VFS Global Visa Application Center in Washington DC — Local services in Washington

This company has complete disregard for customers. Its staff are lack of empathy, professionalism, or any sense of accountability to deserve the exorbitant service fees that they charge.

I submitted my Schengen visa application (to the Netherlands) at the VFS Global Washington DC office more than three weeks in advance of the scheduled travel date. VFS Staff said my application was straightforward, and it should not take more than 15 business days to process. However, due to their negligence and refusal to follow up on my request, I was unable to obtain my visa by the scheduled departure date, and had to cancel all my business trip arrangement.

I had back and forth communication with their customer service via email for an entire week to follow up on my case, as I have not heard any update since my application submission. I have received short-term Schengen visas for a dozen of times, and the longest wait time I had was 10 business days.

VFS staff never bothered to follow up on my case with the Netherlands Embassy despite my continued pleas, and only provided me the most useless generic answers, asking me to either sign up for the text update for applications status (which I need to pay for it during the visa appointment) or basically just wait it out despite my imminent departure.

There was no phone number of the VFS Washington DC office that I can talk to an actual staff. There was a 800 number of VFS India that I paid an exorbitant amount of fees per minute to talk to someone about my case. The person who picked up my call told me to just google VFS Washington DC to find a number, and refused to help direct me to anyone who could help me follow up on my case.

After contacting the Netherlands Embassy several times, I finally got in touch with the Consular office and learned that VFS was supposed to follow up on my case if they don't hear back from them for the visa approval within 15 calendar days. I was also provided an email to flag my application to the Consular, so they can help look into it. They also told me only VFS could contact the back office of the Consular to check on my visa application. My only hope was VFS, they said.

On the last day before my scheduled departure and 23 days after I submitted my application, I made a last ditch effort to do a walk-in visit at the VFS office, as the emails and phone calls were completely useless. During the visit, VFS staff saw the Embassy contacted them about my visa application, and finally provided them with my information. Apparently my visa application was misfiled or misplaced, and it was completely forgotten for three weeks! Not until the afternoon during my visit, the Embassy started processing my application. However, it was already too late for them to make a decision, as it requires approval from the Foreign Affairs Ministry in the Netherlands.

If the VFS had any sense of accountability or decency to follow up on my requests to check on my visa application, I would have gotten my visa and would not miss my business trip to the Netherlands.

Some manager in the VFS DC office even had the audacity to tell me their “contract” does not require any follow-up. If it was not me who persistently followed up with the Netherlands Consular to find out the expected processing time, get my application flagged, or do the walk-in visit, I would have kept waiting like an idiot and never get my passport back, per advice from VFS. I was basically doing VFS's job! That manager told me the Netherlands Embassy could keep my passport up to 6 months, so they could keep ignoring my pleas.

Such backward, incompetent third-party agency should have NEVER had the monopoly to handle important matters like visas. They gladly accept your money and...

The visa processing through mail services are absolutely terrible. They had my paperwork and my fiance's two and a half months before our departure date, the processing time said 4-6 weeks and we wanted to ensure there was room for any unforeseen circumstances. Thank goodness we did. If you want to get an update on your application status don't count on it. Calling their helpline or emailing it is the only way to reach out to get information and 70% of the time when we selected to speak with a representative our phone call was hung up immediately, it did not even ring as though it was trying to be transferred to a representative. When the calls did go through they never had a status update for us despite repeatedly telling us that it would take two days to get a response from the branch that had our applications and to call back in two more days, two more days, two more days. For three weeks they had me call back in two days for zero updates or information on what was happening with our applications. The only information I got was that nearly two months after the USPS verified the packages were delivered our money order was finally cashed and even then they did not have an update on the status of our applications. Trying to connect through email was even worse, their automated response said they would reach out in 24-48 hours and we did not get anything back for two weeks, the email we received back merely asked for our passport numbers, names, etc which we had already provided in our request for information and then I never received another email. The only positive was that I was finally able to get them to send our applications back to us, but when we opened the envelope only my paperwork was inside. Finally we must have bothered them enough that our issues got handed to a higher up because the Deputy Manager of the branch reached out to us about two weeks before our departure date and actually gave us some information on where his passport and application were. When we requested it be sent back to us she informed us he was missing paperwork, we reiterated that we merely wanted his passport back and didn't hear anything for another day or so at which point she informed us the missing paperwork had been 'collected' and his application was resubmitted to the Embassy. This was a week before we were set to fly to Russia. Despite giving them our address repeatedly, and the fact that they sent mine to the correct address, his passport was returned to our previous address three days before our flight out. By some miracle we managed to get it from our own landlord and there actually was a visa in it. So that is one positive.

After pouring nearly $800 into sending two applications and everything to this company we received a single visa three days before departure. Thankfully we found a much quicker, much more reliable, and much more customer service oriented company that we managed to get my visa through in the span of a week so despite being run up and down the damned river by VFS we still managed to make it to the wedding we were trying to go to in Russia. Definitely will not being going...

Have travelled to many countries and applied many visas. So far applying to New Zealand visa through this VFS center has been the most terrible and unprofessional experiences of my life. Not just visa, but in general any application. One month ago i started sending them emails, with absolutely no response from them. More than 2 weeks since visa has been approved and all fees paid, and my passport is just sitting at the VFS office, 2 WEEKS!!! Nobody responds to the email. The number provided on the website is a recorded tape with no option to talk to anybody or even check status. Sent about 20 emails already to 3 different email ids listed by the NZ team. It is weird that in person appointment is readily available everyday (So that means its not even the issue of any backlog) They just dont have any defined process or even willingness to reply to the email. Note: The actual visa approval process was less than 48 hours from doc submission to e-visa generation, but that is not VFS, its the actual NZ immigration. VFS processing on the other hand is just going on for a MONTH. GIVE ME BACK MY PASSPORT!!!!

Update 10/05/22: Received an email back from VFS team saying that if payment has been made then just keep waiting for the shipment labels. Wow, even officially they are responding to just "keep" waiting. Literally takes less than a minute to print the label and keep it in the mail pick up basket, but nope -- keep waiting. They are sending the shipment label through a horse cart i think.

Update 10/06/22: VFS office suggestion through the email is to come personally to VFS office in DC to collect the passport. Fedex shipment fees has already been paid and they want me to fly 3 hours instead to collect the passport. Any doubts that I had has been cleared now. This is a clear scam by such a big company - Taking shipment money and forcing people to come personally to the office instead since they know how important a passport is, and people will let go of that shipment fees. Will need to spend another $800 approx to collect the passport due to immediate flights, hotel etc. Also, filed a complaint today with Better Business Bureau against this scam.

Update 10/10/22: 3 WEEKS since visa approved. NO passport shipment in sight yet.

Update 10/12/22: 4th week ongoing, no sign of passport shipment. Not sure if they even paid fedex yet for labels, but have taken the complete payment in advance from me.

Update 10/13/22: Got my passport. VFS send it to an incomplete address and it was lying under a rubble in the mailroom for more than a week unclaimed. Thanks to my leasing office people that they found my name and gave it to me. From past one week VFS has been telling me to come to DC to collect it, or it will be shipped at some point. But they had no idea it was already shipped more than a week ago. If my leasing office people hadnt notified me today, I would be traveling to DC soon just to find that my passport is lost. VFS NEVER provided the tracking. NEVER SEND YOUR ORIGINAL PASSPORT TO VFS IN DC. VERY INCOMPETENT...