Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath launched a new global gateway for India’s largest state with the inauguration of the VFS Global Joint Visa Application Centre (JVAC) and the VFS Global Academy in Lucknow on February 4.
This Visa Centre will facilitate the visa application process for 10 countries – Austria, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Estonia, Hungary, Portugal, Germany, Italy and Saudi Arabia – in Lucknow.
VFS Global is the world’s largest outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions.
This Visa application centre is equipped with all modern amenities and services. It can facilitate approximately 1.2 lakh visa applications in a year.
This facility centre will provide great help to the state’s people who are willing to go abroad and face various challenges in the visa application process due to the lack of facility centres.
“The inauguration of the VFS centre in Lucknow a week before the Global Investors Summit is an opportunity not only for the residents of the state capital but for the people of Uttar Pradesh. For this, I heartily thank Zubin Kararia, the founder and CEO of VFS, and his entire team, and congratulate all of you on this occasion,” said UP CM Yogi Adityanath.
In addition to easing visa accessibility, VFS Global will open an academy in partnership with Indian Hotels Company Ltd. (IHCL), to train local youth in world-class hospitality skills and enable employability in line with the UP government’s skilling programme.
Dr Rajeshwar Singh, MLA from the Sarojini Nagar constituency, accompanied CM Yogi Adityanath to the inauguration.
Dr Singh said, “Lucknow makes a big move to integrate with global networks. The infrastructure development heralded over the last 6 years will support the huge tourist influx this VFS Global initiative will lead to.”
“The academy will bring in world-class tourism and hospitality education which will further hone the skills in this regard of our youngsters, generating more employment opportunities,” Dr Singh said.