1. High Commission of India, London (hereinafter the "High Commission"), intends to pre-qualify agencies to assist the High Commission of India, London as well as its Consulates in Birmingham and Edinburgh in receiving and processing applications :(i) from the UK nationals and others for issuance of Indian visas, OCI and PIO cards and (ii) from Indian nationals for passport services. The RFP and the Contract, for the purpose of explaining outsourcing requirement, are given on the website of the High Commission of India, London.
2. The agency selected for the work will be responsible for the following
areas of work -
i) Distribution of blank application forms for Indian Passport/Indian Visa/OCI/PIO and relevant guidelines (to be printed by the service provider);
ii) Collection and preliminary scrutiny of applications along with all supporting documents and the prescribed fee;
iii) Depositing of applications along with passports with the High Commission of India, London and its Consulates by quick and secure means and depositing the fee collected daily in a designated bank account of the High Commission and its Consulates;
iv) Capturing of the application data in an electronic format and transferring the same to the High Commission of India, London and its Consulates in the U.K in a secure manner;
v) Collection of passports and supporting documents from the High Commission and its Consulates and handing over/ dispatch of the same to the applicants by secure and fast means;
vi) Ensuring confidentiality and security of all documents;
vii) Maintenance of Help Desk/ Information Desk to answer queries by visitors, handling of telephonic queries, information service to handle queries by email, post, facsimile or text message, provision of assistance to applicants in the filling up of various forms etc. (such assistance would be required to be provided in various Indian languages over and above English);
viii) Ensuring that the above services are rendered to applicants in a speedy
manner, in comfortable conditions and within the stipulated time frame; and
ix) Scheduling of personal interviews of applicants with concerned Officers
at the High Commission and its Consulates wherever necessary.
4. For rendering the above services, the agency would be required to establish and staff Application/ Passport collection centers at Central London, Birmingham and Edinburgh with provision for additional centres in London (Finchley and Southall) and other parts of the U.K (Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool, etc.)
5. The Service provider should ensure that courteous, speedy and efficient service is rendered at all times and the turnaround time is kept to the bare minimum. The High Commission of India, London reserves the right to monitor the quality of services being provided and in the event of non- satisfactory performance, terminate the Agreement.
6. Agencies, which have experience of
Operating a Centre for Visa Services on behalf of a Diplomatic Mission or Missions for at least three years;
Dealing with at least 300 visa applications per day on an annual-average basis, at least during one of those three years, with electronic data entry of these applications; and
Following good industry practice in providing facilities at the Centre for Visa/Passport Services in terms of office accommodation, applicants waiting area and other services to the applicants;
are invited to send their profiles and expression of interest, along with details of pre-qualification. These should be addressed to "Minister (Consular), High Commission of India, India House, Aldwych, London WC2B 4NA, United Kingdom" and sent so as to reach by 10th October 2007. The envelopes should be super scribed 'Visa/Passport Outsourcing'.
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