Ep 56. 25 Years, 500 Million Visas: Zubin Karkaria on building VFS Global

Send us Fan MailVisa outsourcing is one of those invisible pipes of the global economy—critical to how we travel, work and study abroad, yet rarely understood as an industry in its own right. In this special episode of Money Majlis to celebrate the 25th anniversary of VFS Global, founder and CEO Zubin Karkaria takes us inside the company he conceptualised in 2001 and built into the world’s largest visa and citizen services platform, now handling over 100,000 applications a day and more than 500 million since inception.  From a pilot with the US consulate in Mumbai to a multi-billion dollar company with dual headquarters in Zurich and Dubai, Zubin’s story is part “Made in India” scale‑up, part UAE hub success, and all about building trust in one of the most sensitive parts of government infrastructure. Suvo and Zubin explore the structural forces powering a fast‑growing market in outsourced visa services—rising leisure travel, a boom in students studying abroad, new mobility agreements, and the surprising resilience of in‑person business travel in an age of video calls. Zubin explains why only about a third of the world’s visas are currently outsourced and why that leaves a long runway for growth, from new source markets and emerging destinations that want tourism and talent without compromising security. The conversation dives into the Middle East, where Dubai and the wider GCC have moved from “late adopters” to pioneers of public–private partnerships, from Emirates Airlines’ early outsourcing of visa services to today’s integrated medical, attestation, court and citizen service centres. Zubin shares how VFS built some of the world’s largest visa centres in the UAE, and why the region’s ease of doing business and talent pool make it a natural control tower for a network that now spans more than 160 countries. Technology and AI run as a powerful thread throughout the episode. Zubin outlines why AI for VFS is “an article of faith”, how they built responsible‑AI guardrails before deploying their own models, and the concrete use cases that are already transforming the experience for both applicants and consular officers. Yet he is equally clear about the non‑negotiables: VFS never takes visa decisions, data is pushed in real time to sovereign systems, and rigorous purging and privacy controls define how the company handles millions of identities every year. Zubin reflects on culture as a competitive moat, his belief that integrity is non‑negotiable, and why he created a chief culture officer role to hard‑wire values across nationalities. In a more personal vein, he looks back at his days as a young Parsi boy serving as a Dasturji during the Muktad prayer period, and how the Zoroastrian triad of “good thoughts, good words, good deeds” still guides him to stay calm, reflective and purpose‑driven under pressure.  Production partner : PoddsterGiving partner: Goodworld All past episodes and details of the Money Majlis giving movement can be viewed on www.moneymajlis.com.