Switzerland and VFS Global have partnered to open branches of Swiss Visa Application Centres (VACs) in 10 cities across India, in addition to the existing VACs in New Delhi and Mumbai.

Residents of Chandigarh, Kolkata, Jalandhar, Cochin, Chennai, Pondicherry, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Pune and Hyderabad will soon be able to avail the services of satellite Visa Application Centres in their cities while applying for visa to travel to Switzerland. The partnership will be established as a pilot project and is limited to two years.
 
It is proposed to open the VACs in 3 phases. During the first and second phase, which will be completed in March 2012, Visa Application Centre branches will be opened in Chandigarh, Kolkata, Jalandhar, Cochin, Chennai, Pondicherry and Bengaluru. VACs in Ahmedabad, Pune and Hyderabad will be operational in the third phase which will be concluded by mid-2012.