Indian travellers eyeing Europe received welcome news on Friday: Global Visa Center World (GVCW) has fully restored operations at every Greece Visa Application Centre (VAC) in India after a two-month cyber-security shutdown. Centres in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Pune and Kolkata are again accepting short-stay (Schengen C-type) files, with fingerprinting and courier return services functioning normally.
GVCW’s statement notes that standard decisions will once again be issued within 15 calendar days and that a limited quota of priority slots—promising a five-working-day turnaround—will resume next week. During the December-January outage, applications were diverted to the Greek Embassy in New Delhi, creating a backlog and forcing many tour operators to re-route incentive groups through Italy or France. The embassy confirms that dossier queues have now been cleared.
Travellers who prefer a streamlined, digital-first solution for handling the paperwork can tap VisaHQ, which offers end-to-end visa processing assistance for Indian passport holders. Its portal (https://www.visahq.com/india/) lets users check document checklists, book VAC appointments and track application status in real time, making it easier for both individual tourists and corporate travel managers to stay on top of shifting Schengen requirements.
Why it matters: Greece has become a favoured entry point for Indian MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) traffic thanks to relatively liberal issuance of multi-year, multi-entry Schengen visas. Industry data show Indian arrivals doubled to 115,000 in 2025, and several destination-management companies have 2026 wedding groups on hold pending visa availability. The restored 15-day service window should let those events proceed on schedule and eases pressure on rival VACs in Mumbai handling Spain and Portugal files.
Corporate mobility teams should advise employees to secure appointments early; GVCW warns that February and March slots are already 60 % booked. Applicants outside Delhi must still allow an extra five transit days for file transfer. Travel insurers also report a spike in last-minute Schengen policy purchases; firms may wish to negotiate blanket coverage to speed documentation.
Cyber lesson learnt: Greek authorities are rolling out a segmented network architecture at Indian VACs and have mandated staff refresher training on phishing detection. If successful, the model may be adopted by other Schengen partners operating in India, reducing the risk of sudden service suspensions that wreak havoc on business travel calendars.
