Temporary Enrolment Location Opens in Ecuador to Help People Travelling to UK
Analysis
IOM has, as a junior partner of VFS Global, the market leader in the provision of Visa Application Centre (VAC) services, now opened a total of nine such Centres in the Caribbean/Latin America region on behalf of the UK Government. This comes as a result of the partnership winning a recent contract reissue by the UK for that area. This centre in Quito will be our second largest in terms of anticipated volume after our operation in Kingston, Jamaica and the 9 VACs are estimated to process around 23,000 applications each year in total. The Centres are designed to assist applicants by both ensuring that a point of submission for their visa applications exists in their home location (particularly important where the collection of biometric information is deemed compulsory by the governments concerned) and that there are trained staff on hand to provide advice on the correct paperwork to submit. In addition, these VACs help to take the pressure off governments by allowing rationalization of their overseas network and reducing the inherent security risk in having large numbers of applicants on their premises on a daily basis. These 9 VACs, when added to the 45 VACs that IOM already operates for the Canadian Government under a similar contractual arrangement with VFS, mean that we are one of the largest providers of these services globally.
Ecuador - The IOM Mission in Ecuador this week opened a Temporary Enrolment Location (TEL), in partnership with VFS Global, to handle visa applications for people travelling to the United Kingdom.
On its first day, the office in the capital Quito helped ten applicants, taking the necessary biometrics for their visa applications for the UK and providing passport courier services to and from the decision-making centre at the British High Commission in Kingston, Jamaica.
Many countries are reducing the cost and workload at their diplomatic missions and visa and immigration offices through the outsourcing of such operations to IOM.
The Temporary Enrolment Locations (TELs) and Visa Application Centres (VACs) operated by IOM carry out the most time-consuming aspects of the visa application and processing procedure.
IOM staff are trained to assist applicants and to verify that only properly completed visa applications are submitted, along with all required supporting documentation.
By providing these services in their countries of residence, IOM also saves applicants from having to travel long distances to give their biometrics and save them money.
In the Western Hemisphere IOM is responsible for the management and operation of a permanent VAC in Jamaica (Kingston) and eight UK TELs in the Dominican Republic (Santo Domingo), Barbados (Bridgetown), St. Lucia (Castries), Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Ecuador (Quito), Guyana (Georgetown) and Panama (Panama City).
IOM Ecuador also operates a Visa Application Centre for the Canadian Immigration and Citizenship Department (CIC). IOM also operates centers around the world on behalf of the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC).
Applicants are advised to visit http://www.vfsglobal.co.uk/Ecuador/ to view the 2014 Visa Application Centre (VAC) operating schedule, or https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa/y/ecuador.
For more information, please contact
Lorena Mora
IOM Ecuador
Tel: +593 2 2266-304
Mobile: +593 9 39238692
Email: lmmora@iom.int