Tatkal!

It was that time of the year decade again when I had to renew my passport. Thank God it's not every year. I don't even remember how it was the last time I went for passport renewal. I remember the date of issue very well on account of writing it so many times - 11th March 2005. But I don't remember other details. There is a vague recollection of going to the police station with my father but that's about it.

Since the renewal was in 2015, I started thinking of biting the bullet in early 2014 but obviously I kept procrastinating. After all, who likes dealing with government machinery. But an exciting trip to Turkey got planned in November and that left me with no choice since my passport has to be valid for 6 months in order to get the visa.

I had heard and read quite a bit about the new and improved passport office. I knew it had become more streamlines and was being run by TCS. But there had been mixed reviews. Local newspapers kept on reporting delays, problems and exhaustion of booklets. The travel agent planning the Turkey trip offered to 'help' with the passport renewal without any extra charge and like a fool I agreed. My friend did tell me there was no need but again the fear of a government machinery crept in. Eventually though I did everything myself as the agent asked for a pretty large amount just to get the appointment!

I first went to the website and was sufficiently impressed. The unnecessary photo of Salman Khurshid was replaced by the unnecessary photo of Sushma Swaraj but the site had a decent FAQ section, documents required section, required annexures etc. I would have preferred a live chat too so that questions can be answered by the appropriate people thus reducing dependency on agents. I filled the online form with the site cooperating and tried going the normal route to try my luck. But the earliest appointment available was in September which would have been too late. So I tried to change my existing application to tatkal but disappointingly this was not allowed. Hence I had to later fill the entire form once again with a different email address for applying through tatkal. Anyone filling this form in the future, make up your mind about tatkal before filling the form because you can't change it later.

Once the tatkal was final, I was told by the agent and everyone else that I had to get a Verification Letter a.k.a Annexure 'F' from a gazetted officer. This is the biggest obstacle in the tatkal application since you need to know someone who fits the criteria. Luckily I knew someone in the Army who was kind enough to oblige and I got to visit NDA as well because of it. NDA is amazing beyond words and anyone who has a chance to visit it should jump on it. I was lucky to get this letter because I heard some stories about agents charging around 20,000 rupees for getting this letter! If you don't know anyone who can give you this letter, I would advise renewing your passport well in advance and avoiding tatkal altogether. After getting the Verification Letter, I found out that I need to get a notarized affidavit too. That's called Annexure 'I'. You need to print the affidavit on a 100 rupees stamp paper and get it notarized. 

Now that I had all the documents and was feeling mighty proud of myself for getting them, I went to my agent. She gave me two shocks. One was that I had to get not one but TWO original Verification Certificates and I had to pay 3,000 rupees so that their connection in the passport office would get the appointment. She said I can try my luck with one copy of the VC but getting an appointment online is very tough. I told her I will try my luck with that at home using a decent internet connection.

I went to the passport site around 1 PM and tried to get the tatkal appointment. Everything worked really smoothly. I was able to pay with my Visa Debit Card and got an appointment for the day after next. I had to pay 1,500 rupees online and had to take 2,000 rupees cash to pay at the Passport Seva Kendra (PSK). The passport fees are available on the website via a fee calculator. They will vary depending on new passport / renewal / number of pages you want etc.

I left at 11.30 AM for my 12.30 PM appointment at the PSK in Mundhwa, Pune. There was a decent Pay & Park available for 30 rupees. After showing the appointment print out at the gate and a standard on-paper security check, I was ushered inside. There was quite a crowd but a separate queue for tatkal. The man at the counter checked if I had all the documents. I had got literally everything. Aadhar, Ration, PAN, License, Passport, Birth Certificate, SSC, HSC, B.E. Degree, Marriage Certificate and the Annexures. He asked only for the originals and photo copies first and last 4 pages of my passport and my marriage certificate (since I was adding my wife's name on the passport). I suspected the other documents will be required later. At this point he told me to go to counter C-5 and gave a brown file in which he put the relevant photo copies. The confusing part was that he was giving token numbers to some people and told me to go to a counter directly. 

The lady at counter C-5 was very pleasant. She explained very patiently to another applicant that he needed to get the Verification Letter and Affidavit or else he can apply through the normal process. This made me tense since I had only one original (yes, you read that right) certificate. When my turn came, she just checked my passport and marriage certificate and confirmed if my address had not changed. I took out my Verification Certificate and Affidavit and she says "That's not needed" !! I told her that I was applying through tatkal but she said since mine was a simple renewal where the address hadn't changed it was not needed. So anyone applying through tatkal please confirm if you really need these documents or not. You're lucky if you don't :)

At this point, I was asked to go back to the first counter and get my token. I took it and even before looking at the screen I was ushered to the 'B' counter. My photo and fingerprints were taken and relevant documents were scanned by the man at the counter. Details were also shown to me on a duplicate monitor which gave me a look at the TCS software too. It was quite decent with useful workflows shown on top. Once all the steps in the workflow were completed, I was told to go to the last counter - 'C'. 

It had been just 30-40 minutes since I came inside and I was really impressed. I was dreaming about completing the entire process within an hour. But it was too good to be true. There were many people waiting for the same counter. Some desks were empty which I assume was due to the upcoming long weekend. All the seats were taken and hence I had no option than to stand and keep staring at the screen showing the token numbers and counter where you had to go. After standing for 15 minutes, it was time for the 30 minute lunch break which extended by 10 minutes. For some reason only 1 counter was processing the tatkal applications so eventually I had to stand for close to 2 hours till my token was displayed. Again, some people were without token which is very strange. On a lighter note, people were so sick of waiting and ever so thrilled when their number came that I was reminded of The Chinese Restaurant episode of Seinfeld :)

The last counter was over quickly in spite of the lady at the counter being quite surly. But she probably had had a long day and there was indeed a lot of rush. After this I just had to get the acknowledgement which took 10 minutes because Murphy struck and the computer hanged at the moment that my turn came. It was eventually restarted and I got the acknowledgement, ending my 3 hour stay at the PSK.

Overall, I was quite impressed by the process. Maybe my expectations were very low. But the PSK was quite clean and it didn't get hot at all in spite of the surging crowd. There were refreshments like sandwiches, samosas, wada pav, tea, coffee available. Drinking water was clean and free. I didn't try out the loos. There were sufficient number of screens and one poor guy calling out token numbers and names throughout the day. The confusing token system can be improved definitely. They also need more space because the seating is definitely not sufficient. The confusion regarding the annexures needs to be cleared and a helpful call center will go a long way in reducing the business of the agents. 

I apologize for the long post but hope it will be useful to you in the future when your once-in-a-decade time comes!