VFS Global, the world's largest visa outsourcing and technology services specialist, said Thursday that compared to 2019, before Covid-19 pandemic, Ahmedabad witnessed a 32 per cent jump in the number of visa applications submitted last year. Also, compared to 2022, the city has seen a 10 per cent jump last year in terms of visa applications received by the company. “Most of the visa applications that we received are short-stay requests from businessmen and tourists, comprising around around 75 per cent of the applications. The rest were received from students.,” said Sharad Gowani, Head (West) of VFS Global. Across the country, the company said it has touched 93 per cent of the total number of applications it used to receive before the pandemic. Also, compared to 2022, VFS Global had last year witnessed an 16 per cent increase in the number of visa applications. Gowani said personalised services such as Visa At Your Doorstep (VAYD), which were earlier “preferred by celebrities to avoid crowd”, are being adopted by the general people post-pandemic. . Gowani said that across India, VAYD bookings in 2023 registered around a five-fold increase when compared to 2019.
