Spain Visa Fraud Probe Widens: Indian Firm BLS Under Scanner Over Alleged Schengen Scam

Spain's National Court has widened its probe into an alleged visa-for-cash racket at the Spanish Consulate in Algiers, with Indian company BLS now under scrutiny. The investigation follows the arrest of two consulate officials and allegations of a "criminal structure" facilitating Schengen visas in exchange for money.

Judicial sources told THE OBJECTIVE that the investigation, led by María Tardón, head of Central Investigating Court No. 3 of the National Court, began "following official communications" from the Spanish Embassy in Algeria. Specifically, officials from the Interior Ministry's office at the Embassy warned "of the existence of a network whose main objective was financial gain through the fraudulent granting of Schengen visas, which would enable legal entry into Spain."

The alleged corrupt network, reportedly headed by the Chancellor, or number two official at the Consulate, is accused of “irregularly processing visas and residence and self-employment permits, with the ultimate aim of facilitating a migratory flow of Algerian nationals towards countries within the Schengen area,” according to the sources cited in the report.

In many cases, the beneficiaries allegedly did not meet “the formal requirements for obtaining visas.” This obstacle was circumvented “through the payment of a sum of money to members of the criminal group, who facilitated the purported procedures using documentation that had not been verified and was, on occasions, altered or false.”

Furthermore, the scheme allegedly extended beyond Algiers. The criminal activity “was not limited solely to the irregular transit of these individuals” into Spain, but in some cases also involved “obtaining and consolidating residence status within Schengen territory — Spain or France — including through organised networks carrying out the final phase of obtaining these authorisations.”

Judge Tardón is also investigating the broader circle of individuals allegedly involved in the scheme, according to THE OBJECTIVE.

The National Court has also detected “the participation of collaborating companies providing administrative services, such as appointment allocation or document management, whose personnel allegedly facilitated the preparation of applications and profited from this activity, selecting only those families that had made the payments required by the scheme.”

The investigation led by Judge Tardón expressly refers to “processing platforms such as BLS,” while the alleged bribes reached “as much as €25,000” per family in some cases. This figure had already been disclosed by police sources following the arrests in April.

In 2016, Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs awarded the Indian company responsibility for the operational management of appointments and the receipt of visa documentation at certain consulates around the world, under a contract worth a total of €175 million. The work has focused primarily on Russia, China, India and countries in the Maghreb, Persian Gulf and Southeast Asia.

The award to BLS was controversial at the time because the selected company had been caught up in several controversies both in India and the United States.

The outsourcing of visa-appointment allocation had begun in 2011 with another Indian company, VFS Global, meaning that the Foreign Ministry’s contract for these services has always been awarded to companies from India.

The collateral victims of the alleged fraudulent scheme in Algiers were visa applicants who followed the proper legal channels.

Money laundering is one of five alleged offences that the National Court judge has attributed to those under investigation at this initial stage of the proceedings.

Notably in 2025, several Spanish businesspeople had submitted written complaints to Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares’s ministry alleging that the Consulate General in Algiers was systematically refusing to issue work visas to Algerian nationals.

Some of those letters already pointed to the existence of a scheme whose members, according to the ongoing investigation, had formed “a criminal structure” operating within the Consulate and “facilitating visas in exchange for financial compensation, while laundering part of the proceeds in Spain through vehicle purchases.”

Ananya is a journalist with a strong grounding in breaking news and a deep-rooted passion for geopolitics. She has 6 years of experience in TV and Dig... View More