Inside the billion-dollar business of getting a visa
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 747 Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2026
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Getting a visa can be expensive, frustrating, and for many people, unsuccessful. So what happens when governments outsource that process to private companies? An investigation by Lighthouse Reports examines VFS Global, the world’s largest visa processing firm, revealing how billions in applications generate enormous profits, even when visas are denied.
In this episode:
- May Bulman (@maybulman), Investigative Editor, Lighthouse Reports
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by our guest host, David Enders, Sarí el-Khalili, and Catherine Nouhan. It was edited by Alexandra Locke.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Rick Rush mixed this episode. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:08.0 | Today, how a multinational private equity firm makes millions of people applying for visas. |
| 0:18.0 | I'm just going to Google and type in BFS Global. |
| 0:20.0 | You'll find so many complaints from people. |
| 0:22.6 | Like, there's so many people out there suffering and, like, struggling with VFS. |
| 0:25.6 | And it just felt like, how is the media not paid more attention to this? |
| 0:28.6 | An investigation into VFS Global exposes questionable practices and massive profits. |
| 0:35.6 | I'm David Enders, and this is The Take. |
| 0:47.3 | I'm May Boulman. I'm an investigations editor at Lighthouse Reports, where I coordinate |
| 0:52.3 | investigations into, in particular, borders and migration, |
| 0:56.2 | but also big tech. And I'm joining you from London. So, May, we're here to talk about VFS, |
| 1:03.8 | visa facilitation services, which you've just led an investigation into this company, |
| 1:11.6 | but a lot of our audience won't necessarily know what they do |
| 1:16.6 | or what a visa processing service is because maybe they've never had to use one. |
| 1:20.6 | So first of all, can you just take a step back and explain to us |
| 1:23.6 | what is VFS and why did Lighthouse investigate them? |
| 1:32.7 | VFS is a visa outsourcing company. |
| 1:36.1 | It's the biggest in the world, and it's actually the company that kind of started the system of outsourcing visa administration back in 2001. |
| 1:43.6 | And these visa applicants are largely in... the system of outsourcing visa administration back in 2001. |
| 1:51.3 | And these visa applicants are largely in which countries, and they're largely applying for visas to wear? |
| 1:52.6 | Yeah, I mean, it's obviously lots of people around the world apply for visas, but it has to be |
| 1:56.6 | said that there are countries that have, where people have kind of weaker passports, |
... |
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