Daybreak Special: How Indian travel agents are gaming the visa process

The pandemic disrupted everyone's travel plans. But now, everyone is travelling with a vengeance and it's really overloading the systems. 

With visa appointment slots hard to come by, travel agents have turned securing visa dates into a profitable business. Meanwhile, embassies and consulates are trying hard to limit the wait list. 

And at the center of this anxiety-inducing maze is one company called VFS global that handles the visa application process for more than 150 of the world’s 195 countries, including India.

In this post pandemic era of the so-called revenge travel, VFS is where the dreams of many travelers’ go to die. For many Indian travellers, VFS is like the mean gatekeeper not letting them get to their dream destination.  

Tune in. 

Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Want to be part of the Daybreak community? Introduce yourself here.