Establishment of European Service Centre

As part of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) Transformation, the department is consolidating its call centre operations in London with the establishment of a European Service Centre (ESC). This is the first step in establishing a network of service centres that are equipped to handle both pre and post lodgement queries.  

The ESC will be available Monday to Friday between 9am and 4pm Greenwich Mean Time, servicing clients from across the Europe Region who currently have their enquiries managed locally at post in restricted hours of operation. The anticipated benefits include an enhanced level of client service, improved consistency in client information, improved integrity and increased efficiency.  

Initially the ESC will be staffed to offer services in English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Serbian/Croatian, Greek, Hungarian and Arabic. The service will support the department’s planned closure of several small satellite posts in Paris, Warsaw, Rome, Budapest and Zagreb.

While the ESC will offer those languages stated above in the initial stages, a review of the language service offer for the ESC is underway. Any proposed changes to existing service offer will be managed in consultation with DFAT.

The ESC commenced taking Polish calls and emails in May, to coincide with the transfer of visa caseloads from Warsaw to Berlin. It is anticipated that the Berlin Service Centre will cease accepting client enquiries from 30 June 2011. French and Hungarian calls will also be accepted at the ESC in July. It is planned that calls and emails from all other DIAC posts in the Europe region will be accepted by the ESC in September.

Contact details and opening hours, including public holidays are available on the website.
See: Immigration Offices Outside Australia