19 March 2019 Press Release
VFS Global awarded contracts to provide Canadian visa
application centre services in 78 countries
Dubai, UAE: Public Services and Procurement Canada, on behalf of Immigration, Refugees and
Citizenship Canada, has awarded VFS Global five of the six regions of its global contract for visa
application centre services. The contract covers Europe & CIS, Africa & Middle East, North Asia,
South Asia and Australasia.
VFS Global has been serving the Canadian Government since 2005 and currently operates Visa
Application Centres (VACs) in five continents for Canada.
This is a very significant win for VFS Global, which handles approximately 1.8 million Canada visa
applications globally each year.
Chris Dix, Head – Business Development, VFS Global, remarked, “We are privileged to
continue our partnership with the Canadian Government. This is not only important because
Canada already has the most extensive VAC network in the world where 129 VACs are operated
by VFS Global, but also as the award further reinforces our company’s position as the leading
visa services partner to 58 client governments worldwide.”
With Canada having celebrated its 150
th
Anniversary of Confederation in 2017, tourism interest in
Canada has increased significantly. The New York Times picked Canada as its top travel
destination for 2017, amongst 52 other locations - signalling just how attractive the country has
become to international travellers. According to Destination Canada, the country welcomed a
record breaking 20.8 million tourists in 2017, the highest ever, and this trend is expected to
continue.
For VFS Global, 2018 has already been very eventful with the award of the Canadian contracts
coming shortly after the decision of the Government of Switzerland to award the company over
80% of its global visa processing contract. VFS Global is the trusted partner to 58 client
governments worldwide, offering a range of visa, permit, passport, and consular services.
About VFS Global
VFS Global is the world's largest outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and
diplomatic missions worldwide. With 2574 Application Centres, operations in 137 countries across five
continents and over 165 million applications processed as on
01 March 2018, VFS Global is the trusted partner of 58 client governments. VFS Global’s worldwide
operations are certified ISO 9001:2008 for Quality Management System, ISO 27001:2013 for
Information Security Management System and ISO 14001:2004 for Environmental Management System.
For more information, please visit www.vfsglobal.com
Media Contact
Shaily Vaswani
VFS Global
