An Esteemed Indian firm BLS International Services, which are known for their provision of specialized contributions and services with respect to the outsourcing of visa, passport, consular, attestation and citizen services to governments and diplomatic missions globally, along with other firm, Sopra Steria, a European IT consultancy company, which has recently earned an immigration services contract from United Kingdom Visas & Immigration (UKVI), a established division of the UK Home Office.
“We will be the first Indian company involved in such a prestigious project of the UK government that involves collecting biometrics from all immigrants in the UK, who require residence cards, including students and skilled professionals. Last year, there were over 500,000 people who received such cards,” said Shikhar Aggarwal, the joint managing director of BLS International.
Sopra Steria, along with BLS International, would be operating to over 60 centers across the United Kingdom, which will have to be engaged in provisions of services to collect biometric and other additional value-added services, according to the terms of the contract, starting from October 1, 2018.
“Besides the free basic services, we also plan to run value-added services such as premium lounges and mobile collection of biometrics through which we hope to generate additional revenue streams. The premium services would come at a cost of between £300-400,” said Mr.Agarwal.
BLS International expects annual revenues of over £110 million over the next three years, with an increase in profit margins of 15-20% from value added services. “This is the first time that a foreign government has entrusted an Indian company with providing immigration services. We expect a huge increase in the number of people requiring biometric collection services in the UK following Brexit with many European nationals too likely to require permanent residency status”.
By Lokesh
