Visa application centres in Pune

Before your appointment in Pune

1. 1Check that your country is on Pune’s list; for Spain, Poland, Finland or New Zealand, book a Mumbai slot instead.
2. 2Book on that country’s VFS site, or GVCW’s for Greece, and keep the confirmation that names the Pune centre.
3. 3For Denmark or Norway, complete the online form (applyvisa.um.dk or Application Portal Norway) before the visit.
4. 4For Canada, send the IRCC application online first; the Wanowrie centre then takes your biometrics or your passport, depending on the stage.
5. 5For Japan, if your passport was issued outside the Mumbai consulate’s area, bring government address proof for Pune.
6. 6Allow for the drive: Hinjewadi and Wanowrie are on opposite sides of the city.
7. 7Order the flight reservation and hotel booking for the appointment day, check both, and print them with your form, leave letter and insurance.

One mall in Wanowrie for 21 countries

Every Pune centre on the official lists is on the 4th floor of 93 Avenue Mall, at Kalubai Chowk near the Fatima Nagar junction in Wanowrie, postcode 411022. The VFS pages spell the area “Wanowarie”, while maps use Wanowrie, so try both if a search comes up empty. The UAE centre’s page adds that the mall is opposite Croma, a handy marker for a cab driver.

Having everything on one floor makes it easy to prepare two applications in a week, but each file stays separate. A Schengen visa goes to the country of your main stay, and a UK or Irish application has nothing to do with it.

GVCW, the exclusive provider for Greek visas in India, also works from the mall. It is not part of VFS and takes bookings only on its own site.

Who applies in Pune, and where the file is decided

Typical applicants include software and engineering staff from Hinjewadi, Kharadi and Magarpatta travelling to client sites and head offices in Europe, students bound for the UK, Canada, Ireland and Germany, and parents visiting children who have settled abroad.

Pune is in Maharashtra, so French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Belgian and Hungarian files are decided by the consulates in Mumbai even though you hand them in at Wanowrie. Germany sends every Schengen file from India to its Mumbai consulate. Dutch, Swiss and Czech files are decided in New Delhi.

For people who moved to Pune for work, residence counts more than hometown. Italy goes by “the current place where an applicant resides for the past 6 months”, and Spain asks for six months’ residence in its jurisdiction. Japan’s Pune centre accepts a passport issued elsewhere if you add government address proof.

Countries you cannot apply for in Pune

Six destinations on the official lists have no Pune centre, and the United States has no consulate in the city.

• Spain: BLS International has no Pune office. Pune falls under Spain’s Mumbai consulate, and the nearest BLS centre is at Dalamal Towers, Nariman Point.
• Poland and Finland: both sit on the 2nd floor of the Urmi Axis Building in Mahalaxmi, Mumbai.
• New Zealand: Mumbai’s centre at BKC is open, while most others in India are temporarily closed.
• Singapore: no VFS centre in Pune or Mumbai; the Mumbai consulate works only through its Authorised Visa Agents.
• Australia: there is no Australian biometrics centre in India at all.
• United States: the nearest consulate is in G-Block, BKC, Mumbai; whether a US biometrics centre operates in Pune could not be confirmed.

Timing your flight reservation for a Wanowrie appointment

The reservation does not need to exist when you book the VFS slot; what matters is that it is issued close to the day you hand it in. The airline decides how long an unpaid booking stays open, so order it for the day of your Wanowrie appointment or the evening before, and compare it with your passport the moment it arrives.

If you work in Hinjewadi and have to cross the city for a morning slot, place the order the night before rather than from the cab, so there is time to check and print it.

Korea pulls the dates in close: the consulate’s agent accepts files only for travel within one month of submission, so the flights on your reservation must fall inside that month. Where a checklist asks for accommodation proof, add a confirmed hotel booking with the same dates; it is held with the property, and our fee does not pay for the room.

Avoidable problems with Pune applications

Most of these are easy to fix before you leave home.

• Dates that disagree: the reservation, hotel booking, form and employer’s leave letter should all describe the same trip.
• A Danish or Norwegian file brought in without the online form completed first.
• A Korean application for a trip more than a month away.
• A Japanese application with a passport from another state but no government address proof.
• A Spanish file brought to Pune, where BLS has no centre.
• An edited or invented ticket PDF instead of a genuine reservation; that is document fraud, not a shortcut.

Visa centres in Pune

Pune questions, answered