Prague, June 9 (CTK) – The Czech Foreign Ministry is completing a tender for mediating Schengen visas by outsourcing consular services in six territorial areas, daily Lidove noviny (LN) writes yesterday.
As a result, the workload of Czech consulates abroad would be largely reduced as from this autumn, when private firms would start playing the role of quick connections between the visa applicants and a consular official, LN writes.
It writes that the official would receive a filled-in form, including possible necessary documents, such as copies of air tickets or hotel reservations. The private licence holders would also take biometric data.
The ministry will be selecting from among seven bidders for short-term visas. Besides branch offices of the Swiss giant VFS Global, which already has a valid licence for the visa service in Russia and Ukraine, the bidders include Russian Pony Express and the Turkish firm Visametric. It already mediates Schengen visas for Germany, Italy, Portugal and Slovenia, LN writes.
The Czech Foreign Ministry wants to outsource its consular services in China, Turkey and South Africa, India and Thailand, six Middle East countries, Belarus and Britain (for foreigners living in the country). In total, 19 branch offices are planned, LN writes.
“This raises the number of places where it is possible to apply for a visa because Czech consulates are not everywhere,” LN quotes David Frous, from the ministry’s press department, as saying.
A tender bidder can choose one region, a combination of more of them or even a whole “package” of countries, LN writes.
It writes that the tender winner can earn an equivalent of 250 million crowns in the first four years if he attracts all short-visa applicants to his visa centres, LN writes.
The private visa mediator can charge an extra fee of 30 euros per visa and the Czech state will gain 60 euros, which is the regular price per Schengen visa, LN writes.
It writes that the Czech Republic is a key European player in issuing visas to most EU countries whose holder can move free around the Schengen area.
Last year, Czech consulates issued 507,000 Schengen visas, which was twice as many as Austria and more than Hungary and Slovakia together, LN writes.
The Foreign Ministry believes that the number will further increase with the private service. However, in general the state is not much successful in luring private businesspeople. Visa outsourcing only functions in Russia and Ukraine for the time being, LN writes.
The current tender is a repeat of the one that the Foreign Ministry had to cancel in March. Originally, 14 bidders were interested in the tender. However, the two participating Chinese firms were unable to present even the fundamental data. Eventually, only the above Pony Express met the parameters and the tender had to be cancelled, LN writes.
Unlike Pony Express, the Chinese firms did not show interest in the new tender, LN writes.
($1=24.560 crowns)
