As most of the people who have themselves applied for a new passport during rush season would testify, getting a passport is a real pain in you-know-where.I got my passport a couple of months back under the Tatkal scheme. Let me sum up the experience, believe me you are better off reading it than experiencing it.
(1) You reach Bhikaji Cama Place in Delhi.Greeted by jumbled chaos of cars and a diverse crowd.From the communicator wielding ones to those who dream of making it big in Kanaadaa one day.
(2) Soon you will be enquired upon by tens of touts/agents/dalals. Telling you how quickly and easily they can get you a passport. They are quite right, but they charge a fee of course. Somewhere on the outside of the Office Building a black coloured board with white paint reads something like this- “There is no use of touts in this office. Kindly avoid them”. Just the same as saying that Indian babus don’t accept bribes.
(2) Buy the passport form, either from the back of the Passport Office , or from one of the above mentioned for a nominal extra fee.
(3) The passport forms are surprisingly easy to fill thanks to detailed instructions,yet for the odd query there is no one to help, though you may try the agents and get some information for free if you sort of convince then that you are sincerely interested in being their client.
(4) Get all sorts of documents. Get them photocopied then attested. Considering the number of documents one is asked, I was surprised they didn’t ask for an attested certificate on stamp paper from a legal notary confirming my shoe-size.
(5) Then get the form stamped with ‘tickets’ which mention a queue number for inside the office after standing in a queue outside the office for this.
(6) Simply get an agent, pay the money and jump to step number 12 or keep reading.
(7) Stand in the queue inside the Passport building, only one person is allowed per person. I strongly recommend getting someone along too, it is not hard to fool the guard. I recommend this as while crawling along the queue, you may find even the activity of watching your nails grow to be interesting. Also the queues are typical of most Indian queues, meaning that the ticket-number allotted to you is completely useless. A companion further ensures your safety when fighting for positions in the lines.
(8 )Wait.
(9) Wait.
(10)Wait.
(11) Reach the Passport Officer’s room, where he tells you that so and so document is missing or so and so thing is wrong. Even though you are sure that they were never mentioned in the forms. Repeat steps 5-10.The number of times you do so depends on your luck (or rather the lack of it), perhaps also on the mood of the Passport officer’s wife before he left for office in the morning. It is worth noting that if once you are told to get some document back, you should count your whole day wasted as they do not let you in after a specified time, which is quite early (I am not sure, but I think it is about 1:30 pm.)
A person who was almost dancing after he got his passport approved, told me that he was into this thing since the last three weeks. For the first time in my life I went through two different emotions of jealousy and sympathy simultaneously.Though, I am not sure it was wholly him to which my feelings of sympathy were attributed to.
(12) Finally you do get everything approved and pay at the deposit counter.This queue is relatively smaller as most of the applicants are still going through steps 6-11.
(13) You are given a date mentioning when you will be posted the passport, or to receive it in person. If you have directly come from step 6 you will probably be asked very courteously if he could be of any further help, after all the agent is just a broker, the officers are the ones who squeeze in most of the dough. Someone please advise him to taste Cyanide.I’ll give you most of the things I posses,the passport not being one of them though. Meanwhile the the ones who have been following all the above mentioned steps, plot how to kill the officers.Can’t blame the poor applicant, when the choice while standing in the lines is between watching your nails grow and the thought of sweet vengeance. Whether you want to subsequently roast him and then eat or grind him and feed the vultures, is a matter of personal taste. But I recommend to wait, it ain’t finished yet.
(14) You receive the passport. Only to realise that some or the other information is wrongly printed. If lucky it may be a very small mistake, else you may find that your mother and father share the same name.Go through steps similar to 5-13 again.
(15) Now with everything in order, you set out to murder the passport authorities. Sadly to reach them you need to go through steps 1-11 again, and quite understandably one prefers to stay at home.
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Heh. I had a similar dance to perform to acquire an Indian Visa. Seconds before I got it, I was told that one photograph didn’t look like me, and was too similar to the one in my passport, whereas in six years, I should have changed more. I pointed out that I had, and that was why the photo didn’t look like me, then bit my lip, wondering if I’d just earnt another week in the queues.
My passport was made when I was very young, so I don’t remember what happened at that time but the renewing of the passport was also a bit painful. I had to stand there for hours. And there was so much rush.
Bye!!
Anonymous, may I know your identity please?
Nice, ipassports are a huge hassle in India, touts are very efficient at it though :P
Yeah, touts are very efficient. I didn’t have to go to the passport office even once to get my passport made. However, I’ve heard enough incidents of “Passport-Pain” and am not surprised to see anyone who gets a passport repeating the same thing. And its always your Mother’s of Father’s name that they’re after (Rohit Nag’s, Varenya’s..). Heck Varenya even wrote a letter to the Passport Commisioner complaining about the whole ordeal, although I doubt that would’ve even moved a hair of those babus.
[...] Adi recounts the countless hassles he had to go through to get a passport through the ‘Tatkal’ scheme. I wonder how laborious the ‘Take Your Time’ scheme is. [...]
I had a similar experience when applying for a tatkal passport, five years ago in Bombay. It was absolute hell and an experience I never want to repeat.
Renewing Indian passport outside India is very easy and you can avoid all the hassle invovled in renewing in India.
I had a pleasant experience at Indian Consulate San Francisco.
They have a well maintained website listing what all documents, copies are required and you can get the passport renewed within 10 days.
Of course, there are always idiot desis who keep coming to counter asking all dumb questions for which answers are already published on the website.
I know this is different from your situation, but just wanted to give another perspective.
Agree with Gajanana…
Passport services in Indian embassies abroad are very hassle free.
However, i have always wondered why the government charges for any passport service. A passport is a property of government of India and the applicant has nothing to do with the governments costs of building its own assets.
“Get all sorts of documents. Get them photocopied then attested. Considering the number of documents one is asked, I was surprised they didn’t ask for an attested certificate on stamp paper from a legal notary confirming my shoe-size.”
LOL
“Get all sorts of documents. Get them photocopied then attested. Considering the number of documents one is asked, I was surprised they didn’t ask for an attested certificate on stamp paper from a legal notary confirming my shoe-size.”
LOL
Here in bangalore it is extremely simple, take the appointment through net and go at the given time, i had got my thing done in 30 mins.
There is also an updated status everytime.
kar.nic.in
yours seems to be a very nice blog, tell me if you would like to be linked at
indiblogs.blogspot.com
My experience with getting my passport was not at all painful and i used the post office for getting my passport done. I had the passport with me 30 days after applying in the post office.
tracked the progress using passport.nic.in
Why did i comment? Just wanted to let the community know of an alternate experience.
Hey thanks all for the comments.
Gajana, Shivaji, Jayanth, Vijay: I envy you. Glad that you shared your experiences.
Rungta: I envy you too.
Andy: :-)
MumbaiGirl,Sarsparilla: Sadly, when I know that others have shared similar experiemces it brightens me up. Finding solace in the fact, at least I was not the only one
Ankit:Thanks, I have replied at the website.
That’s funny. It also shows nothing has changed, except for the fact that our government offices now have computerrr. The agents will never go away and neither will the lines or the officers desire for “rishwat”. Gladly things in the US were much easier when I had to renew my Indian passport. Buy a large envelope, fill out the pdf form printed out from the Indian consulate’s website, drop the form and the original passport in the envelope with the checks and done. 3 weeks later I had my new passport.
india=hindustan
united states of america=usa
can u make out the diffrence
Nice write-up, reminds me of the hassle of paying even electricity bills in India 10 years ago. With all the progress I’ve been reading about India, I hadn’t realized such ridiculous time-wasting schemes still existed.
My personal experience with the SFO Indian consulate has been wonderful. Even after I moved to the east coast, hence out of their jurisdiction, they were very courteous and helped me when I lost my passport. The NYC office never responded to any of my emails or phone calls of help. I’m writing this so fellow NRI’s know they can still contact SFO if they get nowhere with NYC.
BTW, I have a feeling that the quality of service provided in the US consulates compared to the Passport offices in India might be due to the NRI-syndrome(for lack of a better term). What do you think?
Vidya: Bills are much easier to pay now in India. The queues would still be LONG if you are just next to a dead-line. But then, the cheque drop facility and others make life much easier. Plus many companies like this have sprung up, people will also do this for a nominal fee. But this again is an extension of the agent syndrome,na?
I haven’t been abroad, but yeah I do feel it is quite the NRI-syndrome.Quite, in the same manner we do not spit or pee on the roads when in the States, but will find paan stains on boards which read “Spitting is strictly prohibited”.
so we can conclude that its better to use agents and pay then few extra bucks.
good article. thanks
Well quite so, mostly if you wanna get you passport on an urgent basis (Tatkal ie. seven days or less). But the ‘few’ extra bucks is relative. People who can blog, perhaps do belong in the strata which can afford a couple of thousands without much thought, if the option were to escape this.
But what about the worker from a remote village in the country who is going to the gulf? Probably he even mortaged his wife’s jewellery for the plane ticket.
Oh yeah – totally agree with you. The passport office is one of the worst places to go.
the experience which almost all of us had to go through. and definitely after all this wen u receive your passport something or the other will surely be wrongly printed. though i didnt have to repeat the steps 5-10 cause having heard the troubles one had to go through in the passport office i made a file which had all my certificates and papers possible and i made some 3-4 copies of each and got them all attested… so wheneva who SOB’s tried to ask for something they didnt mention i had them ready.. and i should say dat anyone whose doin their passport themself should follow the strategy.
Hi,
Please pray for me….I would be standing in the line tomm….for a passport renewal.
Do anyone has got any idea on how much time will it take to get a passport (issued outside bangalore) renewed from Bangalore Passport office?
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Got mine a couple a years ago…… Never faced a single problem……… What with Dad having had a Diplomatic Passport at that point of time thanks to his having worked in the Government at a post that required lots of traveling abroad……… And, him knowing all the details by heart……… I didn’t have as interesting an experience as the rest…… Apart from the wait in the queue which happened to have been quite civilized that day…….
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I am very surprised at this .. Passport office in Jaipur must be haven.. My friend applied tatkal passport on thrusday and he got it on next tuesday .. No payment/ no tout/ No hassle
Nobody in jaipur passport office was using any agent as the process was so simple .. Last week i went for enquiring about my passport.. Passport officer was very nice and patiently listened to my query and replied … I was totally amazed at this super change in govt offices.. But on reading this i am realising that change is probabaly only at few cities
seriously maan !!! painful process it is… AM goin through that part where u loop between steps 6-12… everytime they find a fault and send me runnin back…fuggers… plus the crowdsize and the pune office size are as out of sync as a herd of elephants bathing in a teaspoon….
my passport is spoiled due to some reason . My visa stamp is washed off and it get print on other pages and when i try to dry it with iron one the main satmp, its a silver stamp is also spoiled . i am from kuwait nw i hv to go back within 4 days. plz tell me what i hv 2 do nw. i m really in trouble.
The passport office website is really good by Indian starndards. The problem starts when you get to the passport officer. He doesn’t care about what is mentioned in the booklet/ website. It all depends on his/ her whims and fancies.
The guys there r crazy – this happened to guy standing after me, the officer didn;t like the order in which the documents were presented to him – he started throwing them in the air shouting “where are the xerox copies?”! LOL
No experience in passport office but can imagine the chaos there and the goondas trying their luck to lure people especially foreigners like us. They are so so accurate to know who is who. Had a nightmare buying train tickets from ASR to DEL. No seats but if you pay more you get the seats. Wonder where the seats come from.
i had submitted my wife’s passport in Dubai Indian council, which had expired as a normal submission.After 20 days the passport has issued for only one year.Normally the validity will be 10 years.When i enqired ,i was told that, may be the police enquiry is not completed.Who has to do this?
Now what i have to do to get it renewed for 10 years?Ther will be fee for this?
hi is there any out there, Woh got his Fresh Passport outside India?
I mean, Your first passport made, but not in India. I came Illegally to Europe cuople of years back, now I would like to or lets say I have to apply for a Passport, is it possilbe to get an Indian passport in Italy, I have no ideas at all and the Indian Consulate does not supports me at all….maybe someone out with a piece of advice ..
thanks
hi is there any out there, whos got his Fresh Passport outside India?
I mean, Your first passport made, but not in India. I came Illegally to Europe couple of years back, now I would like to or lets say I have to apply for a Passport, is it possible to get an Indian passport in Italy, I have no ideas at all and the Indian Consulate does not supports me at all….maybe someone out with a piece of advice ..
thanks
Man! I know I am commenting after 3 years but gotta say that the shoe size expression was awesome. The kind of details the ask for really makes one wonder if they might ask that as well!
My pains is on my blog. I found the link to yours from there.