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Agency Reviews

rating

About VFS Global

 

VFS Global is said to manage the Canada Visa Application Centre however only provides general information and administrative services for temporary resident applications, such as study and work permits or travel documents. Applicants are required to select their country of application and then are redirected to the relevant website. It states that it is not allowed to provide information or answer questions regarding permanent resident applications, including Express Entry, citizenship and any other specific information regarding application forms. It simply directs you to the Canadian government website. This leads us to wonder what services this agency actually provides if applicants are required to do all of the legwork.
 

Services

 
Under the ‘service and service charge’ tab on the VFS Global website, they provide a detailed grid which contains a full list of all of their services which includes assistance in filling out a visa form, processing, photocopies, photography services, and transport transmission among others. In this grid, they also display how much the client will be liable to pay for these services in CAD and currency of the country of application. It has a disclaimer and privacy policy in the footer and states that it cannot be held liable for any loss or damage of documents submitted while handling said documents, through value-added services, accident or theft, an act of God or any other circumstances beyond their control. They will, however, replace your passport at normal application procedures ie. If VFS loses your passport and its effects let's say your travels plans or work arrangements, it is on you and they won’t go out of their way to rectify this by, let's say, arranging for an emergency passport. The privacy policy at least leaves us somewhat satisfied as they do not disclose any information to third parties. The website also offers biometrics enrolment, for which clients are recommended to make an appointment and visit the nearest VFS office in their region. You can track your application online by entering your tracking number and date of birth. The website is not secure which is not confidence building as it seems that VFS is merely an authorized document collection agency. Payments are either made by bank cash deposits or money transfers. It seems that online transfers are not accepted and government visa fees need to be made via credit or debit card on the Canadian Government website.
 

Social Media


VFS Global has a Facebook account with 70,568 followers with information that doesn’t seem to be very helpful but rather used purely for advertising purposes or to post positive reviews about their company. It’s Youtube channel has a mere 558 subscribers with 10 videos that are once again purely promotional content. The LinkedIn page seems more impressive with 30,085 followers but once again reads more like a travel agency. Their customer response on the feed is however very good. Their Twitter account has over 14K tweets with 7,191 followers yet reads the same as their other social platforms.  What concerns us is the alarming amount of bad reviews their service receives not only on social media but also on several complaint websites as well as in news reports of visa violations.
 

Conclusion

 
VFS Global has built an internationally renowned corporation that is recognized in over 100 countries. By this statistic, we cannot deny that their services are not genuine. Since they are affiliated with the High Commission in most countries, we cannot fault them for not being regulated either even though they have not mentioned having an RCIC member on the websites that we have reviewed. We are concerned that despite their good website and testimonials, they still receive such bad feedback and that they were even placed under investigation due to allegations of visa violations.