It is a private company that processes travel visas to Portugal in almost every country in the world, whether for residence or temporary. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs handed him a monopoly that generates millions, to avoid staffing costs at consulates. VFS Global, based in India, collects personal data, including biometrics, from all travelers outside the EU and stores it.
In most countries it is impossible to contact a consulate when the objective is to obtain a travel visa to Portugal. The entire process is now carried out by a private company, VSF Global, based in Dubai, which, to process the documents, collects the applicants’ personal and biometric data, then forwards them to the national authorities for a final decision. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MNE) guarantees that it is a certified company, but does not clarify whether the service was awarded through a public tender, nor whether it has control over the personal data, namely banking and biometrics, collected by the company. The president of the association Solidariedade Imigrante (SI), the largest of its kind in Portugal, says that this is a “lack of responsibility by the Portuguese State” and guarantees, in statements to NOVO, that consular services continue to provide a “bad service” to immigrants.”
“They are service providers that we are unaware of, either their origin or their credibility”, attests Timóteo Macedo, president of SI, an association with 54 thousand members of more than a hundred nationalities, and is considered one of the largest of its kind in Europe.
Read the full article in the edition of NOVO which is on newsstands this Friday, March 29th
Tags: Portugal grants private company monopoly visa processing
