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

Episode Date: August 22, 2024

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.

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too. It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Ramon Ganesh, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they manage to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing, and extensive post-production.

Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording. Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get alert, as soon as we release our first studio recording, episode, please follow intermission on Spotify and Apple podcast or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. Hi, I'm Snigda and I'm Rahil and we are the host of Daybreak. If you've been listening to our podcast for a while now, we just want to say thank you so much for sticking around. We are so glad that we're able to add value to your day in so.

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You'll find a link in the show notes of this episode where you can tell us a little bit about yourself just to get the ball rolling. Also, if you don't mind, could you please do us a favour and rate and follow our podcast on whatever podcast platform you're listening to us on? And now, on to the episode. Everything after the COVID lockdown somehow became about revenge. Revenge shopping, revenge dining and revenge travelling. While you may or may not agree with the use of the word in this context, almost three years later

now, many say that the revenge phase is over. including revenge travelling. Well, I don't know about what's going on in other parts of the world, but here in India, it is far from over. For three years now, visa appointments for Indian travellers have been delayed. For the US visa, for instance, the next available appointment is more than a year away. And yet, Indians won't stop applying for visas.

Let me give you an example. Schengen visa applications from Indians in 2023 went up by 40% compared to the previous year, which means nearly a million Indians wanted to holiday in Europe last year. One of them was Yash Mehta. He wanted to take his family to Spain, but unfortunately he wasn't even able to make it pass the first step of the visa process, actually getting an interview slot.

And Yash isn't alone. He's among millions of hopeful travellers across the country waiting to get their hands on a visa. But all of them are getting stuck in a bureaucratic maze of epic proportions. Endless, weightless, rejection after rejection, and at the center of this anxiety-reducing maze, is one company called VFS Global. It handles the visa application process for more than 150 countries of the world's 195,

including India. In this post-pandemic era of the so-called revenge travel, VFS is where the dreams of me. many travelers go to die. For many Indian travelers, VFS is like the mean gatekeeper not letting them get to their dream destination. But here's the thing about India. If there's one thing we really know how to do,

it's Jugaar finding a workaround. Every single time without fail. And behind this Jugaar are creative travel agents. Somehow they've managed to figure out a way around this maze of endless wait-lifts and paperwork. And thanks to them, people are still managing to get visas for their dream holidays. Like Yash, despite not getting an interview for a Spanish visa, he still managed to go for that holiday to Spain with his family, all thanks to Jugaar.

Hello and welcome to another special episode of Daybreak. I'm Snigda. And I'm Rahil and every week we come together to talk about something in business and tech that interests the both of us. And it won't just be us. Depending on what we are talking about, we will bring a bunch of really interesting people onto the podcast. In this episode, we speak to the Ken reporter Nuhabobere on how Indians are gaming a broken system to fulfill their wanderlust.

So let's just straight up address what's on so many people's minds, so many people planning vacations, right? Why is it taking so long to get a visa? The simple answer is there's a huge demand and supply problem here. The demand has reached a significant level, especially after the pandemic, there was a huge backlog. Imagine for two years, like a store shuttered down and people wanting a particular item from that store. So, of course, it's like your name is on a list. And, you know, when the store does open up, for the first person, because your name is there, you'll get the product you want earlier than others.

That's exactly what has happened with the visa application process. basically the backlog, the people who had already applied before the pandemic, they are still waiting for their visa application to be processed. So the backlog hasn't been cleared yet. No, it hasn't been cleared. And until that backlog is cleared, people who are applying post the pandemic, they will face a larger issue of getting the visa application. Even if it's an emergency, even if they're desperate enough,

they will have to wait in line in order to get the embassy to clear the backlog and then get to them. Right. For context now where in a situation, now we're in a situation. situation where it's taking much longer than usual to get a visa, right? Post-pandemic, for a US visa, for instance, on average, it's taking a year to get an appointment, right, an interview appointment, which is huge. And then for the Schengen visa as well, another very popular visa that people opt for. It's taking a couple months to get that visa appointment, which again, way longer than it would usually take, right? A lot of rejections

are also happening, right? Yeah. India is among the top five countries which gets the most rejection for a Schengen visa and yet that does not stop them from applying for a Schengen visa. And that brings me to this question, you know, that everybody, everybody talks about this. There's a lot of, you know, chatter about Indian passport being weak. Why is that, you know, huh? So, Indian passport is the 82nd passport on the list. So which means technically without a passport and Indian citizen can travel to 58 countries. the reason why it's where there are a number of factors

first of all it is the economic condition of the country when there is a huge population the per capita income is taken into account which is very low for India so the perception which any developed country would take into mind sorry take into account is that there's a chance this person might come to the country immigrate overstay their visa and not go back

which is a chance they cannot take hence the rejection rate for an Indian visa application is also higher for most countries unless you prove it to them that you don't want to overstay yeah and this is something that you really like people going for visa interviews really have to like prepare this answer right like they discuss it with everybody okay what am I going to say what am I going to say to prove it to them that I am going to come back and there are travel agents that coach you on your answers correct like that happens It has become a bit dire

that travel agents are providing this service where they give you a questionnaire with all these five questions from early applicants who have been provided a visa so that the applicants who are going after them know exactly what is in store for them and they can be prepared well in advance.

It's like a visa kunji like literally when you used to give Sanskrit exams and stuff when you were kids you would have like that cheat code no? Oh really? With all the answers. Oh my God. It's like how in school you asked the first five roll numbers what they were asked and then you were then

like during Viwa or something yeah and then you prepare but Noha like you know you spoke about this huge backlog that came up during the pandemic right and we're still not dealing with it

what is actually VFS and what are the embassies doing to like kind of you know sort it out for now for instance for the US visa the embassy is trying to open up more slots.

But if I compare it to the backlog, which is already there, it's not enough. Because still, the earliest visa appointment that you can get is still 350 days away, which is a year, almost a year. Which is still a very big, like a very large time period for someone who might want a visa faster. Yeah. So even though the embassies have promised that they have taken. the count from 1,000 days down to 3.50 days, it is still not enough. Apart from that, particularly the Heathrabah office of the US embassy was opened up to tackle this issue of a huge backlog. And yet we haven't reached that stage where we can say that the backlog has come down to a level, which it was pre-pandemic.

Because if I can compare the numbers, pre-pandemic, this practice was still there. But the earliest appointment date for a US visa that you can get was a moment. month away. Wow. And compare a month to a year. Of course, that's a very huge difference. The way to solve for this would be more appointments, I'm guessing. That is true. I think the proper solution would be to open up more appointments, say, in every six months or so, so that people can continue applying and the wait list just reduces and goes back to the pre-pandemic level. So why not just do that? They can do that, but still because we only have five. embassies, particularly for the US in India, they only process 100 applications each day.

So even if the demand increases from 100 to 1,000 over a period of, say, three to four years, the processed application number would still remain the same because they cannot send over a certain percentage of people per year to the US. Yeah. Understood. But yet, you know, we see like events like the Ambani pre-wedding that happened in Italy and we saw scores and scores of people from Bombay

the who's who of Bollywood go in hoards to Italy for this celebration how did they get their visas? It's just

they have the resources they have the means and if you can throw money at a problem and we know I mean these are

Bollywood actors these are people with great level of influence so if you are at that level level, especially even the Ambani's. If they want a particular person at the wedding, I'm sure they don't have a problem in terms

of throwing money and getting that person. But you're saying people with influence and resources can fasten the process? Yeah. How? They get in touch with the government directly and their visa is then fast-tracked. So there is something called as an Orient Channel. And this is a channel used for diplomatic visas. So, and this option is there for high net worth, individuals or very huge corporates who need to fly a lot around.

So their visa process is expedited. They don't have to sit through visa appointments or biometric. Their details are already recorded in the system. And because of this feature, they are able to travel even faster and get the visa applications processed earlier, even in one day. But it isn't just aialist celebrities, CEOs, politicians, people with government connections that are fast-tracking their visa process. As long as they have some extra cash to cough up, regular people are also cutting the line to get their visas.

They're doing that with the help of very creative travel agents. We asked Noohar how exactly that happens. These agents promise earlier visa appointment if the user pays them anything between 25K to 50K over the visa application fee. And as long as that happens, the travel agent ensures them that they can get them an earlier visa. So, Noha, for example, if I had to get a US visa, right, like say for my cousin's wedding, which supposedly is happening next month, is there a way for me to, like kind of expedite the process.

How do I go about it? There is a way it is like you know a person and the person knows some other person and that's how other person knows a travel agent who has done this for them. Basically, you get in touch with them. You file for a visa application as soon as possible because the earlier you want a date, the earlier your application needs to be in the system. Once your application is successfully in the system, they will get you a visa appointment for the earliest possible date available

as per the embassy website, which could be February 2026 also. There is a case for that long or for wait list. And the embassy gives you an option to change the visa appointment twice. Okay. So they make full use of these two options. And once from their external source, they get a go-ahead or they have found a way.

They have found a visa slot available earlier in the next one or two months, depending on how earlier you want your visa, that is the amount of money you pay. So you can pay up to 50k, 50,000. Extra. Extra. Apart from the visa fee. Yeah, apart from the visa fee. If you want a visa in the next one month.

Got it. If you are still okay with two months, then it might be reduced to say 35,000 or 25,000, depending on how much of an urgency it is for you. And the way they go about it is they typically take the slots of cancelled visa appointments. so you and me, I cannot afford a faster visa appointment, unfortunately. So I would book for a visa appointment, say, a year from now, which is the earliest possible date. And for some reason, I may not want to go to the US anymore or there is no need for me to have that appointment at that particular time. I just can't make it to the appointment.

So I'll cancel the appointment, of course. When I cancel that, it opens up a slot. So, for example, if my canceled appointment was for the next month, so someone else will take that slot and they will then sell it to the other person who already has paid that amount of money okay so these people are actually taking that slot and selling it

exactly who are these people these people are some external sources they are just tech geeks they sit in front of the computer the entire day so how does it work like what IDs do they use to get these slots

they have multiple login accounts because they are in the business, they either get the multiple login accounts from the travel agent or they already are in the system through multiple accounts and they ensure that if one account is logged off, they will get onto some other account and then still continue seeing the slot availability. So there are protocols which are being taken up by the embassy now

where if they see you log in more than multiple times, more than multiple times into a single account, they will block that account for like 24 to 72 hours. So the workaround for that would be setting up many, many accounts. Exactly.

The more accounts you have, the more you can then game the system, get the slot more easily than anyone else who's trying at the same time. But it doesn't always play out exactly in the same way that Noah just described. For example, do you remember Yash,

whom we mentioned earlier in this episode? He wanted to go to Spain with his family, but he never managed to get a visa appointment. And yet, he still landed up in Spain with his entire family for that holiday. And that was only because his travel agent thought on his feet and promptly pivoted to Plan B, which was to get an appointment for a Schengen visa via Germany.

Which worked out really well for Yash. Because with a Schengen visa, he's able to enter all 29 European countries, which includes Spain. So he landed with his family in Germany and then managed to travel to Spain. This has become a pretty well-oiled system. And a big reason for that is VFS agents themselves. Noa, you mentioned in your story, it's like a huge network of travel agents, VFS folks,

and people who work at consulates, right? Like, it's this network of people who are like, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours kind of situation, right? Can you tell us a little bit about how that works? Yes, so a travel agent, because their entire business is about applications, getting everything right from document, submission to getting the appointment slot for their customer, that's entirely what they do. They have certain people within the agency whose job is to every day go to the VFS office or the consulate office and drop in the applications of their customers. So these people who just go there every day, they become kind of, they form a relationship. They talk to a lot of the managers, be it BFS or people who work at the consulates,

and they develop sort of a friendship with these people. It's like, imagine me coming to the office because I see these people every day. I'll develop a much better relationship with them than people from other organizations, right? So these travel agents form a kinship of sort, if I can say that, with these people. And then when, you know, when they think they need some kind of help with getting an earlier visa appointment for some customer and the slots, they have no clue when it's going to open up, they make a call to these people. And they try to ask them, get the information out. When is the next appointment slot going to be released by either the consulate?

If there's a manager at BFS, if they can help them with knowing that information. and that's how they are further ahead of normal customers who themselves might want to get the slot. They have this information beforehand. So you hinted at the relationship that VFS has with travel agents to some degree. Obviously, it's not like a formal thing, but I'm interested to know what the VFS's relationship

with these consulates are like, right? Like, how does that play out? And, you know, especially with the visa situation being the way that it is now, yeah, what is that relationship like? So the relationship between VFS and a consulate is like a married couple. They both are dependent on each other for various services in order to function smoothly. One cannot do without the other.

The consulates require VFS on their behalf to check the applications to ensure everything is in line before it reaches them. At the same time, VFS also has to ensure from this. and that slots, when they are opened up, they have the information about that. They can communicate that to the users and even on their website for certain countries, that the slots are open up now. And to ensure that people, when they are applying for a visa, everything is in check. So it's like a give-and-take relationship, much like a couple. Like kind of codependent in that sense.

So you've spoken to a bunch of people for your story, right? And in your story, you very specifically said that there is a way to game the system, right? Which everyone is in the know of. Like, everyone knows that it's happening. But I'm curious to know how people in the consulate and people in VFS kind of address it and how they feel about, you know, how travel agents are finding workarounds for this whole visa situation. It's absolutely true. The VFS the consulates, everyone is privy to the fact that these practices happen. travel agents, users all the time in their own ways, try to game the system.

From their end, they try to either do campaigns to educate the user that if you're using this method to get an earlier visa appointment, you cannot come to us crying about it later if something goes awry in the process. We will not do anything. It's on you. If you're taking that risk, if you're paying an extra amount of money, then you have to ensure that it is on you. From there end, what they do is,

try to educate the user, that as much as possible, try to apply earlier so you don't fall into this entire game of paying extra money. Because who wants to pay an extra amount of money just for an earlier visa appointment, which does not guarantee a visa in the first place? So, the consulate and even VFS for now is only educating the consumer. But is it not looked at favorably? Like, could it work against you if you have a visa application and somehow it comes up that, you know, you went through a travel agent and got an appointment, could it work against you? Is that what they kind of...

No, it cannot work against you. It's like if you have the resources, if you can do it, then it's entirely your decision. Also, it's not entirely illegal, right? It's just like, you know, like you said, there's one person who's familiar with, you know, how this tech works and they're constantly sitting on the laptop, literally waiting for someone to cancel their appointment

and a slot to open up. So it's just a matter of that, right? It's not illegal. per se? It's not illegal, it's not unethical. It's just that a common user who may not have the resources to pay a higher amount of money,

they look at it as something of a disadvantage for them because they have been waiting for C a year and then they look at other people who just cut the queue and get ahead of them and they are able to get a faster visa appointment and they cannot do anything about it. They just have to wait it out.

So I think it's only the users who may not have that resources. They feel in need. So, Noha, technically, this whole process, which you said is not illegal, but, you know, this whole unfair advantage of skipping the queue. Are there any, like, risks involved? When you share your details for a visa application, you're basically giving a chance if you don't, if the travel agent is not trustworthy. There might be a chance that you're giving out your personal details to a fraudster. And once that happens, once they have your account details, there might be a chance where they can misuse the details.

They can sell that detail to some other agent, some other person and make money out of it. So unless you're very sure of the travel agent, it's a bit of a risk to take that option of, you know, getting an earlier visa appointment through that way because you're trusting them basically with your personal details. And so the dance goes on. on and on. You see, until the visa backlog is taken care of, the waitless, the rejections, all of it will continue. This game of musical chairs will carry on.

And when the highway is blocked indefinitely, you can't blame desperate travellers from finding workarounds. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken, India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample of our subscriber-only offerings. full subscription unlocks daily long-form feature stories, newsletters and podcast extras. Head to the ken.com and click on the red subscribe button on the top of the Ken website. Today's episode was hosted and produced by Rahal Philippos and I Sinkda Sharma and it was edited by Rajiv Sien.

Also a huge shout-out to Aditi and Kavipriya and the rest of our fantastic design team here at the Ken for the amazing artwork that they make for every Friday special episode of Daybreak. Thank you.