Aryaman applies for a passport

Aryaman is 2.5 months old and wants to take a vacation already, so I had to apply for his passport. The first challenge was taking his passport photo which meets all the requirements of the passport office. So after trying hard 2-3 times, we finally got one shot right. He looked quite surprised to see the camera.

I filled the online passport application and got an appointment for 23rd Feb, 10am. Being a weekday I had to take a day off from office and reach the Thane passport office before 9am at least. This meant leaving Pune at 6am (a tough task considering I usually wake up only by 8am), but having no choice, I managed to leave by 5:45am and drove around 130kms to Vashi, collected all the papers and headed towards the Thane passport office. I was helped by the TomTom navigator to find the directions, without which I had no idea where I had to go.

After paying toll twice, I reached the Thane passport office at around 8:50am. Since it was foolish to expect any parking space inside the passport office, I drove around it and parked my car in the adjoining lane. I reached the entrance of the passport office to find a long line of people. The line extended from the door of the office to the bus stop on the main road. I asked one person whether this is the line for passport applications and indeed it was. So I walked till the end and joined the queue. Gradually people started queuing behind me and at 9am the doors to the office opened. Apparently everyone in the line had an appointment for 10am. The time on the passport form has no meaning, you can go anytime after 10am and upto 5 days from the day of appointment given to you.

The line started moving slowly and the first step was to take a token from a counter inside the office. Within 20 mins I had my token in my hand and all I had to do now was to wait till the 112 people before me finished their passport applications. This system was better than standing for hours in the queue waiting for your turn to come. I could now atleast go and have some breakfast while my turn came. The passport office has a small cafeteria in their premises where you can have minimal fare like idly sambar, samosa and tea. I ordered myself an idly sambar and tea and took a chair in the corner. While having breakfast, I was observing the surroundings.

The passport office had arranged chairs for the people to wait while their turn came. Floor fans were present to provide some relief. The passport office has 2 sections. Counters 1,2,4,5 are for submitting the passport applications for fresh passport/renewals/corrections etc. Rest of the counters are mostly for enquiries. All the main counters have their own waiting areas inside and are air conditioned. Not bad at all. Outside where all the people wait for the turn, the place is like an old building with dust on the walls and a faint toilet stink in some areas. Dont expect the best infrastructure, but things have definitely improved a lot since the last time I was here. Just outside the passport office you will find tens of shops offering xerox, attestation, notory, online form filling services etc. This is quite useful as 90% of the times you would definitely forget some document and would require either a xerox or an affidavit. Thankfully I did not find any passport agents pestering people. The process is now pretty well laid and anyone can do it himself if he follows the instructions given on their website.

It was now 10:30am and the token display showed 32. Things were moving slowly but steadily. It was getting pretty hot in the waiting area. I was walking up and down as all the chairs were full. I must have checked my documents twice to see if everything was in order. You never know for what reason your application might get rejected. It was like waiting outside the exam hall thinking about the question paper which might come. You anticipate the worst but hope for the best. There are butterflies in your stomach and a funny feeling. I took a walk around the office to check if my car was OK. You never know when someone might just tow it away and you would waste half your day trying to get it back. Another hour passed. The token number had reached 82. I found a seat in front of the counter and decided to sit till my turn came. I double checked all the documents and originals.

The clock now showed 12pm and the counter was 102. I hoped they dont close for lunch just when my turn came. But just in about 10 mins I saw 113 flashing and quickly made my way to counter no - 5. While I was waiting to hand over my forms, the old gentleman with token 114 pushed his way in front of me in order to complete his work first. I thought of telling him to come in line, but let the thought pass. Maybe he was in a hurry. Finally I reached the window, handed over my forms and took out the originals for verification. The passport office asked a few questions, removed some unnessary forms I had attached and created a file of the remaining documents. I was asked to go to the next counter to pay the required fees. I paid Rs. 600 at the next counter and got the recipt for the same along with a file reference number which can be used for tracking the status of the application. In around 10 mins I was done and out of the office. Luckily there were no hitches and I hope the passport reaches within the promised 20 days.

Some tips for people applying for a minors passport,

1. You need to fill the application form and attach 2 personal particular forms and 2 copies of all required documents which have to be self attested. There is no need to fill two copies of the application form itself. You passports of both parents, Annexure H and the birth certificate of the child.

2. It will make things easy if the address in the birth certificate is same as the address in parents passport.

3. If the parents passports have the names of their spouses already mentioned in the passports, police verification is not required. This will speed up the process.


Update: Aryaman received his passport within the promised 3 weeks. He is now waiting to go for his first trip