Indian Passport Renewal Procedure and Tips

You might have heard from your friends about the quick and easier renewal of passports these days in India. I got my passport renewed recently. What my friends told about the renewal process was right. But even then one needs to take care of few points during renewal. Here are those.

Passport Renewal Appointment : Online appointment is mandatory for renewal of passports. To schedule the appointment, you need to create an id for yourself at Indian Passport website. System will automatically book a slot for you. If you want to cancel/reschedule, you can do so. But this can be done only twice within a year of first appointment date.

Proofs : Once you have scheduled the appointment, it is time to gather proofs for submission. Though the passport website document adviser will give you a list of indicative proofs, they may not be complete. So, it is better you go through the list of documents listed in the online appointment receipt as per your case. Definitely, you do not want to make a trip to passport office in case some proof is missing. Some tips here.

Old Passport : Old passport in original with self-attested photocopy of its first two and last two pages, including ECR/Non-ECR page (previously ECNR) and the page of observation (if any), made by Passport Issuing Authority and validity extension page, if any, in respect of short validity passport.

Address Proofs : Following link provides the list of documents accepted as address proofs.

• Carry as many proofs of address as you never know why a proof can be rejected.
• In my case, I thought voter ID as proof of address was enough. But to my surprise, the officer handling my case rejected it citing issue date was missing!
• If you are carrying photo passbook of scheduled banks, make sure it is updated to the latest date.
• If you are carrying utility bills like water, electricity bills as address proofs, make you carry 2 bills - one latest bill and another bill of previous year as to prove you stayed in the address for a year.

Marriage Certificate : Carry the marriage certificate if you want to add your spouse's name in the renewed passport.

Token Issuance : Once you reach the passport office on the appointment date and time, you will be issued a token after verifying the documents.

Counters : 

Counter A (Processing) : This is the counter where do the processing of your application. This process is outsourced to TCS. So, this goes smooth. Application will be processed and applicants will be asked to verify the details. Uploading of proofs and finger print scanning is done here.

Counter B (Verification) : This is managed by Government officers. This is where going gets tough if the proofs are not proper. Be humble and polite, as you should be knowing how to act in a Government office. Most often, if the proofs are not proper, you will be given a future date to produce the appropriate proofs and application will be put in HOLD state. If everything goes fine, you will be sent to Counter C. 

Counter C (Granting) : This counter is also managed by Government officers. You old passport will be stamped as CANCELLED. You will receive the acknowledgement that passport is GRANTED. 

Note : For all the counters, you will put in a queue and will be called based on your token number. You need to watch the digital screen displaying the token number to ascertain your turn.

Once the passport is granted, it will be delivered at the address you mentioned in your application in due course of time. Nowadays, passport is getting delivered in a matter of 3 to 4 days.