If you thought that renewing your passport is easy task in India, think again… It is as painful as taking a sign from Government officers or say RTO. More worse if you have been relocated in different state. Unfortunately I fell in this category. My painful journey of 2½ days which I spent in passport office is nothing less than a thriller or say frustration.
Preparation to go to passport office
Firstly I downloaded the form, 2 copies, you never know when your form gets rejected because of some errors.
- Taken 8 photographs 3.5 x 3.5 cms (NOTE White Background is needed)
- 2 Address Proofs (out of which one proof needs to be showing atleast 1 year stay in that city)
- For TATKAAL – Annexure I and Annexure F (Format you will find it in Passport link), if you are fortunate enough, Annexure F is not needed. Acutally Annexure F I scalled Verification Certificate which needs signature from either magistrate or police commissioner or IPS officer or GM from public sector, which is very tough to get.
First Day in Passport office
Reached at around 11:30 am, people laughed at me saying you came very late….. procedure is to get token and then go inside to submit the form…. Token timings were 9:30 to 12:00, so off-course moment I nearing the counter it closed. After which there was chaos all around and people stated to scream in protest to reopen the gate and extend the timings….. Some I have heard saying that they would call up the media people to show how passport offices harass the public. Felt sorry for them as some were standing since 9 am even before the token issue time, I was a mere spectator, We were some 20 to 25 people who barged into the security gate protesting and some desperately shouted and asked the police guy to allow us to speak to the passport officer….. but it seemed that we were shouting in front of deaf ears, one security guard said that even if the PM comes after the speculated time they won’t entertain ???? all the protest went in vain, some even tried to speak to the passport officer, reply was typically government of India kinda, “Sorry saar, we can’t help you, gate closes at 12” which was expected. Some media news channel people came….. the got what they wanted…. Scoops, interviews from public for masala in their news. What worse to follow was next day was FRIDAY and a holiday, why “Mahavir Jayanti” funny, in Bangalore I have not seen single Jains, why then close for MAHAVIR JAYANTI, even the rickshaw wala laughed when I told him tomorrow is holiday for passport office, because of mahavir jayanti. So 3 day off and I was in a fix whether I would get my passport renewed or not.
Day Two, Monday after weekend
I left home at around 6 am and reached passport office at 7 am, I thought that there won’t be much of a line, HOW wrong my prediction was ???? there was some 100 people standing to get the token which opens at 9:30 am, stood patiently for 4 hours, then was allotted the token at around 11:30 am. I was relieved, but my relief was for short duration as worse to worse thing was waiting for me inside. Sat there for some 45 minutes awaiting my token number to be called…. Moment came and I was happy, but my happiness was turned into rude shock when the officer who checked my documents told me that he needed marriage certificate and Annexure F which was missing with my documents…. And that was needed for tatkaal. I gave him my company written letter for Tatkaal (fast processing of passport), he told me such letters are useless, get me Annexure F….. god daam it I was silent for a minute…. After standing in line for almost 5 hours, I had to go
I did not loose patience, ran to small court to get annexure F and Marriage certificate affidavit… again bad experience in the court… no stamp papers available, had to run to another place to get stamp paper, now Marriage photo was needed, asked my mother to go and get a photo, meanwhile I had to shell out some 500 bucks to get the documents types and stamped by the lawyer…. I though that at-last this could be over, but it seemed that I had worse day of my life. The magistrate refused to sign the document and even after the layer pleaded infront of him he blantly refused, why because he was in a bad mood and I came to know that he got his transfer order t some village so was upset, and he showed all his anger on me and the lawyer…. If you have a bad day then nothing goes right for you…. That was a case for me.
Finally after finishing all these went back at around 4 pm back to passport office only to find that they have closed for the day…… luckily good thing was they do take into account the token no. for the next day. Went home leaving behind an horrible day in my life.
Day 3 - finally the D Day
This was the day which I though I would do anything but get my work done, so went to passport office at around 8 am, was sent inside only at 10 am. I went to the same officer, he starred at me and told me to come when the token no. is been called. Token No. was 3 at that time and mine was 163….. I said to myself that worse to worst time is not yet over… I took a chance and went back to him again after some 30 minutes, he again starred at me and told me that OK he will check the documents and then he will call me. Luckily he checked all my papers and asked me to write a self letter and get a photo with white background and come at around 12pm….. small glimmer of hope seemed to be visible to me. I ran to get the photo reached back and finally finally got my document accepted by the officer. Well not yet I was told to meet the deputy Passport officer, who fortunately didn’t say anything but signed and accepted the same…. Sigh of relief for me, paid the fees and came home.
So a lesson to me and some of you who think if your passport is getting expired and you can do it in a day or so, think again... start the process some 8-10 months before your passport expires and please please do visit an agent to get the document verified, don’t just go directly to the passport office, and if you have the time get the renewal done by the PASSPORT AGENT……
