VFS Global Application Center - Boston — Local services in Boston

VFS Global is ok when things go well… but they are worthless when things go awry.

VFS Global contracts with various governments to provide services for visas and other governmental documents. Traditionally, these sorts of tasks would be handled by the staff of each government’s Foreign Service, who would operate out of embassies and consulates.

However, staff like that are well-paid, and get extensive benefits which are expensive; it is cheaper to hire a private contractor like VFS to outsource such tasks.

VFS then offers “Bronze, Silver, and Gold” packages, where applicants who can afford it get expedited service. Persons unwilling to pay VFS’ fees may still apply via the government’s traditional mechanism, with no markups on the price, and take their chances on when they will be approved.

My VFS experience began ok. I couldn’t find an appointment in my city’s VFS office, so I flew to a different one. They have bizarre security procedures pretending like it is an airport, having you go through a metal detector and scanning your bags. I’m not sure what the purpose of that is, since you can hardly hijack an office, but whatevs.

I had completed all of my paperwork online and submitted it correctly, so my appointment went well. The staff there are clearly poorly-paid and most of them are not fluent nor native speakers of the languages whose countries they are serving, but they are generally polite and friendly. It is a bit slow to get such basic tasks as having photos and fingerprints taken, but VFS is clearly keeping labor costs as low as they can.

I was elated when 3 weeks later, I was informed my visa was approved!

And this is where things went bad.

I sent my passport in via VFS’ prepaid UPS envelope. They put in the visa, and sent it back to me, but never sent me the tracking number. My well-meaning but hapless girlfriend failed to notice the missed delivery stickers from UPS, and failed to tell me about them… which led to a nightmare: my passport was returned by UPS as undeliverable. This would not be so bad, except that NO ONE AT VFS ANSWERS THE PHONE.

I called dozens if not hundreds of times to their various offices. I implored UPS in vain to hold my passport at a local office. I emailed their support desk, and was given a case number, which never came to anything. After weeks, I used the UPS tracker to find that the passport had been sent to VFS’ office in Washington DC. I flew there, walked in without an appointment… and ten minutes later I had my passport and visa.

It has been months, and no one from VFS has called or emailed to check on my case. I have no idea what a customer who does not have the means to fly around the country at will could resolve such a problem, but VFS Global’s sloppy customer service...

Experience: We had a perfectly ideal experience that was expected from our visit to submit documents for visa application. We reached there 10 mins before our appointment, checked-in and were called in few mins. The person throughly checked our forms and documents, highlighted key dates and travel bookings, and arranged all documents in a particular order as required. All the staff we interacted were polite and friendly.

Location: The office is located at a very convenient location in Boston, close to South station. Cant complain at all.

Appointment availability: We found an appointment available in 2 weeks after I submitted my application in French consular website. Compare this to other countries like Germany or Italy... the earliest available appointment was 2 months from then, and we would have to go to their New York offices as they don’t have VFS or a Boston location. We changed our vacation plans to visit France instead of Italy, just because visa appointment at Italian consulate was not available for 2.5 months.

Wait times: I understand that wait times for this work are unpredictable. The guy behind the counter was very happy that we had all documents organized and sorted in the order the French application listed on their form. The person on the counter next to us did not have half of the documents, and were looking for several stories on why. This could obviously take longer for her, and then add longer waiting for people after her.

Not sure, why others reviews are rating this facility with less stars. Agree that VFS website navigation is a little confusing at times, but that should not be complained in the reviews for this location.

If you are on time for your appointment, and have all documents ready and organized, and have a little patience to get your number in line (shorter than waiting at RMV/DMV) ... you will have an...

I applied for my French tourist visa from here. The most common concerns for everyone would be getting an appointment at VFS and also the wait-times at the VFS Center, even after scheduling an appointment. One thing, I would like to inform everyone who aren't aware is, " after July 26th 2018, irrespective of your jurisdiction, you can apply for France visa at any of the VFS locations in the US." You can call VFS to confirm it or the best way is to take a look at the France Consulate website. I took advantage of it and applied at VFS, Boston on July 30th as it was the earliest appointment. Coming to the long wait-times at VFS center, even after scheduling your appointment, the reasons are some people who have booked early appointment slots , are not turning in for their scheduled appointment times and some people don't have properly organized documents. This leads to the long wait-times. Still VFS can have more people to handle the crowd. I was on-time, still I had to wait 15 mins,I expected it,so I planned accordingly. I submitted my documents and gave my bio-metrics and was out in an hour. The staff are nice and nothing to complain about them. One piece of advice is always check the documents and phone number or any details you give them, so that they don't miss anything and nothing slows down your visa processing, because they are handling a lot of applications on the same day. I got my Visa stamped and received my passport via...