Foreign embassies on the spot for keeping visa applicants guessing – Business Daily
Visa delays have seen applicants miss important engagements. PHOTO | POOL
The regional competition watchdog is investigating visa issuance by foreign embassies in a move aimed at protecting consumers from unfair requirements by consular offices.
The Comesa Competition Commission (CCC) says it is probing embassies that operate within the common market region for holding applicants passports for more than 45 days, thereby curtailing their movement and having applicants pay visa fees before allowing them to select interview dates.
The commission is also investigating the longer periods that it takes to process visas, which in some instances goes beyond the expected dates of travel.
The commission says some embassies schedule appointments for visa applicants on the dates that are close to or past the time of travel, hence inconveniencing them.
“The Commission has established that the agents charge visa applicants a payment for visa administrative fees, courier of passports and commission for the agents,” said CCC Registrar Meti Disasa.
“While the administrative fees may be considered as the cost for the service rendered by the embassies, the service of processing visa application by agents for which they receive a commission and money for the courier of passports is purely an economic activity that is conducted as a business with the objective of making profits and must, therefore, comply with the Regulations.”
Ms Disasa said Comesa Regulations enhance the welfare of consumers in the common market and protects them against offensive conduct by market actors.
“In this regard, the visa processing companies acting on behalf of the embassies and diplomatic missions accredited to Comesa to undertake economic activities in the common market and must therefore comply with the Regulations,” she said.
The move comes amid long delays in issuance of visa by some of the embassies in Nairobi, a move that has caused uproar among the applicants who end up losing vital business abroad, while some miss out on education opportunities due to failure to report on time for programmes in schools abroad.
Some embassies have said the delays have been occasioned by a backlog resulting from the Covid-19 disruptions that started in 2020, causing painful adjustments.
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