Disclaimer
All the contents of this site are only for general information or use. They do not constitute advice and should not be relied upon in making (or refraining from making) any decision. The information from or through this site is provided on "AS IS" basis, and all warranties, expressed or implied of any kind, regarding any matter pertaining to any information including without limitation, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement are disclaimed and excluded.
VFS Global and its parent, affiliates and associates shall not be liable in any manner whatsoever, at any time for damages (including, without limitation, damages for loss of business projects, or loss of profits) arising in contract, tort or otherwise from the use of or inability to use the Site, or any of its contents, or from any Act or omission arising from using the site contents or for any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, alteration of, or use of information contained on the site. No representations, warranties or guarantees whatsoever are made as to the accuracy, adequacy, reliability, completeness, suitability or applicability of the information to a particular situation.
Certain links on the Site may lead to resources located on servers maintained by third parties over whom VFS Global has no control or connection, business or otherwise as these sites are external to VFS Global. You agree and understand that by visiting such sites you are beyond the VFS Global website. VFS Global, therefore neither endorses nor offers any judgment or warranty and accepts no responsibility or liability for the authenticity/availability of any of the information or for any damage, loss or harm, direct or indirect, consequential or any violation of local or international laws that may be incurred by your visit and/or transaction/s on these sites.
Except for the refund or reimbursements of fees as stated in the Refund Policy, VFS Global excludes its liability in connection with any visa applications, including but not limited to its liability in or under contract, negligence, tort, statute or otherwise howsoever arising, and including liability for any delay or failure of VFS Global in handling or processing visa applications, loss of or delay to passports and other documents, delays involving visas and immigration, and rejections of visa applications for any reason whatsoever. And for the avoidance of doubt, it is clarified that VFS Global shall not be liable in any manner whatsoever under following events including but not limited to as under:
No Liability for Incorrect Information
VFS Global shall have no liability for loss, delays or non-issuance of any application arising from or in connection with (to include but not restricted to) incomplete application forms, incorrectly or falsely completed application forms, and inaccurate or incomplete supporting documentation.
No Liability for Events Not In Our Control
VFS Global shall not be considered to be in breach of contract or negligent or otherwise liable in any way for any delay or failure of any application or loss, damage or delay to any passport or other documents due to accident, theft, natural calamities (act of God) or any other reason outside the control of VFS Global, and not arising out of a willful default of, VFS Global, or for the loss or damage to any passport or other document after it has been handed over to the visa applicant.
No Liability for Postal and Courier Service
VFS Global shall have no liability for any delays, or for loss of or damage to any visa application, passport or other documents, caused by, or occurring whilst any application, passport or document is in the possession of, any third party postal or courier service, including transportation of visa applications, passport or other documents between VFS Global and the mission; and when being returned by VFS Global to the visa applicant.
No Liability for Assessment of Visa Applications
VFS Global is not involved in the process of assessment of visa applications, or their grant or refusal, and shall not be liable or responsible in any manner whatsoever for any delay by respective mission in assessing, granting or refusing any visa application or for the grant or rejection of any visa application.
No Liability for Wasted Costs and Expenses
VFS Global shall have no liability to any visa applicant, or any other person relying on or benefiting from any visa application, for any commitment, cost or expenditure incurred in reliance on or anticipation of receiving a intended visa, whether within a particular timescale or at all, including but not limited to air travel, hotel, and other travel and accommodation arrangements, and any other arrangements made.
VFS Global recommends that you do not purchase tickets or make bookings which cannot be cancelled prior to the issuance of a visa, except where it is a specific requirement stated as part of the visa application, in which case air itinerary should be obtained.
General Exclusion of Loss and Damage
VFS Global shall have no liability (including in contract or for negligence) to any visa applicant, or any other person relying on or benefiting from any visa application, for any direct, indirect, punitive, incidental, special, consequential damages or any damages whatsoever, including where caused by delay, misplacement, loss or damage of visa applications, passports and other documents, other than as stated herein above.
VFS Global shall have no liability (including in contract or for negligence) to any visa applicant or any other person relying on or benefiting from any visa application for any loss of profit, revenue, or contract, or business, profession, or other occupation, including where caused by delay, misplacement, loss or damage of visa applications, passports and other documents.
Privacy Policy
Scope
VFS GLOBAL (hereinafter referred to as ‘VFS GLOBAL’) is engaged into business of serving diplomatic missions / consular sections by managing administrative and non-judgmental tasks related to the entire lifecycle of a visa application process performed, as directed by the concerned Diplomatic Missions. By virtue of processing these applications, VFS GLOBAL acts exclusively as a data processor and the respective Diplomatic Missions are the data controller. This Privacy Policy describes how VFS GLOBAL on behalf of Diplomatic Missions collects, uses, discloses and manages personal information related to individuals (hereinafter referred to as “Applicant/s”) applying for visas and permits, and makes available to relevant authorities for the purpose detailed below.
Purpose of collection, use, disclosure etc. of Personal Information
“Personal Information” includes name, address, date of birth, contact numbers, passport information, citizenship status, marital status, employment particulars, criminal records, educational particulars, photographs, birth certificates, and any other information or document related to the above or expressly required by the relevant Diplomatic Missions/Governments/Visa Offices. All Personal Information requested and collected is solely in accordance with the requirements of the concerned Diplomatic Missions/Governments/Visa Offices.
Personal Information may be collected, used or disclosed in order to facilitate the processing of visa application(s) and/or request(s) including but not limited to for the following purposes:
- Process applications received for requests for various categories of visa, permit and travel documents etc. and perform various tasks/ functions related thereto;
- Respond to various inquiries on the visa application submission process in general.
- Respond to various inquiries regarding status of application made with VFS GLOBAL;
- Provide/ offer any other services as per requirements of the respective Governments /Diplomatic Missions.
Important
Provision of personal information is voluntary. However, a refusal to provide personal information may limit or affect ability of VFS GLOBAL to provide the requested services.
As mandated by the Diplomatic Mission/s, VFS GLOBAL may (by itself or through third party service providers/ vendors) provide various facilities for inquiries related visa application process in general and/ or status of visa applications submitted through VFS GLOBAL such as call center, online tracking, e-mail etc.
- Inquiry about general visa application process:
Users making inquiries as regards visa application process in general, need not provide any personal information.
- Inquiry about status of submitted visa application/s:
Users making inquiries as regards status of visa application submitted through VFS GLOBAL can quote application reference number to receive an update on the status of their visa, permit or travel document applications.
The users may be requested to provide personal information such as given name or family name or date of birth or phone number or street address or email address or application date etc. or combination of such information for verification/ authentication purposes.
- Users making inquiries as regards visa application process should not ask or reveal the passport number or personal information while interacting via email with VFS GLOBAL and/or its third party service providers/ vendors. Instead, use of application reference number is recommended. VFS GLOBAL is not obliged to respond to e-mails containing Personal Information. In case any Personal Information is disclosed, the same shall be at the sole risk of the Users/ applicants and VFS GLOBAL will not be in any manner responsible for any events of misuse etc.
For quality control purposes the interaction/s with user/s may be recorded. In such cases the user/s will be informed of this practice and purpose at the start of any such interaction. Unless a different requirement is mandated by the respective Diplomatic Mission/s, such recordings will be destroyed after a period of 30 days from the date of such interaction/s.
Disclosures of Personal Information :
VFS GLOBAL will not trade, rent or sell Personal Information of the Applicants. VFS GLOBAL does disclose or otherwise transfer Personal Information of the Applicants, except as otherwise set out herein. Personal Information will be used solely for the purposes of providing services and performing its various obligations.
However VFS GLOBAL may need to disclose and share Personal Information when it is necessary to comply with a court order, any on-going judicial proceeding, or other legal, statutory or regulatory process served on VFS GLOBAL or to exercise the legal rights or defend against legal claims, criminal investigations, judicial matters or in prevention, investigation, detection, prosecution of criminal activities or matters related to national security.
Service Provider Arrangements :
In connection with and furtherance of its services, VFS GLOBAL may disclose (or otherwise make available) Personal Information to approved third party service providers providing services like courier delivery, SMS, call center services. These third party service providers are provided with such information they need to perform their designated functions and are not authorized to use or disclose personal information for their own purposes. For example, where the Applicant has opted for courier service, VFS GLOBAL will disclose certain Personal data such as name, address, phone number to the third party courier service providers. However Personal Information will not be shared with service provider/s for SMS service/s. Such third party service providers are also required to adhere to security & privacy requirements imposed on them by VFS GLOBAL.
Cookies
Cookies are files or pieces of information that may be stored on system or internet enabled devices of the User, when the Applicant visits the website/s of VFS GLOBAL. VFS GLOBAL uses cookies to make the website/s simpler to use. VFS GLOBAL cannot identify the Applicant personally from this information.
- VFS GLOBAL website offers certain features that are only available through the use of cookies.
- The cookies help website users and maintain their signed-in status.
- Most cookies are "session cookies," meaning that they are automatically deleted from website user’s hard drive at the end of a session when the applicant/user exits the website. However “Persistent cookies” remain in place across multiple visits to our websites.
- The Applicant may encounter cookies from any links of third parties on certain pages of the website that VFS GLOBAL does not control.
Once a User accesses the website/s of VFS GLOBAL, User consents to use of cookies by VFS GLOBAL. If User does not agree to use of cookies, User should not use website/s of VFS GLOBAL. If the cookies are disabled, it may impact the user experience on website/s of VFS GLOBAL.
Spam :
- VFS GLOBAL does not tolerate spam.
- VFS GLOBAL website/s or communication tools shall not be used to send spam or otherwise send content that would violate the terms and conditions of VFS GLOBAL user agreement.
- VFS GLOBAL filters and automatically scans messages for viruses and other illegal or prohibited content before they are sent.
- To report any issues related to spam or spoof emails to VFS GLOBAL, please address e-mails to communications@vfsglobal.com.
- VFS GLOBAL does not permanently store email messages sent to or by it through various formats. VFS GLOBAL does not rent or sell any email addresses to third parties.
- A user/users is/are not licensed, permitted, expected to add, modify, deface, hack, misuse or abuse VFS GLOBAL’ website or the contents therein.
Security :
VFS GLOBAL has implemented measures designed to help protect personal information in its custody and control. VFS GLOBAL maintains reasonable administrative, technical, physical and organizational safeguards in an effort to protect personal information in its custody and control. However VFS GLOBAL shall not be liable for unlawful access, use, modification, destruction, destruction or interceptions by unauthorized persons.
Retention & Destruction of Personal Information :
Application packages collected from Applicants will not be copied or retained by VFS GLOBAL. Unless otherwise mandated by the concerned Diplomatic Mission, any other paper, hard copies, forms or other records containing personal information will be destroyed by a secure shredding process after thirty (30) days of a passport’s return to an applicant.
For the purposes of assisting the Applicants should in any follow-up queries, the Applicant’s personal information may be retained in electronic form, after passport and/or documents have been returned to the Applicant, for a maximum of thirty (30) days or for such longer period as specified by the respective laws of the country.
VFS GLOBAL performs secure disposal or destruction of personal information on the equipment or devices used for storing personal information. When disposing of equipment or devices used for storing personal information (such as filing cabinets, computers, diskettes, and audio tapes), VFS GLOBAL takes appropriate measures such as to removal or deletion of any stored information to prevent access by unauthorized parties.
Legal :
VFS GLOBAL and its third party service providers/ vendors may provide Personal Information in response to a search warrant or other legally valid inquiry pursuant to contravention of law / order or to an investigative body or as otherwise required or permitted by applicable law VFS GLOBAL may also disclose personal information where necessary for the establishment, exercise or a defense of legal claims, or as otherwise permitted by law.
Third Party Links :
VFS GLOBAL website may contain links to other/ third party sites promoting various products and/or services that VFS GLOBAL does not own or operate. These links to websites are in nature of paid advertising are not verified by VFS GLOBAL. These links are provided for convenience. Access to these links is voluntary. VFS GLOBAL does not endorse and is not associated with any of these other third party websites. Users are requested to use their own discretion which dealing with these websites and neither VFS GLOBAL nor its officers, employees, agents shall have any responsibility or liability of any nature whatsoever for these other third party websites or any information contained in them.
These linked websites have their own separate and independent privacy statements, notices and terms of use, which Users are recommended to carefully review the same. VFS GLOBAL does not have any control over such third party websites, and therefore shall have no liability or responsibility of their personal information practices.
To Personal Information :
Disclosure of personal information is strictly voluntary. Applicants disclosing Personal Information shall be deemed to have read and understood this Privacy Policy and consents to the use and disclosure of the Personal Information as provided in this Privacy Policy. Applicants have right to withdraw their consent at any time by notifying VFS Global. However, VFS Global shall not be liable if before the consent is withdrawn, the Personal Information is already disclosed to the relevant offices or third parties as outlined in this Privacy Policy.
Applicants have a right to Personal Information provided by them. Users may request access to their personal information by writing an email to the Info email ID mentioned on the “Contact Us” page with subject line as “Subject Access Request”. This request will be forwarded to the respective IT team since they are the data controllers and further action will be taken by VFS GLOBAL based on the request.
VFS GLOBAL shall not be responsible to ascertain authenticity or accuracy of the information provided by the Applicant. It shall be the duty of the Applicant to ensure that the information provided to VFS GLOBAL is accurate, complete and upto date.
Changes to This Privacy Policy :
Please be advised that the Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time and Users/ Applicants to regularly visit VFS GLOBAL website to access the latest policy statement.
Contact Us :
For any questions about this Privacy Policy or the practices described herein, please write to vfsprivacy@vfsglobal.com for more information.
Inquiries :
For inquiries as regards Privacy Policy please send e-mail to vfsglobalprivacyofficer@vfsglobal.com
Supply of Services Terms
These terms (which are referred to as the “Services Terms & Conditions” in the General Terms & Conditions) relate to the paid-for services supplied to you through the Company Site and should be read in conjunction with the General Terms & Conditions which shall also apply
For the purposes of these terms, the “Services” may include one or more of the services which are offered on the Website.
The Company shall be entitled to offer additional services to which these following terms and conditions shall apply at any time.
Prices and Payment
- Depending on the Services you wish to purchase, your order of Services is an offer to purchase Services from either (a) the Company or (b) the intended Government for whom we collect payment. The Services will be made available to you once your complete payment has been received. There will be no contract of any kind between you and us unless and until you make successfully authorised payment for all the services you intend to purchase. At any point of time until then, we may decline to supply the Services to you without any notice and without being liable to you and may act not to give any reason for the same at Company’s sole discretion.
- The fees for the Services (the “Service Fees”) are calculated and payable in advance as set out on the Website. The Company shall be under no obligation to provide the requested Service until the applicable Service Fee has been paid in full and within the timeframe of payment.
- Where applicable, prices shall state where any additional taxes are applicable and payable by you.
- Your credit/debit card details will be encrypted to minimise the possibility of unauthorised access or disclosure. Authority for payment must be given at the time of placing your order. You represent and warrant that you are fully and lawfully entitled to use the credit /debit card for making payments on this online payment gateway. We shall not be liable in any manner whatsoever for any monetary or other damage suffered by you on due to delay, failure, interruption or corruption of any data, any unauthorized use or access or disclosure of credit/debit card details or any other losses, costs, charges arising out of or in connection with the access to or usage of the payment gateway services and you shall keep us i.e. the Company fully indemnified in this regard. As cautious step, the Company suggests you to please not share your credit card or debit card details including your card no., pin no., name on card, etc with any other person. In case the card is misused or any unauthorised use of card takes place and eventually a transaction is made by that person on our payment gateway, please note that the Company shall not be liable to you in any manner whatsoever for the same and there shall be no reimbursements or refunds of amount in such cases. You shall be solely responsible and liable for usage of your card.
Using the Services
- The Company shall provide an online application and payment portal to support the delivery of the visa application services to visa applicants as more fully described on the Company Site which shall facilitate the provision of the Services to you.
- The Company warrants that it has the right to provide the Services and will use all reasonable skill and care in making the Services available to you and in ensuring their availability. Because of the number of sources from which the Company obtains the content for the Services and because of the nature of the Internet, errors and omissions do occur, the Company shall not be liable or does not give any kind of warranties, in any manner whatsoever, in respect of the Services, its contents, its merchantability, or any other kind of warranty.
- The Company is continually seeking to improve the Services. The Company reserves the right, at its discretion, to make changes to any part of the Services at any point of time without giving any notice to you provided that it does not materially reduce their content or functionality. You agree and understand that the Company shall not be liable for the same in any manner whatsoever.
No Commercial Use
The Services are intended for and shall only be available for non-commercial and domestic use by individual visa applicants. The Company reserves the right, without any liability or responsibility, to refuse orders from businesses or that we consider are for commercial or other non-domestic concerns. You may not re-sell the Services without the prior express written consent of the Company.
Cancellation and Termination
- Once you have paid for the Services, we shall make the Services available to you. You shall not be eligible to cancel any purchase of Services after the order is placed and Services are made available other than in accordance with these terms.
- Your access to the Services may be terminated at the Company’s sole discretion without any liability if you are in material breach of these terms and the breach is not remedied within the period of 3 days after written notice of the breach has been given to you. If we reasonably believe your breach of these terms affects our lawful operation of the Services or third party customers we may suspend your access to the Services at any time with reservation to claim from you any damages or liabilities suffered by the Company due to such breach committed by you.
Fees and Refunds Policy
- You shall only be able to cancel or apply for a refund of any Service Fees in accordance with the refund policy set out in Annex A to these terms (the “Refund Policy”).
- Use of any of the Services offered on the Website does not imply or guarantee in any way that your visa application will be successful. Notwithstanding the use of any of the Services, all visa applicants must qualify against the requirements of the immigration rules of the intended country of visit
- You will receive a confirmation of your payment by email, as well as an on screen confirmation, after You make payment of the Fee.
- The Refund Policy appended hereto as an Annex shall apply to [Fees] payable by visa applicants pursuant to this Agreement.
Limitation on liability
The Company shall not be liable to you under these terms and conditions for any losses relating to or arising in connection with Services provided to you under these terms and whether based on an action or claim in contract, negligence, tort, misrepresentation (other than fraudulent misrepresentation) breach of statutory duty or otherwise in connection with the Services to which such claim relates.
Under no circumstances will the Company be liable to you for lost profits, or for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special or exemplary damages arising out of or in connection with the use and operation of payment gateway services, regardless of the type of claim and even if the Company has been advised of the possibility of such damages, such as, but not limited to loss of revenue or anticipated profits or loss business.
Refund Policy
Notice to all Visa Applicants :
It is important that You read this Refund Policy carefully. Certain services provided to Applicants are provided directly by the Government Home Office and shall be entirely non-refundable once an Application has been made. You should familiarise yourself with the terms of this Refund Policy prior to purchasing any services.
Interpretation:
Unless otherwise defined, defined terms in this Refund Policy shall have the meaning given to them in the Website Terms and Conditions and/or the Services Terms and Conditions.
- Application: means a form to be completed by an applicant requesting the provision of Services and/or application for a visa from the Authority which is part of the Government submitted along with a passport and supporting documents.
- Authority: means the embassy
- Chargeback: means where an Applicant using the online payment portal makes a complaint to his/her card issuer bank that a transaction is disputed and/or fraudulent.
- Service Fees: means the fees payable by You for the Services purchased in accordance with the Services Terms and Conditions.
- Issuing Bank: means the bank who has issued card to You as card holder.
- Non-Refundable Services: means any Services which are not specified as Refundable Services.
- Refundable Services: means those Services eligible for refund pursuant to Clause 1, Section B.
- Refund Eligibility Criteria: means the criteria set out at Section D.
- Services: means and includes one or more of the services which are offered on the Website.
- Services Terms and Conditions: means the terms and conditions for the use of the payment portal and provision of the Services which are available to view on the Website.
- Transaction Charges: means any fees levied by a bank or financial institution upon processing a valid refund request to Applicants which may vary from case to case.
- “Us”: means VFS Global Services plc whose principal place of business is at 1625 K Street NW Washington DC 20006 or any party acting on Our implicit instructions (with "Our" being construed accordingly).
- "You": includes the person requesting the Services or any party acting on such person's instructions (and "Your" shall be construed accordingly).
- Website: means the Company’s website, the address of which is http://vfsglobal.com/
- Website Terms and Conditions: means the terms and conditions for the use of Website.