At IVS GBS, we’re committed to protect and respect your privacy. This Privacy Notice explains how GBS Technology Services & IVS Global FZCO (“IVS GBS,” “we,” or “us”) handles your personal information.

We may change this Privacy Notice from time to time. We will always make the latest Privacy Notice available to you via this page. Any changes to this privacy policy will apply to you and your data immediately.

In respect to the services provided by IVS GBS, this Privacy Notice describes:

• Who are we (IVS GBS)?
• Services provided by IVS GBS.
• Contact information of Data Controllers.
• How do we collect your personal information?
• Lawful basis for processing your personal data.
• How is your information used?
• How long do we hold your data for?
• Who do we share your information with?
• Transferring your personal information offshore.
• Your rights.
• How IVS GBS protects your information.
• Monitoring.
• Technology.
• Contact us.

IVS GBS is one of the world's leading outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions worldwide.

IVS GBS manages the administrative and non-judgmental tasks related to visa, passport, travel documents, identity management and other citizen services such as passport renewals for its client governments and diplomatic missions. This enables them to focus entirely on the critical task of judgemental assessment and decision making.

IVS GBS only provides certain logistic support to visa/ permit on behalf of its client governments and in accordance with the respective contracts with them regarding such services/ support. Apart from the visa/ permit processing services and citizen services, IVS GBS also provides additional services called Valued Added Services (VAS).

a. Processing your visa, passport, identity management and other citizen services (such as passport renewal).

IVS GBS is the outsourced partner of client governments and diplomatic missions for managing the administrative and non-judgmental tasks related to visa, passport, travel documents, identity management and other citizen services. In this capacity, IVS GBS (through its visa application centres (VACs)) is merely responsible for receipt of visa/ permit, collection of biometric data where applicable, collection of documents to accompany applications on behalf of the respective client government/ diplomatic mission; submission of applications and biometric data to the client government/ diplomatic mission for their consideration; collecting passports from visa applicants and returning passports back.

IVS GBS has no role to decide what documents are to be appended or what comments or details need to be made in the visa, passport, or travel documents application process.

b. Additional services as our customer.

IVS GBS also offers an additional range of Value Added Services to its customers who wish to procure this directly from IVS GBS.

IVS GBS also offers an additional range of Value Added Services to its customers who wish to procure this directly from IVS GBS.

Please, note that the availability of our VAS may vary from country to country. The services are completely independent of your visa/ permit procedure and might be purchased as per your needs.

The VAS offered by IVS GBS is a purely optional/ discretionary service, which are been offered by IVS GBS to the customer directly available under a contract between IVS GBS and the customer at an additional service charge.

Availing of this service does not affect or guarantee the decision or processing time of your visa/ permit in any manner as it is completely dependent on the client government/ diplomatic mission decision.

a. When processing your visa, passport, identity management and other citizen services (such as passport renewal).

Directorate General of Immigration is the responsible party for the use of the personal data you provide in the visa/ permit form and consequently, for the data received from your side in connection with the processing of your visa/ permit. Please see https://minexteriores.gob.gq/ for more information about how they process your personal data

This role is known as “Data Controller” as established in the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation). However, can have different names such as “Organisation”, “Data Fiduciary” “Data Handler” or similar depending on your country of residence.

b. When providing you with Value Added Services as our customer. When IVS GBS provides additional services requested by you, such as but not limited to appointment scheduling at a Visa Application Centre (VAC), application/ document tracking and transmittal, provision of self-service visa application workstations, document courier delivery services, etc., IVS GBS is responsible for processing the personal data you provide in connection with these services, hence IVS GBS is the Data Controller for these VAS.

IVS GBS collects information about you when you request our services either as part of your visa/ permit process or when you purchase any of the IVS GBS’s VAS.

a. When processing your visa, passport, identity management and other citizen services (such as passport renewal).

IVS GBS is authorized by the client government/ diplomatic mission we work on behalf of to perform administrative support and biometric collection services related to processing of visa/ permit.

Depending on the country you applied a visa/ permit for, the personal data required from you may change but it is always determined by the client government/ diplomatic mission who controls the personal data that is to be collected, used, and transferred by IVS GBS as part of the visa application process.

A comprehensive list of the data required from you for each of the different visas/ permits or travel applications, is included in the IVS GBS’s dedicated website for the respective visa/ permit routes at “srilanka.ivsgbsevisa.com”

Your information is collected by a member of IVS GBS staff or authorised partners when you contact a Visa Application Centre (VAC) for submitting your visa/ permit application form or for providing your biometrics as requested by the client government/ diplomatic mission you applied a visa/ permit for.

b. When providing you with additional services as our customer.

If you contact our customer support centre, or when you provide these details in a web form on our websites or when you request any of IVS GBS’s VAS, IVS GBS processes the information provided by you in order to deliver the service requested. Such information may consist of:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Delivery Address
• Email address
• Mobile Phone Number
• We may also collect your date of birth to identify you when using the Track & Trace service.
• Application reference number

Please note that is not mandatory to provide your personal data for requested Value Added Services However, without providing the required personal data, we may not be able to deliver these services.

a. When processing your visa, passport, identity management and other citizen services (such as passport renewal).

In respect of the lawful basis used by the respective client government / diplomatic mission as Data Controllers of the visa/ permit application process, you may need to provide your consent as part of the visa /permit application process. For further details on the content of this consent you are required to provide, please check the visa application/ permit form where the same is explained.

Please note that each of the client government/ diplomatic mission has its own application form, which means that there is not a unique consent and the same may vary depending on the country you applied a visa/ permit for.

b. When providing you with additional services as our customer.

If the data protection law in your country of residence allows, IVS GBS will use the lawful basis of “performance of contract”. What this means in plain terms is that when you purchase a VAS from IVS GBS, you enter into a contract with us to deliver that service. We could not deliver that service without using some personal data from you, by entering into that contract implies this you have given your permission for us to process that personal data. For example, in order to provide the courier service, we will need a delivery address.

If the data protection law in your country of residence does not have the lawful basis of “performance of contract”, then IVS GBS will ask for your consent for the processing of your personal data for one or more specific purposes.

a. To process your visa, passport, identity management and other citizen services (passport renewal)

As per the visa/ permit application process, the information collected by IVS GBS on behalf of the client government/ diplomatic mission is submitted to them for the assessment of your visa/ permit.
Please note that IVS GBS (or any member of its group of companies or staff) does not take any part on the decision making process and the grant or refusal of any visa/ permit.

This assessment is carried out at the sole discretion of the client government/ diplomatic mission as the Data Controller of this process, which reserves the right to ask for further documentation and information for the visa/ permit you have applied for and, to refuse any visa/ permit application. You must supply such further documentation and information if you wish the application to continue to be considered

Please do note that IVS GBS’s role as a Data Processor as defined in the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation), of the respective client government/ diplomatic mission regarding the visa/ permit process, is restricted to solely handle non-discretionary and non-advisable documentation on behalf of the concerned client government/ diplomatic mission, purely as an administrative/logistics measure and cannot comment on the documents shared by you for forwarding to the concerned client government/ diplomatic mission.

b. To provide you with additional services as our customers. In its role of Data Controller when providing VAS, IVS GBS will use your information for:

1. Book an appointment with one of our visa submissions officers at a Visa Application Centre (VAC);
2. Validate who you say you are when you come to collect your travel document;
3. Enable you to track the progress of your application;
4. Provide you with additional services that you request such as courier delivery for which we will need to know the delivery address and the name of who to deliver the travel document to;
5. With your prior permission, to send you information which you have requested and that may be of interest to you.

For VISA application
Your visa application data is deleted from IVS GBS’s systems at the latest 30 days after its transmission to the client government/diplomatic mission.

Only your name and contact details, as well as the passport number, are retained for the purposes of the appointment arrangements.

For visa application of Schengen countries, this personal data is kept until the return of the passport to the applicant and deleted five (5) days thereafter.

For visa application of all other countries, this personal data is kept until the return of the passport to the applicant and deleted thirty (30) days thereafter.

If you contact us with follow-up questions or a complaint, we may retain your contact information and any other information provided for the time it takes to resolve your matter.

We are legally required to hold some types of information during a larger period of time to fulfil our statutory obligations (for example; invoices for taxation legislation).

For Value Added Services:
We retain, for a limited time, a small amount of personal contact information in order to be able to perform a requested service, such as courier delivery of your travel documents. This information consists of the following: Full name, data of birth, email address, phone number, alternative phone number, delivery address (if requested). This information is retained by IVS GBS for thirty (30) days after collection or delivery of the travel documents or visa to applicant. It is retained for 30 days in order for us to deal with any queries or issue that may occur. After 30 days this information is automatically purged from our systems.

a. When processing your visa, passport, identity management and other citizen services (such as passport renewal).
We share your personal information with the respective client government/ diplomatic mission that we are an authorised service provider. This information includes the personal information supplied by you to support your visa/ permit, consular service, or other service that we provide on behalf of a client government/ diplomatic mission. We may also share your personal information with the client government/ diplomatic mission whose visa, consular service, or any other service you applied for, in connection with a complaint, request or data access request, received from you.

b. When providing you with additional services as our customer.
We may share your contact information with other partners where it is necessary for the processing of your requests or to deliver an additional service that you have requested for. For example; if you have asked us to deliver your travel document to your home or office, we will need to provide the courier company with your name, delivery address and a contact phone number. We only use partners that have adequate level of data protection measures in place.

c. We do not sell your data to third parties
We will never sell your personal data to third parties as this is set out in our internal Privacy Policy.

a. When processing your visa, passport, identity management and other citizen services (such as passport renewal).
As part of the visa/ permit process, the information collected by IVS GBS on behalf of the client government/ diplomatic mission you applied a visa/ permit for will be transferred offshore, from the country of your application to the home country of the client government/ diplomatic mission.

b. When providing you with additional services as our customer
In order to provide a service to support your visa application such as appointment scheduling, tracking your application and invoicing, we will transfer your personal information, internally within IVS GBS, to one of our data centres located in Europe, Canada, or Russia as applicable.

The sharing of your personal data with certain recipients may imply transfers of your data out of the European Economic Area (EEA) We pay particular attention to the protection of your personal data. Thus, where such transfers out of the EEA shall take place, we first implement appropriate safeguards by signing the standard contractual clauses of the European Commission with the entity out of the EEA which processes your personal data.

c. Children’s privacy protection
Our services are not designed for, or intentionally targeted at children. When we process data from children, we will require parental consent.

a. Data Subjects rights in relation to the processing of your visa, passport, identity management and other citizen services (such as passport renewal).

As an authorised contractor of the client governments/ diplomatic missions we work with, IVS GBS has no access to the information submitted by you as part of your visa/ permit. This includes copies of your visa application, or any information submitted by you in connection with your visa application.

If you require this information, you need to directly contact the Data Controller of the respective client government/ diplomatic mission of the country whose visa you applied for, and which details are provided in the respective privacy notice of the specific website route of the visa/ permit you applied for.

b. Data Subjects rights in relation to the additional services provided to you as our customer.

Under many data protection laws, you have rights with regard how your personal information is handled. These privacy rights vary from country to country, however in IVS GBS we enable you to exercise a full range of data protection rights depending on the applicable jurisdiction. It includes among others:

• The right to be informed how your personal information is being used.
• The right of access and a copy of your personal information.
• The right to rectification if your personal information is incorrect.
• The right to erasure your personal information (where the law permits this).
• The right to restrict processing of your personal information.
• The right to data portability.
• The right to object to how your personal information is used.
• Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.
• Registering a concern about data privacy
• Requesting a copy of your personal data, correcting inaccurate personal data, deletion of personal data.

You can exercise you rights by contacting IVS GBS at: DATA SUBJECT ACCESS RIGHTS FORM

c. Accessing your information: Authentication.

In order to protect your privacy and to authenticate that the request is genuinely from you and not from anyone else masquerading as you, we might request some additional details of your last interaction with IVS GBS, some details that nobody else would know about.

This is to ensure that it is really you who is making the request and not someone else. We will only request enough information to enable us to identify you.

When you give us personal information, we take steps to ensure that it is treated securely. Any sensitive information is encrypted and protected.

On our websites when you are on a secure page, a lock icon will appear in the address bar of most web browsers. This means the transfer of information from your browser to our web servers is encrypted to keep it safe.

Please bear in mind that emails may be transmitted normally over the Internet, and this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, do not include personal information in an email when you communicate with us, if you do, you do so at your own risk.

a. CCTV
Please note that in IVS GBS premises we intent to maintain the highest security standards in place for our staff and customers. For this reason, you will find that IVS GBS uses CCTV systems where the law permits so.

The required CCTV signs are deployed in our VACs and offices and indicates that you are being recorded. This CCTV footage is kept for a certain period of time in line with our client governments / diplomatic missions’ requirements and applicable local laws.

b. Guarding services
As part of our security standards, you may find deployed in our VACs and offices guarding services. In certain locations you will be required to identify yourself prior to access our VACs and premises.

a.     Use of cookies.
Like many other websites, the IVS GBS websites use Cookies. 'Cookies' are small pieces of information sent by an organisation to your browser and stored on your device. One purpose we use them for is to help collect statistical information about your browsing actions and patterns, but they do not identify you as an individual to us.

Other uses are to set your preferred language and tell your browser what pages you have already visited so that you can use the 'Back' function. Cookies help us to improve our websites and deliver a more personalized service.

We provide the choice for you to accept or refuse the use of cookies when you visit our websites, and you can change the cookie settings at any time.

Please note that disabling cookies may result in a loss of functionality when using our website. For more detailed information about how IVS GBS uses cookies, please see our Cookies disclosure notice.

b.    Links to other websites.
Our websites may contain links to other websites run by other organizations. This Privacy Notice applies only to this website‚ so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit.

Please, note that, if you link from our website to another website, or if you follow a link to arrive at our website, we cannot be responsible for the practices of those third-party websites and we recommend that you check the Privacy Notice of that third-party website. We always perform a check of other websites before publishing a link to it.