Passport online appointment fiasco

Ravi an IT professional who has come back to Belgaum for a holiday needs to get his wifes Passport reissued as it was damaged at the airport and for the past 3 weeks he is trying to get lucky to get an online appointment for the same on the passport website. According to the new rules one has to take an online appointment and at 6 o’clock every evening, thousands of people log onto the site to book an appointment and if they fail to book an online appointment within a couple of minutes, they lose 24 hours and have to try again a day later.

Wasim has been trying to get an appointment for his wife for the past forthnight, said the appointment window opens at 6 pm but is filled within five minutes.

Mallikarjun gave a suggestion of opening the same website in multiple tabs from 5.50 pm and start applying.
Many call it a scam similar to the Railway tatkal ticket scam where only agents get the tickets and common man gets only a wait list number.

There have been some lucky ones as well how have got their passport under the Tatkal in 7 days but not everyone is lucky.

There are many touts and are haring their email ids on the internet saying they will give appointment instantly or within a week, which also looks like a scam similar to that of the railways.

The ministry of external affairs has now opened up Passport seva Kendras (PSK) with TCS which is a ambitious Rs 1,000 crore project by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) was intended to make the process of applying for a passport easier, but it has made it even harder to get an appointment at the passport offices than before.

New rule says:

Passport applicants seeking issue of fresh passports under tatkal will now have to book online appointments under the normal category, arrive at the Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) at the appointed time, with all necessary documents, including the verification certificate, and submit the same for verification. Only after verifying the genuineness of the verification certificate will a tatkal token be issued to the applicants.

Also read this general advisory released this week MEA.

Snippets of General advisory:

Walk-in appointments with online Registration:

In order to facilitate submission of passport applications at Passport Seva Kendras, some types of services such as ‘Tatkaal’ and issuance of Police Clearance Certificates and some categories of applicants such as senior citizens, minors and differently-abled persons are allowed to submit

their duly registered online applications with ARN number as Walk-in applicants. Applicants falling under these categories are also required to register their applications online and obtain ARN number and visit the nearest Passport Seva Kendra at their convenience (no prior appointment required). In addition, applicants should also refer to any advisory issued by the concerned Passport Offices from time to time.

Manual submission of applications:

i) As an interim measure, in order to address rising demand for passport services, Passport Offices may also allow manual submission of applications at Passport Offices. Applicants should refer to

advisories and notifications issued by concerned Passport Office from time to time.

ii) The procedures and modalities for acceptance of applications for passport services is as under:

iii) For manual submission of passport application form, an applicant is required to visit Passport Office in person with duly filled in passport application form, a complete set of self-attested copy of requisite documents and original thereof along with a recent colour photograph of the size 4.5 cm X 3.5 cm with white background. Applicant will have to submit application with requisite fees. Further details as well as the prescribed application form could be obtained from the website: www.passportindia.gov.in .

iv) Manual submission of applications will be accepted by Passport Offices until further orders.