Experience of Gurgaon Passport office

This post was sent to me by one of my blog reader from Gurgaon, who is sharing his experience of Gurgaon passport office and help the reader who are not able to get passport appointment for gurgaon

Gurgaon Passport Seva Kendra

I am not very fond of going to a govt. offices and I think not many of us would be. There is always an exception but in general the ignorant, indifferent and inhuman attitude of the staff towards people and the work disgusts me.

My three and half year old son did not have a passport so I thought to apply for a minor tatkaal passport. As usual I did the due diligence by going through the internet forums/websites. There was a lot of information as well as confusion. It seems every RPO in this country has its own rule, so what might apply to Bangalore passport office might not hold true for online passport application Gurgaon office.

The system has also changed to online passport application since the last time I renewed in 2010. In February 2012 PSK project was launched, which is a partnership between TCS and the Government of India.

Right now there are two government websites serving different information regarding passport application. The old and defunct website http://passport.gov.in/ and the new website http://passportindia.gov.in. When you use google to search, the results are returned from both websites. This is some what confusing as many things  advocated on old website are no more applicable.

I live in Gurgaon so it was logical for me to go to Gurgaon PSK. The steps to online passport application Gurgaon are simple:

1. Visit http://www.passportindia.gov.in
2. Register yourself.
3. Login to the website.
4. Fill the online application form.
5. Take an online appointment for passport.
6. Get the printout of the appointment for passport in a sheet.
7. Take the documents required for application of passport (original and photocopy) with the passport appointment sheet.

For more help on Application process follow the link Application of passport.

Although these steps seem to be easy, the last step (#7) is where the complication occurs. On the official website there is a Document Advisory where you can enter the information about which kind of passport you want to apply for and it will show you the documents required. Everything works great except whatever it says is rubbish. In my case it said that I did not need Annexure F for minor tatkal which was not true. To be on the safer side I decided to go to the PSK and ask for the required documents.

MM Tower, Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon

Gurgaon PSK is located at MM Towers, Plot No. 8 & 9, Phase IV, Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon – 122002. If you are going from IFFCO Chowk then drive in the side lane instead of NH-8, else you will have to take a long detour. There is a sign board Atlas Chowk, from there turn left and go straight. Around 1 km you will see the MM tower on your left hand side. The location is easily accessible but the there is no parking (just 4-5 slots in front of the building), so you have to park on the road side. During my 4 visits I either went early or went with the driver to avoid any inconvenience.

There are few notary services located nearby so if you have to get any affidavit it can be easily done.

At the entrance the guard checks your online passport application for gurgaon sheet. I told him that I have come to ask few questions and he let me in. There is a token/information counter where I asked the staff about the documents required for minor tatkal application. He said:

1. Parent’s passport.
2. Marriage certificate or name endorsed of spouse in the passport.
3. Annexure H
4. Annexure I
5. Annexure F
6. Birth certificate.
7. Residence proof.

For full list of Documents visit Required documents for application of passport.

He also told that the child needs to be present.

1. Parent’s passport: We both have passport so no issue here. There is no need to get the photocopy attested by gazetted officer.
2. Marriage certificate or name endorsed of spouse in the passport: I have the name of my wife endorsed on my passport and we also have marriage certificate.
3. Annexure H: This is a declaration by both parents with signature. Just to be printed on plain paper. No need to be notarized.
4. Annexure I: This is an affidavit by the applicant but in case of minor it has to be written by parent. This needs to be printed on a low denomination stamp paper. If you go to the notary service they know what to write in there. The guy at the notary service charged me Rs 200 for printing it on Rs 10 stamp paper and notarizing it.
5. Annexure F: This is also known as VC (verification certificate). There are limited number of Govt. officials who can issue this certificate. The list is mentioned in the Annexure F form. There is a friend of my father at rail bhawan from whom I got this issued.
6. Birth Certificate: We have the birth certificate issued by NDMC.
7. Residence proof: If you have not lived at the same residence for last one year then you need to show the address proof of all previous residences. For Gurgaon residence I had only Bank account statement of a private sector bank. I went to the bank and got the printout of monthly bank statements (the one you get in the mail) signed by the staff. For previous residence I had Voter ID card.

I made 2 photocopies of all the documents and my wife and I self attested it. I printed out the passport application form and pasted a photo of my son and put a left hand thumb impression on it. Now next is to taking appointment online. I tried several times but unable to took the appointment online. At last I go through agent and he provided me the online appointment for passport @ 1500. I got an appointment for passport on Thursday, 4th October at 2:30pm. For tatkaal I got an appointment for passport Gurgaon on the next day but I have heard that for normal it take weeks.

Visit 1

We reached the PSK, Gurgaon at 2:15pm. I had the driver with me so parking was not an issue but things look chaotic on the road. There is Maruti Suzuki and other factories nearby so you see constant flow of trucks and trailers.

First you need to take the token at the reception. To get the token you have to stand in the queue. They have batch numbers which is a number allotted to a group of people according to online appointment time. Only people from the current batch (having same appointment group) need to stand in the queue. Things were little chaotic here but nothing compared to my earlier experience at Bhikaji Cama Place RPO. The whole setup is fully air conditioned with proper sitting arrangements. Also there is refreshment counter in case you get hungry or thirsty. There was also a photocopier installed.

At the token counter TCS staff does a preliminary scrutiny. If they approve it then all the photocopies are put in a file with a printed token sheet stapled at the top.

With this token you can enter inside the designated area. There are many electronic information boards where token numbers keep flashing with a counter number against it. When your token number flashes you have visit the respective counter. The whole process involve 4 steps  A Counter > B counter > C counter > Exit counter.

A counters at Gurgaon PSK

A Counter: There are approximately 15-20 A (A1, A2, A3 etc.) counters. Here the TCS staff takes your original document to scan and upload it. You can also upload the documents through the website, which I did, but the lady at the counter did it a fresh.Do not staple any document as the paper gets stuck in the document feeder of scanner. She printed the passport form again, so the one I brought with photo and thumb impressions was not used.

For 4 years and above they take a photo there only but my son was below that age so she took the photo I brought with me. Here is a funny moment, she asked about my three and half year old kid, “Can he sign?” I almost replied, “Yes, but he might not able to restrict his creative urge inside that small signature box”.

B counters at Gurgaon PSK

B Counter: Once you are through with A counter you have to go to B counter. There is nothing you have to do other than wait; your token will flash again with B counter information. There are three B counters (B1, B2 and B3) this is where the real deal starts. These are the passport officers which check your document. Unfortunately I had few shortcomings with Annexure F:

• Annexure F had to be on printed stationary (no computer printout) the one which comes out of printing press. They differentiate it by checking if emblem or logo is embossed or not.
• I had put the two addresses where I stayed for last one year under present address marked as i) and ii). The correct format is:
  Present address: Residing since [date] and then the address
  Previous address: Resided since [date] till [date]
• I did put NA in front of Permanent address. It has to be filled with present address in case you do not have a permanent address.

So for that day my journey ended there only. I asked the passport officer if I need to bring my son again, he said, that would not be required. This whole process took around two and half hours.
At the exit counter you have to deposit the file. On my file the staff wrote On hold and gave me an acknowledgement letter which mentioned that I can bring the required document from Mon to Fri, 9:00am till 10:30am

Visit 2

I went to the rail bhawan again on Friday, 5th October and got the new Annexure F with corrections. I took an online appointment for gurgaon passport office from that agent again paying the same charge for Monday, 8th October 9:00am. On that day I departed from home at 8:00am to beat the traffic. I reached at Gurgaon Passport office at around 8:30am. There were not many people around at that time and there was ample space for parking.

Road outside Gurgaon PSK

The PSK opened exactly at 9:00 am. I gave the new Annexure F at the token counter and he issued me a token number. I went to the counter A where the lady scanned the Annexure F and uploaded it. For some reason the work for the passport officers start at 10:00 am so despite being issued the first token, I had to wait.

This time I appeared in front of another passport officer. He checked the document and Okay it. Next was the C counter.

C Counter: This counter also has three desks C1, C2, C3. The passport officers here are senior to the one at B counters and their job is to scrutinize the documents again.  Here the officer rejected my Annexure F.

Annexure F has a fixed format (which can be downloaded from the website) in which there is a line which says “Applicant has been staying at his/her address continuously for the last one year”. This needs to be amended if the stay is less than a year. The officer who checked earlier should have pointed this out with other mistakes but then in govt. office the onus always lies with the applicant. I tried to argue this out since on the same form both the address have been mentioned with respective period of stay. I also went to APO (Assistant Passport Officer) but in vain. That lady did not look like decision making type. She even tried to convince me to covert that application to normal. I deposited my file again at the exit counter to be put on hold.

I visited the rail bhawan on the same day just after leaving the passport office and got that line changed to reflect the current tenure of residence.

Visit 3

I took an online appointment for passport on Tuesday, 9th October 9:00 am. This time I was issued a token number which said to visit APO. Yippie!! I was promoted. Seems second rejection was some kind of flag. If the junior officers start at 10:00 am so you cannot expect any less from their in-charge. She came at around 10:15 am. Thankfully I was first in the queue. She checked the document and said it was OK. She told me to go to C counter. I thought I will pick up from where I left yesterday but after C counter I had to go through the same drill again: A > B > C > Exit.

If you want to learn virtues like patience, humility then there is no place better than a govt. office. After having an unfruitful conversation with APO and TCS in-charge I went in to the queue again. By that time there were already lots of people. When I reached at the C counter again, it was more than 3 hours.

Despite having three counters there was only one officer at C1 since morning. A lady passport officer arrived at 12:30 pm but she did not seem in hurry. Finally my turn came. The officer at C1 counter cleared the VC this time.

Now all I had to do was deposit the file at exit counter and get the acknowledgement receipt.

On Thursday, 11th October I checked the status on website and it said, “Passport printed, ready for dispatch”. On 12th I got an email as well as SMS that the passport has been dispatched via speed post. They also provided a tracking number. On 13th afternoon my passport was delivered.

Same day in the evening a policeman came for verification. He asked for an address proof, some details from my two neighbors (with their signature) and finally my signature. Surprisingly he did not show any sign for want of money.

I am quite satisfied with the overall experience. I can say that this is an almost a perfect example of private and public sector venture. Keeping the govt. staff at minimum (only passport officers), Passport Seva Kendra does not make you feel that you are dealing with a govt. entity. I applaud both the parties for their effort.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions. A question asked might save you a trip to PSK