's the first certification. Second, we build guardrails. That means we can only do this, we can't do that. We created our own LLM, sizeable language model.

AI helps to understand forgery. AI helps to stop individuals using the wrong means to take appointment slots. Since agents or residents who were taking appointments were putting their photographs with a different name and manipulating the system to block slots. We have a facial recognition system. If the person is not standing there and the passport face is not matching, you won't be able to block slots. AI helps us with these types of things, in detecting frauds.

Taken together, the developments around licence to passport, VFS Global will soon introduce citizen services: CEO Zubin point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.