Swathes of visa and passport applicants are facing brick walls when attempting to complete vital steps in their applications using major intermediary service providers such as VfS Global. Evidence suggests these issues are not new, so what’s really behind the bugs and bugbears at the world’s largest outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions? VfS Global and the outsourcing model VfS Global is one of several commercial partners for governments and diplomatic missions around the world, managing administrative tasks related to visa, passport and consular services, such as biometric enrolments and document submissions. Its reach spans five continents and 168 countries, serving 71 government clients and boasting more than 4,100 application centers.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Ukrainians are among many countries’ citizens dependent on VfS for providing services in support of visas to the UK, Canada and Schengen area countries. Meanwhile in March 2026, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine announced that Ukrainians in the UK, Canada, and the US will be able to receive passports processed at Ukrainian embassies and consulates through VfS’s “popular network” of services. Headquartered in Zurich and Dubai, VfS claims to be “the global leader in trusted technology services, empowering secure mobility for governments and citizens.” It is certainly “trusted” given that 71 governments have given it carte blanche over the provision of such an important range of services. And for an organization with the travel and life plans of so many people in is hands – its website reports 231 million biometric enrolments since 2007 – there isn’t room for widespread and persistent problems. Or at least, there shouldn’t be.