The Embassy of India in Riyadh and service partner VFS Global confirmed on 21 July that a system failure which had disrupted India visa applications in Saudi Arabia since mid-July has been fully resolved. A public notice on the VFS portal states that all centres are now accepting submissions during normal hours, and that applicants affected by the outage may reschedule without extra fees. The disruption had forced hundreds of Saudi-based expatriates—including a large Indian workforce—to postpone travel and business trips as biometric capture stations went offline. Travel agents report a backlog of several thousand passports awaiting stamping. With the fix in place, VFS has added extended evening slots and advised corporate groups to use the bulk-appointment tool to clear queues within a week. The incident highlights the fragility of outsourced visa infrastructure just as India processes record volumes ahead of the festival season. It also comes amid heightened scrutiny of CPV outsourcing after Indian courts quashed tenders in other regions. Mobility managers should: 1) re-validate travel dates for staff in Saudi Arabia; 2) instruct travellers to download the ‘Indian Visa Su-Swagatam’ app for appointment tracking; and 3) keep contingency buffers in itineraries should similar outages recur. Embassy officials added that the revised schedule of mobile consular tours—now running through 21 August—will proceed as announced, offering on-site passport renewals in Dammam, Jeddah and Abha.
Source: VFS Global Public Notice
