India’s High Commission in Canberra has quietly switched the lights back on at its outsourced passport-and-visa counters, ending a three-week service blackout that stranded thousands of travellers and overseas citizens. According to a 23 July statement, VFS Global reopened all six Australian centres—Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide and Perth—under an interim arrangement that expands counters, staffing and operating hours. Services were frozen on 1 July after rival bidders challenged a multi-country outsourcing tender in the Delhi High Court, arguing the evaluation process lacked transparency. The court quashed the tender last week; India’s Supreme Court upheld that ruling on Monday, compelling the government to issue fresh bids. While the legal wrangle continues, officials opted for a stop-gap contract with the incumbent provider to prevent further disruption to the 750,000-strong Indian diaspora and the peak season flow of Australian tourists and business travellers to the subcontinent. During the freeze, Indian expatriates in Australia reported cancelled holiday plans and difficulties renewing passports needed for mortgage, licence and work-permit renewals. Australian companies arranging short-term assignments to India were forced to pivot to the e-Visa channel—unworkable for technicians requiring multi-entry business visas valid for months at a time. Under the rebooted network, VFS says it has added 40 additional service windows, increased biometrics capacity by 20 percent and introduced evening collections for urgent cases. Applicants will need to rebook appointments that were automatically cancelled between 1 and 22 July, but fees already paid will be carried forward. Global mobility programmes should update their Australia-based assignees: (1) new passport and visa slots are now live on the VFS website; (2) priority processing is available for documented emergencies; and (3) courier return options have been expanded, allowing documents to be delivered anywhere in Australia within 48 hours once issued. The episode underscores the operational risk of single-vendor outsourcing models and may trigger the Indian government to diversify providers when the tender is re-floated later this year.
Source: Business Standard
