10/03/2009 (Agence Europe) - France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland have recently opened a sort of joint Consulate - The Schengen Visa Application Centre (SVAC) - in Mumbai to process visa applications from the region more quickly. The joint centre, which will be operated by Indian firm VFS Global, a subsidiary of the Kuoni Travel Group (Zurich), will gather and check visa requests and then send them to the appropriate consulate, which will continue to decide whether or not to issue a visa. (B.C./transl.rt)