Indian travellers bound for the Mediterranean can breathe a sigh of relief. On 12 February 2026, Global Visa Center World (GVCW) quietly switched the lights back on at all nine Greece Visa Application Centres (VACs) in India—Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Kochi and Kolkata—after a two-month suspension triggered by a subcontractor’s cyber-security breach. The outage had paralysed appointment booking just as spring and summer travel demand was building, forcing tour operators to reroute clients through other Schengen consulates or cancel trips outright. (m.economictimes.com)
GVCW says back-office links with the Embassy of Greece in New Delhi and the Consulate-General in Mumbai have now been “fully normalised”. Standard processing for short-stay “C-type” Schengen visas has been reinstated at 15 calendar days, while limited “priority” slots promise a five-working-day turnaround for urgent corporate travel. Applicants can again lodge biometrics, submit documents and opt for premium courier returns—services that had been offline since mid-December.
Meanwhile, travellers who prefer professional guidance can turn to VisaHQ, whose India portal (https://www.visahq.com/india/) streamlines Schengen paperwork, appointment scheduling and courier logistics. By flagging the earliest open slots across consulates and sending real-time status alerts, VisaHQ gives both leisure and corporate applicants a useful buffer against any future processing disruptions.
Although Greece accounts for barely 4 % of all Schengen visas issued in India, the shutdown created a domino effect: holidaymakers scrambled for scarce appointments at France and Italy, business travellers missed trade-fair deadlines, and India-based shipping companies reported crew-change delays at Greek ports. Travel agents estimate that more than 22,000 Indian applications were stuck in limbo at the peak of the disruption. The resumption will relieve pressure on other consulates, restore tour package confidence, and help Greek tourism operators court the fast-growing Indian outbound segment.
For Indian corporates, the message is clear: schedule appointments early and use the rebuilt online booking tool, as VACs expect a post-reopening surge. Companies should also review employee data-protection protocols—GVCW confirmed that no applicant passports or biometrics were compromised, but the incident highlights supply-chain cyber-risks in outsourced visa processing. Frequent business travellers may wish to book priority processing or multi-entry visas to hedge against future outages.
In the longer term, the outage—and Greece’s swift recovery—could influence upcoming EU consultations on a Schengen e-visa platform. Indian travel associations have already urged the European Commission to accelerate digital Schengen visas to reduce single-country bottlenecks. Until then, GVCW’s restored services mark a welcome return to normal for Indians eyeing the Aegean in 2026.