Date:23/02/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/02/23/stories/2004022302820500.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Ireland to open visa application centre

By R. Gopalakrishnan

CHENNAI, FEB.22. The Republic of Ireland will open a Visa Application Centre in Chennai on March 1.

Located at the same premises as the U.K. Visa Application Centre at 3, College Lane, Nungambakkam (Ph: 55850331, fax 28220077), the centre will be operated by VFS (India) Pvt Ltd. VFS will be responsible for accepting applications and providing advice and guidance, but the applications will continue to be assessed at the Irish Embassy in New Delhi.

"We issued about 6,000 visas from India last year. The number is likely to go up to 7,000 this year thanks to our customer-friendly initiative. Also, location of the visa centre in the same place as the U.K. centre makes sense since many visitors to Britain would like to visit Ireland, too," the Irish Ambassador, Philip McDonagh, said here yesterday.

Talking to The Hindu , Mr McDonagh said that at present the bulk of visitors from India to Ireland were nurses covered by the special work visa scheme introduced three years ago, and more than 90 per cent of the health workers from India hailed from the southern region. Ireland was developing close ties in the information technology industry with India and IT professionals were also covered by the scheme, he said.

According to the Ambassador, the Chennai centre will be the first out of the proposed seven to be opened. The other centres would be located at Hyderabad, Kochi, New Delhi, Kolkata, Jalandhar and Chandigarh.

The visa application centre at Chennai would have literature and publicity material to promote tourism. There were about 1,500 Indian students pursuing a wide variety of courses in Ireland. The visa centre would facilitate visits by families of the students.

Mr. McDonagh said though Ireland (a member of the European Union) and India were competitors in the call centre business, they complemented each other in other areas of IT like design and product development. Many Indian companies like Tata Infotech and HCL Perot Systems were involved in collaborative projects with Irish IT companies.