Oct 10, 2012 04:25 PM
43683 Views
I am an Indian citizen, working in Canada. My employer needed a Police clearance form (which is basically address verification). I have submitted my forms (with passport, as required), on 4th May. Today it has passed 5 months and there is no trace of either the report, nor have they returned passport ...
The Good: VFS Global provides passport and consular services. Basically a third-party vendor to whom Indian Govt. has outsourced passport related translations. It means, you can visit their offices and fill the forms, make the payment and work is supposed to be done within stipulated time.
The Experience: As per their own estimates, within 6 weeks the report should reach. Against this time frame, 5 months have passed already and I don't know exactly when will I receive these. Interesting to note: I have submitted verification request for my spouse on same day (she stayed with me in exactly at the same location and duration in India after marriage), and her passport and verification has been received!
I have kept following as Passport is single most important document when you're abroad .. after 6 weeks when I was scheduled to pick it up, I heard from them saying 3 supplementary forms needs to be arranged. I didn't understand the reason on why were they asking for it now , however I complied. Waited for another 6 weeks and since then have been following up ... I suspect they have done a blunder somewhere, and trying to hide it now/ buy more time. I am worried because they have jeopardized my India visit and apartment leasing, now my employment is at stake! I also felt they have mixed it up someone else, because in response to my email they have addressed me by someone else..
Finally I had coordinated with my regional passport office in India, who in turn gave me the concerned Police station. The Indian Police dept. has expedited and confirmed that reports have been sent back to Canada, and I have informed them on this ... from this point onwards VFS has totally stopped responding to my emails.
Bare Minimum that I expect: As a customer who has paid 100% more than the usual fees imposed by Embassy, has the right to know the Expected Turn around time. People should respond to the emails. VFS Customer care reps should pass on the phone to the floor supervisor when asked for assistance looking at the nature of the case ... none of this has happened! Every time I have been getting a canned response "As per our records/ systems this case is with embassy, and there isn't any expected date for your passport to return."
Impact: I am a temporary worker in a foreign land. Passport is the only photo ID with me. In absence of it my Financial/ Banking, relocation and apartment lease, visit to India and travel to US for work purposes ... everything got jeopardized. My employer is a US based organization, who are very particular about paperwork .. my employ ability is affected due to this inordinate delay.
The objective of my posting this incident in Mouthshut it to reach otherwise deaf ears.. I hope someone takes notice of it, and at least responds to me. I have sent numerous emails and tried to get some updates on phone countless times, but with no update/ response whatsoever.
My Suggestion to Potential users: As far as practicable, try and avoid middlemen.. especially when it comes to irreplaceable documents such as passport. VFS seems to have formed a clandestine gang with some of our Govt. agencies and at times it would be unavoidable. If that happens, I would advice do not sit with a hope they would react.
I would love to hear your thoughts, esp. if someone else is also facing the issue and what is the resolution. Just enter "vfs global complaints" in Google and you would be amazed with what you see ... it seems I am not alone!
