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| Subject: Business is Business |
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Government outsources visas at some foreign embassies
David Akin , Canwest News Service
Published: Tuesday, June 10, 2008
OTTAWA - The federal government has quietly outsourced the processing of visa applications to lighten the load at some of its busiest embassies around the world.
The latest one to hire some help is Canada´s embassy in China.
The move to allow third-party service providers has raised concerns by some Canadian immigration consultants that foreign nationals who are applying for visas to visit or live in Canada may not enjoy the same privacy or security rights they would receive by applying through a Canadian embassy. Moreover, those who apply through these third-party firms may pay additional fees that they would not pay by applying directly through an embassy.
The federal government is outsourcing the processing of visa applications -- including those from China -- to lighten the load at some of its busiest embassies.
Last week, VFS Global Services Pvt. Ltd, a Mumbai, India-based subsidiary of Kuoni Travel Holding Ltd. of Zurich, Switzerland began accepting applications for temporary visitor permits on behalf of the Canadian Embassy in China. Immigration consultants in Canada say VFS Global was required to get a licence to operate from the Government of China.
"I see some real problems with this," said John Ryan, a Toronto-based immigration consultant who operated an immigration consultancy in China. "You have no expectation of any kind of privacy."
Richard Kurland, a lawyer and immigration consultant in Vancouver, said the protection of privacy rights would be particularly important, for example, for a person from Tibet or a human-rights activist.
"The only oversight for this third-party company is the Ministry of Public Security of the People´s Republic of China," Kurland said.
In 2007, the Canadian embassy in China issued temporary travel permits to nearly 81,000 people.
In China, visa applicants using the Canada Visa Application Centre are required to pay a "logistic fee" of about $35. That fee is not charged by the embassy.
Officials with VFS Global could not be reached for comment but a spokeswoman for the federal Department of Citizenship and Immigration confirmed that VFS Global was recently contracted for work in China. VFS Global already provides visa application services to the Canadian embassy in India and will begin doing so soon for Canada in Indonesia.
Katharine Trim, said the federal government has been using third-party service providers since 2005 and has arrangements at 17 visa application centres around the world in India, Bangladesh, Russia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines, Guinea, Indonesia, Moldova and Kenya.
Trim says those who wish to visit Canada may still choose to use a Canadian embassy to process their visa application.
"But visa application centres give applicants the option of applying at a location that may be closer to their home than the visa office," Trim said in an e-mail message.
In China, the embassy is in Beijing but the third-party service provider has set up offices in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing in addition to Beijing.
Trim also said that protecting the security and privacy of an applicant is a primary consideration when the government selects a third-party service provider.
VFS Global has been hired by 20 other countries for similar visa application processing, including the United States and the United Kingdom
Roy
www.cvimmigration.com
[11-06-2008,09:16]
[**.52.216.112]
Roy |
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