How visa applications became big business across Africa
If you are applying in Senegal for a French visa, or in the Democratic Republic of Congo for a Chinese visa, your first point of contact may not be an embassy at all, but VFS Global. The outsourcing company manages appointments and application processing on behalf of governments around the world.
With operations in 168 countries and under contract with 71 governments, VFS Global has become a familiar part of the visa process worldwide. Yet for many applicants in Africa, obtaining a visa has become a costly and complicated ordeal.
"I don't really understand how the whole system works," says Aliou, a Senegalese graffiti artist and entrepreneur who regularly applies for visas to Europe.
"What's happening with visas in Africa is a complete mess. To me, it feels like a scam."
Similar complaints were repeated by many of the African applicants interviewed during the Lighthouse Reports investigation – "The Visa Empire: Borders as a Business".
VFS Global, which is headquartered in Dubai and majority-owned by the US private equity firm Blackstone, saw its operating profits rise from €31m to €171m between 2017 and 2024.
That sharp increase came despite visa application volumes growing by only 15 percent over the same period, according to financial accounts filed in Luxembourg.
The company says much of that growth comes from the sale of optional paid services, known as value-added services (VAS). These include SMS notifications, document courier services and access to premium lounges.
Such services have become a key part of the company's business model. Ambassador of France to India Alexandre Ziegler (L) and Chief Operating Officer of VFS Global Vinay Malhotra after the opening of the French Visa Application Centre in Bangalore in May 2017.
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Lucrative market for add-on services
The investigation collected visa application receipts from several countries.
The sample suggests that optional value-added services account for around 30 percent of VFS Global's worldwide revenue. In South Africa and Kenya, they represent more than one-third of local revenues, and more than one-quarter in Nigeria.
Across Africa, from Senegal to Kenya and Nigeria, current and former employees told reporters they received specific training in selling these services.
Some said staff were under pressure to meet sales targets and were encouraged by performance bonuses. Applicants were sometimes charged, they said, for optional services without being clearly told they were not required. And VAS did not improve their chances of receiving a visa.
A former employee in Senegal, speaking anonymously, said the SMS notification service was often presented as almost compulsory and that there was pressure to sell premium lounge and VIP services.
Former VFS employees in Kenya said SMS and courier charges were routinely added to customers' bills, even though the services were optional. Two former staff members said they also received commissions on sales.
Inspection reports from 22 of the 29 countries making up the EU's Schengen Zone [that issue a common visa allowing travel between member states without routine border checks], as well as the European Commission itself, raised similar concerns.
Reports submitted by Sweden in 2025 and by the Czech Republic in 2024 referred to "excessive pressure" by VFS Global to promote additional services and criticised what they described as a lack of clarity about the optional nature of those services.
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Illegal agencies exploit the system
Alongside the official process, a network of unofficial operators has emerged.
According to the investigation, some are run by current or former VFS employees who use their knowledge of the appointment system to set up unofficial agencies that give the impression of working with the company.
Often operating close to VFS offices, these agencies target applicants frustrated by repeated visa refusals and promise to improve their chances of success.
Just a short walk from VFS Global's visa centre in Dakar, Salimata described her experience of applying for a French visa.
"You try to find an appointment at any time and there aren't any available," she says.
"So agencies take care of it for you and you pay between 75,000 and 200,000 CFA francs [about €114 to €300]. And you're not even sure you'll get the visa. That's just for the appointment."
The experience led her to suspect "collusion" between agency operators and VFS employees in the sale of appointment slots.
In the DRC capital Kinshasa, reporters found evidence supporting such claims.
A journalist working on the investigation posed as a visa applicant and contacted one of the unofficial agencies. He was then put in touch with a VFS Global employee and met him at the company's office.
The employee allegedly demanded €650 for a visa that officially cost less than half that amount.
In June 2025, following complaints from customers in Kenya, VFS Global publicly warned about a growing number of people falsely claiming to represent the company.
"All appointment slots are available free of charge through our official website and are allocated according to projected visa demand," says Stephen Kubasu, the company's chief operating officer. "Applicants should never pay third parties to obtain appointments because such claims are false."
Asked about fraudulent networks operating outside the company, VFS Global said it was "actively implementing robust security measures", including one-time passwords and CAPTCHA verification systems, to protect its booking platforms.
The company also pointed to its anti-fraud awareness campaign, #DoNotFallForFraud.
Regarding optional services, VFS Global said they were developed in consultation with governments and that applicants are "clearly informed... that these [additional] services are optional, do not influence visa decisions or processing times, and are priced transparently".
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'Machine for creating dissatisfaction'
The investigation found no evidence that VFS Global is acting illegally.
However, critics argue that the company benefits from a restrictive visa system created by governments.
Paul Hermelin, CEO of French technology company Capgemini, shares that view. In a 2023 report on improving visa procedures, he described France's visa policy as a "machine for creating dissatisfaction", driven by concerns about migration and security.
"In Senegal, for example, there may be between 12,000 and 15,000 applications, but fewer than 3,000 student visas available for France," he says.
"So you end up creating nearly 10,000 disappointed people. That's simply not working. Combined with poor communication, it becomes a machine for creating dissatisfaction."
He also questioned France's approach to issuing long-term visas.
"In France, people are usually given a one-year visa first. If everything goes well, they may receive a two-year visa, then a three-year visa. It can take an extraordinary number of years before someone becomes eligible for a five-year visa," he says.
"There are businesspeople travelling regularly between Casablanca, Dakar and Paris, university lecturers attending conferences and other frequent travellers. They are not people likely to become irregular migrants, so why not issue five-year visas from the start?"
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This article was adapted from the original in French by Sidi Yansané and has been edited for clarity.