Abstract
The outsourcing of visa processing is a relatively recent industry that has been able to expand significantly in the space of just over twenty years. In Europe, private visa processing companies (VPCs) have come to play a key role in the management of migration, due to their ability to respond to the need of national governments to expedite the processing of high numbers of visa applications. VPCs mostly take care of providing applicants with information on the visa process, scheduling appointments with customers in their visa application centres (VACs), reviewing the documentation, digitising application data and sending it to consulates. VPCs are usually not tasked with approving or rejecting visa applications, which remains a responsibility of national governments. Despite the importance of this established industry, relatively little is known about how it affects migration to Europe. This project therefore aims to explore the industry of visa processing by looking at the interactions between states and VPCs and at how migrants in situations of vulnerability navigate the visa process. In particular, this research will focus on refugees from Afghanistan and their challenges with the process of family reunification to Belgium. In this way, it wants to shed light on how these new private actors are changing the migration landscape for vulnerable categories of migrants and how this affects their migration trajectories and experiences.
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