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I recently renewed my passport in India and I wanted to post my experience. My passport was a hand written passport renewed at Houston, USA
Just before my trip to India, I came to know that hand written passports were no longer accepted. All the passports should be machine readable.
Before leaving to India, I called up immigration officials at Hyderabad airport to check if they were still accepting the hand written passports.
Immigration officials confirmed that were accepting hand written passports while entering the country. But did warn me that they were not allowing
any one to leave the country with a hand written passport.
I thought I could travel with my hand written passport and renew my passport in India. I was hoping that I could apply via tatkaal and get my
passport in 1 day. After reaching India, I came to know the hard way that I can't apply via tatkaal because my passport was issued in Houston, USA.
As it was issued in Houston, passport officials in India were not able to look up my details. And also police verification needed to be done.
They said it may take 1 week for me to get the passport. And the earliest appointment I could get for Normal processing was next week.
That means I needed atleast 2 weeks to get my passport renewed. I went to India for 1.5 weeks, so I couldn't apply through normal processing.
Looking at the passportindia.gov.in website, I came to know that I can still apply in Tatkaal if I can get a Verification letter from an IAS, IPS, or DSP
(on the website, you can find list of people who can issue this verification letter). Also, we need to have document for the address proof (website has list of
documents that we can show for address proof). After living in USA for so many years, I didn't have any of the listed documents for address proof.
Lucky that I had a Bank account in a Nationalized bank in India, and that's the only address proof I could show them.
I was able to get the Verification letter, but the real problem was getting an appointment for tatkaal. Only 10 slots will be released per day for each PSK center.
We have to login to the passportindia.gov.in website at 4:30 PM and try our luck.
I tried for 2 days and I couldn't get the appointment. And all the slots will be gone in less than 1 minute. I'm sure so many people will be logged in to get the appointment.
Finally I was able to get my passport renewed!
This wouldn't have been an issue if -
1) If my passport was issued in India or if I had renewed my passport in India.
2) The permanent address in my passport was the address in India.
Then I could have applied in tatkaal and wouldn't have to go through the police verification.
If you are an NRI and planning to renew your passport in India, this is what I would do:
1) Plan to renew your passport in India only if you are going on a 2-3 week vacation.
2) Before leaving USA, fill up the passport application online, submit it and get an appointment.
3) Check if you are eligible to apply in tatkaal. Note that once you submit and take appointment, they will not let you
change the appointment from tatkaal to normal.
4) If you are not eligible to apply in tatkaal, take the appointment for normal process.
5) Make sure you have some document for address proof in India.
While filling out the application:
1) You will be asked if: "Is Present Address out of India?"
You need to say "No" here. As you will be in India while applying for passport.
2) Residing Since: Enter the date you entered India
3) For the address, enter your permanent address in India
Note that you will need to show the address proof document for this address.
4) "Is your permanent address same as present address?" - Click "Yes"
5) On the next page, you will be asked: "Please enter your previous residential address details as duration of your stay at your present residential address is less than one year."
Here you should mention your address at USA.
Once you have an appointment and have the document for address proof, everything should go smooth.
And you will get the passport in less than 1 week.
The application process at the PSK center is pretty straight forward. I really appreciate the effort they put
in to streamline the passport application process at the PSK center. You need to go just few mins before
your appointment time. You will be given a token and will be called as per the token. The whole application
process took me less than 15 mins.
Note that if you have to go through police verification, police officer will ask you for how long have you been
staying at this address. As you are visiting India, he will ask you the date you entered the country.
Which will probably be less than a week. The police officer told me that if the length of stay is less than 1 year
than automatically the police report will be sent as "Adverse". I registered for the SMS alerts and I used to get
all the alerts. Make sure that once you get the police report has been sent alert, get the "Adverse" remark cleared from your passport
otherwise it will cause problems later on.
Also, for the people whose passport was issued in India, but the permanent address mentioned in the passport
has changed, even they will have to go through the police verification and they won't be able to apply via tatkaal.
Also, they will need address proof documents for the new address.
Just before my trip to India, I came to know that hand written passports were no longer accepted. All the passports should be machine readable.
Before leaving to India, I called up immigration officials at Hyderabad airport to check if they were still accepting the hand written passports.
Immigration officials confirmed that were accepting hand written passports while entering the country. But did warn me that they were not allowing
any one to leave the country with a hand written passport.
I thought I could travel with my hand written passport and renew my passport in India. I was hoping that I could apply via tatkaal and get my
passport in 1 day. After reaching India, I came to know the hard way that I can't apply via tatkaal because my passport was issued in Houston, USA.
As it was issued in Houston, passport officials in India were not able to look up my details. And also police verification needed to be done.
They said it may take 1 week for me to get the passport. And the earliest appointment I could get for Normal processing was next week.
That means I needed atleast 2 weeks to get my passport renewed. I went to India for 1.5 weeks, so I couldn't apply through normal processing.
Looking at the passportindia.gov.in website, I came to know that I can still apply in Tatkaal if I can get a Verification letter from an IAS, IPS, or DSP
(on the website, you can find list of people who can issue this verification letter). Also, we need to have document for the address proof (website has list of
documents that we can show for address proof). After living in USA for so many years, I didn't have any of the listed documents for address proof.
Lucky that I had a Bank account in a Nationalized bank in India, and that's the only address proof I could show them.
I was able to get the Verification letter, but the real problem was getting an appointment for tatkaal. Only 10 slots will be released per day for each PSK center.
We have to login to the passportindia.gov.in website at 4:30 PM and try our luck.
I tried for 2 days and I couldn't get the appointment. And all the slots will be gone in less than 1 minute. I'm sure so many people will be logged in to get the appointment.
Finally I was able to get my passport renewed!
This wouldn't have been an issue if -
1) If my passport was issued in India or if I had renewed my passport in India.
2) The permanent address in my passport was the address in India.
Then I could have applied in tatkaal and wouldn't have to go through the police verification.
If you are an NRI and planning to renew your passport in India, this is what I would do:
1) Plan to renew your passport in India only if you are going on a 2-3 week vacation.
2) Before leaving USA, fill up the passport application online, submit it and get an appointment.
3) Check if you are eligible to apply in tatkaal. Note that once you submit and take appointment, they will not let you
change the appointment from tatkaal to normal.
4) If you are not eligible to apply in tatkaal, take the appointment for normal process.
5) Make sure you have some document for address proof in India.
While filling out the application:
1) You will be asked if: "Is Present Address out of India?"
You need to say "No" here. As you will be in India while applying for passport.
2) Residing Since: Enter the date you entered India
3) For the address, enter your permanent address in India
Note that you will need to show the address proof document for this address.
4) "Is your permanent address same as present address?" - Click "Yes"
5) On the next page, you will be asked: "Please enter your previous residential address details as duration of your stay at your present residential address is less than one year."
Here you should mention your address at USA.
Once you have an appointment and have the document for address proof, everything should go smooth.
And you will get the passport in less than 1 week.
The application process at the PSK center is pretty straight forward. I really appreciate the effort they put
in to streamline the passport application process at the PSK center. You need to go just few mins before
your appointment time. You will be given a token and will be called as per the token. The whole application
process took me less than 15 mins.
Note that if you have to go through police verification, police officer will ask you for how long have you been
staying at this address. As you are visiting India, he will ask you the date you entered the country.
Which will probably be less than a week. The police officer told me that if the length of stay is less than 1 year
than automatically the police report will be sent as "Adverse". I registered for the SMS alerts and I used to get
all the alerts. Make sure that once you get the police report has been sent alert, get the "Adverse" remark cleared from your passport
otherwise it will cause problems later on.
Also, for the people whose passport was issued in India, but the permanent address mentioned in the passport
has changed, even they will have to go through the police verification and they won't be able to apply via tatkaal.
Also, they will need address proof documents for the new address.
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