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The Royal Norwegian Embassy has signed an agreement to outsource the job of receiving applications for visas and residence permits to Cox & Kings Global Services (CKGS). As part of the agreement, CKGS has opened visa application centres in major cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Pune and Kochi.

The advantage the arrangement offers is that unlike the embassy, the offices of Cox & Kings will accept visa applications until the end of each working day. The tour operator will take up the responsibility for preliminary tasks such as checking applications and making sure the documentation is in. Cox & Kings offices will also provide information to applicants about Norwegian and Schengen regulations and procedures, answer inquiries from applicants, manage appointments for interviews, deliver applications and passports daily to the Royal Norwegian Embassy, and return the passports to the applicants after the application has been processed. Applicants will still have to register online, but they won’t get dates directly from the embassy. In addition to the application fee paid when registering the application online, CKGS will charge handling fees.

Once the embassy processes the visa application, an SMS notification will be sent informing the applicants to collect their passport from the nearest CKGS processing centre. Sharing the news, Norway’s Ambassador Ann Ollestad said, "The number of Indians travelling to Norway has been rising steadily. By using the new visa application centres spread across India, most applicants will not have to travel just to submit applications. And the diplomatic staff will now be able to focus primarily on handling cases, thereby reducing the overall processing time."

Sanjay Bhaduri, CEO, CKGS, said after the signing of the agreement, "The launch of the Norwegian visa application centres in India is in line with our goal of providing assistance to travellers. We are certain that these centres will afford greater convenience to travellers wishing to visit Norway or the other Schengen countries."