Italy Selects New Moroccan Visa Service Provider Following TLS Scandal

Italy Embassies in Rabat and Casablanca have announced that VF Worldwide will take over from TLS Contact as the company responsible for overseeing visa and consular services for the European nation in Morocco.

Days prior to the announcement, the Moroccan National Commission for the Control of the Protection of Personal Data (CNDP) declared that TLS Contact had broken the country’s statute 09-08 protecting the privacy of persons.

The CNDP claims that TLS Contact regularly conveyed photos from video surveillance records to two foreign government entities every five minutes without informing the commission.

In the wake of the data misuse incident, TLS Contact, which offers consular and visa services on behalf of embassies of several countries in Morocco, including France, Germany, and the UK, has come under fire.

Italy ‘s Consulate General in Casablanca and Italian Embassy in Rabat both maintained their “commitment to providing users with increasingly efficient, comprehensive, and speedy services” in the midst of the issue.

According to the announcement, in the future months VF Worldwide will replace TLS Contact as Italy’s official outsourcing partner for consular services in Morocco. TLS Contact will continue to oversee the currently booked appointments “until further notice.”

Until the new outsourcer fully assumes control, TLS Contact will also continue to oversee visa appointments at the Italian Embassy.

Starting on January 16, VF Worldwide will coordinate visa appointments for reunification with EU citizens, reunification with clearance, and tourism at the Italian Consulate General in Casablanca.

Along with appointments for the three aforementioned categories of visa made before January 16, TLS Contact will continue to oversee appointments for additional types of visa at the consulate.

VFS Global, which oversees the Netherlands’ consular services in Morocco, founded VF Worldwide in 2004.