Finally I booked my online passport appointment today. Feeling so lucky and relaxed.
Relaxed in the sense that I will not have to struggle everyday at 01:00 PM (
Surat PSK) to try and book an online passport appointment. Lucky because I won the second rat race of my life; the first race happened when I was a sperm and had to be faster than others to be what I am and today I won the second race...successfully " Online Indian Passport Appointment booking ".
I am not writing this blog to celebrate the booking of passport appointment but to share some Tips & Tricks to book passport appointment online.
Okay, so let me start with the real stuff.
1. The most important thing you would like to be sure about, the correct time to login to the portal for your respective PSK. Not all PSK's release their online passport appointment booking at the same time. Know your PSK's timing Visit :
Passport Appointment opening time .
2. Once you know the PSK timings, you need to adjust your system(desktop/laptop/etc.) timings.
Check on the top left hand side of the PSK website, you will find the HH:MM:SS, match your system timing to the closet possible mill-second. It can be little tricky as the PSK clock timing is not continues but after you try for two to three times, you can crack it.
You may think I am a stupid asking you to do such silly stuff but believe me it will certainly cause a difference, as the online passport appointment booking open exactly at 01:00:00 (for Surat PSK) but if your system clock is behind the PSK portal time you will be late in clicking the 'Show Available Slots' button.
3. Ensure you have high speed internet connection but that's not all. And recommend use google crome only because it is the most fastest browser. But Passport seva authorities preferred internet explorer but I preffer Crome only.
4. Now that you are in crome , use the incognito browsing mode(In Private). It will disable all the unnecessary add-ons, cutting the webpage load time.
If you are using proxy, remove it. However you would know best, use proxy or no proxy for your connection settings.
Try avoiding being behind the company/institute firewall, as they are configured to scan all incoming and outgoing data, which may cause delay. Use your home connection(high speed internet) instead.
Okay we have configured the system and tools as required. Now the following steps for the PSK portal.
5. Login to the portal at least 10minutes in advance. Starting from the time you are asked to enter the first CAPTCHA(in password screen) make sure you got the CAPS ON. In all the following screens the captcha's will appear in cap letters only, helps you to save time and avoiding mistake of entering the captcha in small case.
6. Keep doing something in portal page, to avoid auto logoff. I prefer going to the webpage which has the drop down for the PSK centers and Show Available Slots button, and then keep entering the captcha and hitting enter button to avoid logging off.
Then at the final minute (XX:59:00) I enter the captcha for the last time and wait for the magical number to appear on the clock. I told you in Step 2, it was not silly. You know the importance now.
7. So once it's time, just click on 'Show Available Slots'. You will be taken to the next page where you will see the available slots; down below in the screen in BLUE color. Do not waste time deciding which one to choose, just pick any of the slots. Here you do not have the privilege to pick and choose; important is to the book the passport appointment...what time you get it; is not important(remember it's a rat race). One very important thing to note, you will see the captcha box appearing in this screen as well, but do not bother to fill it. In this screen you just have to click on one of the time slots available, that's all.
8. Next screen will be a summary screen, giving details of the time slot you chose, etc. etc. (DO NOT START READING IT, until you think you did something wrong). Remember you are not done yet, the passport appointment is still NOT BOOKED. So, as soon as you are on this screen, enter the captcha (it is required in this screen) and then start clicking on the Book passport Appointment button(you need to continue clicking the book passport appointment button multiple times). At times even after you have clicked the Book Appointment for passport the status bar will just get stuck and nothing will happen and when frustrated you click for the second time, the annoying message reading "Appointment slot has been booked ......" will appear.
Basically, your hitting of the book passport appointment button regular keeps pushing your application number to the server again and again. (I have personally experienced both the situations, mistake of not hitting 'book appointment' regularly and by doing this and celebrating).
9. If all works fine, you will see the confirmation in GREEN and if you are unlucky GREY.
10. Hope my experience, which I gained from my suffering, helps you all as well. Golden rules:
BE PATIENT. It will be long before you finally crack it. It took me 2weeks to be successful.
Remember PRACTICE MAKES A MAN PERFECT. You may(will) not be able to book passport appointment the very first time, but relax and learn from the mistakes and delays.
Last but not least, TRY AND TRY TILL YOU SUCCEED!!
Best of Luck people!!
Let me know if my suggestions helped and if you want to add on your experience as well.
