The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and the VF Worldwide Holdings Limited (VFS Global) 11 March signed an agreement on handling short-term visa applications and related procedures. The agreement was inked by Assistant FM Andreja Metelko-Zgombić and VFS Global business development manager Srinarayan Sankaran.
Pursuant to the agreement, the VFS Global – as the so-called external service provider – is to open by mid-May 2015 an overall of 34 visa centres in 25 countries, where applications for Croatian visas will be able to be submitted and then send for processing to the competent Croatian embassies.
This will greatly facilitate the visa issuing process for nationals of the countries where there are no Croatian embassies. Visa centres are to be opened in 16 countries: Armenia, Georgia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Mongolia, Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Nigeria. In certain countries where there is a Croatian embassy, visa centres will be opened in several cities due to geographical distance. Therefore, five visa centres are foreseen in Turkey and six in India.
The signing of said agreement represents continuation of the successful cooperation between the MFAE and the VFS Global launched 2013 in Russia and Ukraine.