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Travellers from the UAE who are planning to make a trip to Europe this summer can now apply for visas in more than ten destinations in the Schengen area, it has been confirmed.
Visa services for overseas travellers were suspended in March after a global coronavirus lockdown and have only been resumed recently.
VFS Global, which facilitates visa processing for several countries in Europe, told Zawya that travellers from the UAE can now submit applications to travel to Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Malta, Latvia, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and The Netherlands.
The company is also offering a service that allows select customers to process their visa, including biometrics collection, without visiting the VFS Global centre.
“Out of 37 client governments that we serve in the UAE, we have resumed operations for 21 countries,” Vinay Malhotra, VFS Global regional group COO for South Asia, Middle East, North Africa and the Americas, told Zawya.
“Over the last few weeks, we have seen a gradual rise in the number of our visa application centres reopening globally, including in the UAE, which has been very reassuring to us,” he added.
Aside from the Schengen countries, VFS Global confirmed there are several other destinations that are now accepting visa applications as well, and they include Canada, China, Croatia, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Norway, Philippines and Portugal.
Passenger confidence
The travel industry is among the hardest hit by the health outbreak, with passenger traffic hitting bottom in April. International flights from the UAE have gradually resumed, but most people are still not confident about taking a trip overseas for fear of contracting the virus.
“While pent-up demand exists for visiting friends and relatives and leisure travel, consumer confidence is weak in the face of concerns over job security and rising unemployment, as well as risks of catching COVID-19,” the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in July. In the Middle East, passenger traffic was down 95.5 percent in June.
It remains unclear when customers will feel confident about flying again, but according to Malhotra, passenger confidence can be restored by introducing innovative services that help ease travellers’ pre-departure coronavirus screenings and make travelling less stressful in the time of pandemic.
“As borders reopen and travel restrictions ease gradually, a convenient and reliable pre-departure COVID-19 testing solution may become a catalyst in the recovery process of international travel by providing an assurance to destination countries, airlines and travellers, and by becoming a major risk-mitigator,” said Malhotra.
Innovations
To help ease travel woes, VFS Global has recently introduced a new service called Visa At Your Doorstep (VAYD). Customers who book this option will have a professionally-trained VFS Global executive visit their location of choice to collect their visa application, along with supporting documents, and enrol their biometrics.
The VAYD service is available to customers looking to travel to Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Malaysia, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom and Ukraine.
VFS Global now offers travellers the option to buy travel medical insurance plans with COVID-19 treatment coverage from global insurers and has recently launched COVID-19 PCR and Antibody testing services in the UAE.
(Reporting by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Seban Scaria)
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© ZAWYA 2020
