What is a VFS Centre?
I will be discussing some information on VFS and embassies.
Firstly, it’s just going to be very broad because there’s obviously numerous VFS centres and embassies around the world. For specifics you can contact us, and we can discuss them.
For example, in Brazil, you would submit at an embassy, whereas in India or the UK, you would submit at a VFS centre.
Why the difference?
It seems that for high volume countries, a VFS centre was implemented, and I suppose the idea behind it was that it would reduce traffic at the embassy and save capacity on the part of the officials at the embassy. But basically, the VFS role is that of a post-box, shall I say? Their role is not to adjudicate the application but to receive it and ensure that everything required is in the application and thereafter it’s then usually sent on to the embassy for adjudications.
The embassies on the other hand, they would be able to review the documents in much more detail than VFS and they could already tell you, “this document is incorrect” and then say come back for another appointment, and the correct version of a particular document is.
In that sense, it’s sometimes better to submit at the embassy just because you wouldn’t get a flat-out rejection, perhaps, but you could potentially be told, “fix this, come back and then we process.”
Possible Complications
VFS can also be very, very tricky. So whilst I have nice information on the websites of both VFS and the embassies, VFS officials often tend to go beyond the post-box service and they like to adjudicate a bit, so that’s something to look out for. Also, if you are faced with a challenge when going to a VFS centre, it’s important to note that you can push back and you can force the VFS to take in your application because their role is not adjudication. Also, if that doesn’t seem to work, reach out to whomever assisted you with your immigration application because they can flag it to the correct Home Affairs official or to the embassy which should then intervene. Because like I said, it’s not the role of the VFS to adjudicate.
Written by Bianca Nicholls
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