German Visa Application Centre In Pune, India By Next Year

10 Sep 2013

Filing a visa application for Puneites interested in visiting Germany is going to be very easy. Consul-general of Germany in Mumbai, Michael Siebert, said that the German visa application centre in Pune will be operational early next year.

Siebert added that the centre will function from Pune’s Schenghen visa application centre, and once the centre is operational, visitors need not go to Mumbai to apply for short-term visas. He assured that similar visa application centers will open in the later part of 2014 in Ahmedabad and Goa.

Siebert was speaking on the sidelines of 'Trained in GermanY', a job fair organized by the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce Pune and Alumniportal Deutschland, BMZ (the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) and AA (the Federal Foreign Office). The consul-general inaugurated the fair.

Director-general of Indo-German Chamber of Commerce, Bernhard Steinrucke, said that German companies are among the biggest investors in India – especially Pune. He noted that the bilateral trade between Germany and India currently stands at 18 billion Euros.

Steinrucke said activities like 'Trained in GermanY' are part of a greater effort to get quality manpower to Germany. He also said that in the next 30 years, half of the population of Germany will be above 60 years of age and presently, there is a structural shortfall of 40,000 engineers. Steinrucke said that India has numerous qualified youngsters who will find opportunities not only in the automobile and manufacturing industries, but also in insurance, financial services, publication, entertainment, software, and emerging sectors like hospitality in Germany.