By IANS
Kuala Lumpur : The Indian High Commission here has outsourced the processing of visa applications to a travel agency here.
Starting Aug 1, people can submit their visa applications to the Grandlotus Travel Agency, which in turn will submit them to the mission for further processing.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed Monday between the high commission's first secretary Sudhir Kumar Mehrotra and Grandlotus chairperson K. Thangavelu.
"Grandlotus Travel Agency would collect visa applications from those intending to visit India, and submit them to the high commission for vetting and affixing of visa stamps in the passports," Indian High Commissioner to Malaysia Ashok Kantha was quoted as saying by Star newspaper.
"The high commission received 82,000 applications for visas last year, with a growth of between 8 percent to 10 percent in the last three years," said Kantha.
He added that Malaysia was the third country where processing was outsourced after the US and Britain.
Grandlotus will set up processing centres in Penang and Johor Baru as well.