Thank you for sharing the horrors of these “services”, I’m glad someone finally wrote this. At least VFS is fairly central – TLS (the other one for Europe it seems) is a fair way out of town, meaning more of a trek for such pleasures, especially if you don’t live in London.
One of the things that gets me about it is how futile any feedback on their service feels. They don’t care because they know there’s no other choice for applicants, and the countries who have outsourced to them don’t care because they know their citizens won’t care (or if anything these days, will think it’s not a painful / expensive enough process). The whole thing should be a scandal really, but it never will be.
1000% this. I cannot believe why this is not written about *more*. I made the effort and trekked to TLS last year wanting to pay the premium pricing for a walk-in appointment (of course they have a premium option) because I couldn't get a regular one, only to see that they were closed for Easter holidays. No notice whatsoever on their website. If you go on the subreddit for SchengenVisa you see even more horror stories like these, and because of the monopolisation of them like you said, it just won't change. I'm gonna have to start a protest campaign myself, lol.
Thank you for sharing the horrors of these “services”, I’m glad someone finally wrote this. At least VFS is fairly central – TLS (the other one for Europe it seems) is a fair way out of town, meaning more of a trek for such pleasures, especially if you don’t live in London.
One of the things that gets me about it is how futile any feedback on their service feels. They don’t care because they know there’s no other choice for applicants, and the countries who have outsourced to them don’t care because they know their citizens won’t care (or if anything these days, will think it’s not a painful / expensive enough process). The whole thing should be a scandal really, but it never will be.
1000% this. I cannot believe why this is not written about *more*. I made the effort and trekked to TLS last year wanting to pay the premium pricing for a walk-in appointment (of course they have a premium option) because I couldn't get a regular one, only to see that they were closed for Easter holidays. No notice whatsoever on their website. If you go on the subreddit for SchengenVisa you see even more horror stories like these, and because of the monopolisation of them like you said, it just won't change. I'm gonna have to start a protest campaign myself, lol.
Sign me up!