Internal reports of a 20-member EU delegation’s visit and questionnaires filled by 11 member states reveal several “common problems” in VFS Global’s India operations — from wrong data entry to appointment slots allegedly sold by staff. And, every country that took up these shortcomings with VFS reported the same result: temporary improvement followed by relapse. These reports and questionnaires were among the latest batch of Freedom of Information (FOI) records received on May 12 by Lighthouse Reports from the EU headquarters in Brussels. They show that Slovakia, for instance, told the EU delegation it was switching to a different service provider altogether because of “consistent problems” with VFS. According to EU records, this is what the team found during its visit to India in October 2023: Member states flagged “laxity in following instructions, documents not arranged in proper sequence, scanning-related issues, and IT infrastructure and bandwidth problems”. Wrong data entry, missing biometrics, incorrect checklists and wrongly transferred fees. Complaints from Lithuania and Poland of appointment slots being sold by VFS staff — Poland said it …