Passport Chronicles

Finally, my passport is on its way. Apparently. As per the communication I received from the government agency which handles the process.

It took exactly a month for the process to complete (although I am yet to get the passport which is still in the mail). All in all, I think it went pretty smoothly for me. Of course, there were a few jitters in between and then I thought that I would be one of those people who'd have to line up in front of the Regional Passport Office, Bangalore at 4AM to get a token just to inquire about my status - because the promised passport still hadn't come to me in 6 months. Thankfully, I was spared that harassment.

In this month long journey to reissue my expired passport (and to update my address), I had to spend a day at the Passport Seva Kendra, meeting the officers, getting my photo taken, fingerprints scanned, etc and finally getting the "go-ahead" for a reissue subject to successful police verification. Within a week, I got a call from my local police station requesting for address proof verification. It took me two visits to the police station (and some wait time included, of course) for it to get completed. Once done, the police verification status was sent to the Passport Office for further processing. Or at least that's what I was told by the police officer.

However, when I didn't get my passport after a week, I began to get worried because a friend of mine apparently got her passport in three days after the police verification. So, I began to panic, and began to call the numbers of the Regional Passport Office in Bangalore. Those lines would either be engaged, or nobody would answer the calls. I definitely called them at least 200 times, that's a given.

When calls didn't work, I decided to go to the Regional Passport Office (RPO) for myself and find out the status. Because although the RPO website has a provision for checking the status online, it doesn't work with the new series of "file numbers" that they give you. Also, I tried sending them emails and guess what? They bounced back. It was evident that a manual intervention was necessary, so one fine morning I left for the RPO.

It was about 8:30AM when I arrived at the RPO in Koramangala, Bangalore. And although the office opens at 9:30AM, I was shocked to see the queue - it was super lengthy! I had to double check if this was the queue for inquiry and the answer was yes. So, I got in the queue as well. It was apparent that I was going to be late for work so I called up my boss and informed him. I was appalled to find out that people had come in as early as 4AM to stand in this queue, because some of them hadn't received their passports in as many as 6 months due to various issues. I silently prayed that I wouldn't have to be one of them in the future.

What happened at the RPO that day (14th September 2010) deserves a post of its own and for those reasons, I'll leave that bit out from this post. But to cut a long story short, the inquiry officer told me that there were no glitches in my passport application and that it would be dispatched in 2-3 days. I daresay that I trust the promises of Government employees especially when it comes to timelines, but I had no choice but to accept it and drive to work.

However, it turns out that the officer was right. For today I received an SMS and an email saying that the passport was on its way. Thank God. Finally, I can proceed with my Visa application!

As a user of this public system, I would have liked for the online stuff to work - for instance, keeping the status tracker up to date with the file number series, working email accounts. And of course, if the RPO people are not going to answer calls, then they should not - in any manner - make public their telephone numbers. However, there is the Passport Seva website (which is maintained by Tata Consultancy Services) and there the status can be tracked even for the new file number series. Also, they have a separate call center helpline: 1800-258-1800 (toll free) where the responsiveness is good, professional, and meaningful.