THE Five Country Conference (5CC), consisting of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and US, has collaborated with VFS Global to set up a visa application centre in Singapore.
The centre started operations yesterday for Australia, New Zealand and UK visas, offering a seamless visa application process for these countries, but also jointly tackling visa and identity frauds.
While the centre will handle applications, the respective immigration authorities will assess the visa applications.
The British high commissioner, Antony Phillipson, said: “The use of shared visa application facilities will save us costs through shared infrastructure and resources, and allow us to maintain the very high levels of service we provide to our customers in Singapore and continue to develop new premium products to meet their needs.”
Key features of the joint visa application centre include longer operating hours, dedicated counters for applicants and travel consultants, standardised documentation, a dedicated call centre, an online appointment system and application status tracking and SMS alerts for visa status updates.
Located on Cecil Street, the centre is open between 08.00 and 16.00 from Monday to Friday. A nominal fee is levied for services at the centre.
Over the past decade, the border control agencies of the 5CC nations have worked together on several areas of cooperation including the use of biometrics to tackle identity fraud, information sharing, intelligence and repatriation.
