The Diplomat
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will spend 112 million euros to contract an external service provider for the collection and processing of visa applications, according to the Ministry of Finance website.
The tender includes information services, data collection and applications (including biometric identifiers and document scanning), fee collection, interview appointment management, referral of applications to the consular office and return of travel documents to applicants.
The deadline for submitting applications is November 26.
Until now, the company in charge of carrying out this external service is BLS International.
The Ciudadanos parliamentary group has submitted a written question in the Congress on the conditions for awarding this contract. In it, among other details, it asks the Government to explain the measures it intends to promote “to ensure that the conditions of the specifications guarantee free and fair competition among candidate companies”.
