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For a majority of travellers who have grappled with the visa maze at VFS Global, the struggle is real.
Despite the endless waits at offline centres, paperwork piles, and the usage of wads of cash, the company has ruled the roost for over two decades. But discontent has been brewing: some who spoke with The Ken even call it a “very frustrating service”.
Enter Atlys, a California, US-based startup pledging to untangle this chaos—digitally.
The company, founded by 29-year-old Mohak Nahta in 2021, promises to allow its users to do it all online from their homes. It also claims to slash visa-application time to under three minutes, predict visa arrivals, and offer a full refund in case of delays.
And the proof of the pudding is in its cap table.
In September 2023, Atlys clinched $12 million in a series-A funding round led by venture-capital heavyweights Elevation Capital and Peak XV Partners (previously Sequoia Capital India). Just two years earlier, it had raised $5 million in a seed round.
“Investors were particularly impressed by three things. Its [Atlys’] confidence in predicting visa-arrival timings, a clean product, and a customer-centric approach,” a senior executive at Elevation Capital told The Ken. They and others in the story declined to be named as they did not want to comment on the company publicly.
All these aspects are exactly what VFS customers have been griping about.
Consider this: VFS, in India, charges Rs 150 ($1.8) for a photocopy, inflates a passport courier from Rs 200–300 ($2.4–3.6) to a hefty Rs 800 ($9.6), demands Rs 2,200 ($26.4) for form-filling assistance, and slaps on a Rs 350 ($4.2) fee for SMS services. In contrast, Atlys customers only pay a one-time service charge of Rs 500–5,000 ($6–60), depending on the visiting country.
VFS Global, in an emailed response to The Ken, said its role—as part of agreements with governments—is limited to front-end administrative tasks only.
“Availability of visa appointments, mandatory paperwork, decision timelines, and the right of issuance or refusal are entirely at the discretion of the respective governments,” it stated.
If VFS requires visa seekers to visit its offline centres, Atlys handles e-visas only for countries that don’t need physical appointments for visa applications. New Zealand, Albania, Jordan, and Georgia are some of them.
It’s a “conscious choice” that allows for “easier scalability and a seamless end-to-end process”, said Atlys in an emailed response to The Ken.
