Passport renewal - As we approach 75 years of independence, incremental changes are the need of the hour

I had to jot this down - too many thoughts going on in my head based on my experience in the last few weeks. Hopefully my post here will help those who plan to renew their passport in a smooth, hassle free manner.

My passport expired earlier this month and I initiated the renewal process in mid February. I took an appointment at the nearest Passport Seva Kendra which is run by a large IT company. I opted for this centre since I was informed that the processes are far more efficient at the centres run by this IT firm than others.

I reached the centre earlier than my scheduled appointment time and started the process. I had to include my spouse's name in the renewed passport. I meticulously followed the list of documents required as mentioned in the government site but the reality is far from different. At stage-1, my documents were verified. I was asked for my marriage certificate (which I had not carried since it wasnt required as per the mandatory document list). I informed the person at the counter that this document wasnt mentioned in the list for which he scared me into saying that the application could be rejected at a later stage

Tip-1: Always carry all the original documents (everything that you possibly have) and atleast 2 xerox copies of each irrespective of whether it is mentioned as a mandatory document or not on the government site.

Stage-2 (manned by the IT firm) was quite smooth and quick. I was particularly impressed by the rexine/leather passport cover which was promoted. These are made by rural women and not only look impressive but also was promptly delivered (my passport is still under verification but the passport cover was delivered about 10 days back)

At stage-3, a government officer re-verified all the documents and asked me for an additional ID proof (other than aadhar and pan card). Luckily I had my driving license with me. When I asked him whats to be done, he asked me to go back to stage-2. I waited in queue at stage-2 for 10mins (since there was some other verification going on at the desk only to be told that I had to get 2 xerox copies of my driving license). If this was the simple requirement, all that the government officer had to do was ask me to get 2 xerox copies which would have saved so much time. And when I went back to the same government officer with the additional copies, he didnt even take a look and asked me to wait for stage-4. I could see lots of people struggling at stage-3 since they had improper documents or didn't have clarity on what's to be done. Some of them were asked to come later and appeared clueless.

Stage-4 was smooth and didnt take much time. The whole process which should have taken 30mins max ended up taking 1.5hrs only because I heeded to the list of documents mentioned in the site. This is why tip-1 is so important.

The next stage in the process is in-person police verification. The police came nearly 5 days after this stage was initiated by the passport centre. He verified certain documents and asked me to visit the police station the next day. When I asked him the documents that I would need to carry, he mumbled few documents (I was later told by someone that he has to share a list of documents to be carried which he didn't do)

I visited the designated police station the next day with some documents. It was in such a poor condition considering it is one of the important police stations in the vicinity. Each person's document verification process took atleast 20minutes. There were people in the queue but everyone was seated in a random manner and noone to direct us what to do and where to go. There was a huge difference in the documents mentioned by the officer who visited our house vs the documents that were asked at the police station. So much uncertainty just to get a passport renewed. I later found a list of documents which are to be carried to the police station for verification (ideally had to be shared by the officer who visited our house but didnt do so)

Tip-2: I doubt the below list is available anywhere so penning it down

Documents (original and xerox) to be carried to the police station for verification

• Ration card
• Electricity bill (of the current month and of the same month a year ago ie. in this case March 2021 and March 2020)
• Telephone bill (if applicable) (of the current month and of the same month a year ago ie. in this case March 2021 and March 2020)
• Xerox of the old passport (First and last 3 pages - esp the page where immigration stamps on your return to India from a foreign trip)
• 1 year bank statement
• Pan card, Voter card
• Society maintenance bill - latest
• Birth certificate
• School leaving certificate, College/s leaving certificate
• Domicile certificate (if applicable)
• Marriage certificate
• 3 passport size photos (white background)
• In case of name change, carry the gazetted notification and the name change notification in 2 newspapers (one English and one Marathi). Visit any nearby advocate who can help with the gazette and getting the notifications printed in the newspaper

I was sent back since I didnt have the society maintenance bill and some other xerox copies. I tried arguing by mentioning that no-one intimated me of these documents to which the officer didnt pay any heed. More than 10 days have passed since police verification but my passport application hasnt moved to the next stage

Too many thoughts in my head:

• The Ministry of External Affairs is supposed to be one of the proactive and efficient departments in India. Yet there is so much discrepancy between what is required as per the site and on-ground requirements
• If educated people like us go through so much trouble, I dread to wonder how uneducated people esp workers who migrate to different countries for work must be going through esp if there is discrepancy in their documents. I noticed a few people who appeared so worried due to some errors in their documents and were unable to understand and clueless of what is to be done.
• Can there be a multi-lingual help desk at every passport centre to guide such people since government officers spend so much time in explanations and people behind in the queue in-turn have to wait so long?
• Can the MEA promote multi-lingual videos educating people of the process?
• Can things be made faster? Should a simple renewal process take so much time? (almost 20 days have passed)
• Working conditions at police stations truly need to change. If basic working conditions are not right, how can we expect the people working there to be in the right frame of mind? No surprise they try to throw their weight around and appear disgruntled and dissatisfied.

As I was pondering over what happened over the last few weeks, I realised the quantum of change which is required on-ground. There needs to be clear sync between information mentioned on government sites and ones sought on-ground. There maybe several such instances across different areas that people have experienced which are far worse.

As we approach 75 years of independence, I believe we should try to keep things as simple and quick as possible - things which even an uneducated layman will find easy to comprehend and understand. Maybe we are headed in the right direction as compared to before but its high time that we act swiftly to implement several quick incremental changes that can snowball into a much larger transformational change.

#passport #passportrenewal #ministryofexternalaffairs