Need advice for obtaining normal Indian passport for abroad resident staying in INDIA

[RVemulapati]

Need advice for obtaining regular Indian passport for abroad resident who travelled to India through EC due to family emergency

I’m Raveendra Vemulapati working for a private company named Manhattan Associates Inc in Atlanta USA for the last 8 years. I need your direction/inputs/help regarding the procedure that I need to follow for obtaining India passport.

Earlier this year, I planned my vacation time from Aug 30 to September 30 of 2016. During my vacation time, I planned to travel to India from Atlanta, USA. Based on these dates, I booked my flight ticket from Atlanta to Chennai through London and also scheduled visa interview appointment with US consulate in Chennai on 9/15 (finger prints and document collection) and 9/16 (actual visa interview date with US consulate). I applied for transit visa with UK consulate to travel through London and sent relevant documents (my passport and supporting documents) to them for approving transit visa.

On 8/16 I received an unexpected sad news saying that my mother is passed away due to heart attack in India. On that day, I don’t have my India passport with me. It’s with UK consulate, New York. I send an email to them, I did the follow-up and called UK consulate multiple times through paid service number and requested them to send back my passport immediately. However, they informed me that they will not be able to take immediate action and will be able to send passport to USA home address by following regular process within a week. I can’t afford that delay.

Due to family emergency situation, I visited India visa consulate in Atlanta on 8/16 and explained my whole situation to them. Consulate employees helped me to obtain an emergency travel certificate (aka temporary emergency passport) on the same day. They also mentioned that this emergency travel document will void my current passport and that document is only valid for travelling from US to India. Once I reach India, they mentioned that this travel certificate will be cancelled by airport authority in India. I agreed with the process. With that emergency travel certificate, I am able to travel to India from USA on 8/16 evening and able to reach on-time, saw my mother one last time and participated and completed ritual formalities. With friends/colleagues help, I also received my passport from UK consulate on 8/24.

Now I’m working with passport office in Bangalore, India for applying for re-issuing a new passport. I scheduled passport appointment and visited passport seva Kendra multiple times. They’re requesting me to present Indian residence address proof with my name for issuing Indian passport. As per their guidelines, without Indian residency address proof with my name, there is no way to get India passport. However from the last 8 years I’m staying in USA. All of bank accounts and particulars that I have refers to USA address, not Indian resident address. Only my passport books is referring to my parents address. Since I’m NRE, it’s illegal for me to produce document indicating that I’m resident of India currently. Please advise me what steps/procedure that I have to follow for obtaining Indian passport. Please note that my father stays in India. I have his name in my passport and able to provide his identity/address resident related documents as address proof as necessary.

[RVemulapati]

Here is solution to this problem

My lessons learned
1. Apply passport renewal/new passport only from the state where it’s issued last time (native place mostly)
2. If you travel to India using emergency travel document, in order to get new passport, you have to lie stating that you lost your current passport. Otherwise, there is no way you will get new passport. Reason is that in passport issuing system there is no special option available to handle exception cases to specify why you travelled to India using emergency travel document.
3. If you’re applying for passport in India, its mandatory requirement that you have to produce address and/or identify proofs (minimum of 3) with your native place address. No matter whether you’re NRI or green card holder etc.. In my case, I used the following documents as identity and/or address proof
a. Aadhar card (I applied for it. Once I received my aadhar number, I applied for passport)
b. My wife passport + Marriage certificate
c. Bank statement with native place address rather than over-seas address
d. DOB certificate
4. Since my situation involves emergency travel document, I wouldn’t recommend to apply passport from new passport centers. Instead go and apply from main passport centers. New passport centers doesn’t know how to update their systems to void old passport, update with emergency travel document and issuing new passport. At some point in the process, they will defer you to go to regional passport office center in your state.
Example: For Andhra Pradesh, it’s Hyderabd; For Karnataka, it’s Bangalore etc.
5. If you renew your last Indian passport from Abroad, you’re not eligible to get new passport and/or renewal passport under Tatkal scheme in India

It took me 2.5 months to get Indian passport. If I known above information clearly or some one in the passport office is knowledgeable enough to provide above information, I should have received my passport within 3 weeks.