Minor's Passport Renewal
I have earlier shared detailed experience with regards my passport renewal here. Now it was time for my daughter's passport renewal. She is yet to be 18, and hence is a minor as yet. Few years back, for minors, there was no need to take an appointment at a passport seva kendra (PSK), but it seems now that is not the case. Appointment is mandatory, and being minor, one of the parents needs to accompany the child.
The process is similar to what i have shared in my case. Login into the passport website, download the form, fill the PDF, validate and then upload. We had some constraints with regards when we could visit the PSK, as daughter is in XII and cannot miss school that easily now. So I kept a tab on the next date available for the appointment.
Once I found a comfortable date, i went ahead in the portal for the payment. Interestingly, before making the payment, the site shows the next available date and one could hence decide to go ahead and make payment and book a slot or not. Note that the slot booking is automatic i.e. you don't get to select either the date or the time slot. Also when making the payment, what date you see, may not be the same post payment, as many others could be making bookings at the same time.
Having the booked the appointment, which I got on the day I was looking for, the next task was the prepare the documents. This being a simple case of renewal, with no change of any information, the process is actually very simple. The only document really required is the current passport and its photocopy. Even for the photocopy, what is required is the first (photo and name etc) and last page (address details). Carrying Aadhar would be a good idea. Being minor, for my daughter, there were 2 additional things required. First is our (parents) passports and their copies and second is Anex D, which is a consent form to by filled by parent(s) for applying for the passport.
As my daughter has cleared class X and I had read somewhere that class X certificate is required for the ENCR category, I decided to carry the mark sheet and passing certificate. For all documents you carry, carrying a photocopy (signed) will be a good idea. For minors, parent(s) can attest the photocopy documents. It turns out carrying the class X certificate was a good idea, as they asked for it. Not sure if they would have rejected If i had not carried it, but why worry now.
The good thing is there is *no* need to carry the payment receipt and the appointment letter anymore. The SMS you receive about the appointment is good enough to get entry at PSK. There is no need to print and carry the application form as well, as they print one there, after filling in details themselves and also taking the picture. So even getting passport size photos aren't required anymore. We had carried, but no one asked for it.
The process inside was fairly smooth. Since we had our appointment in the afternoon, there were enough people in there already. Counter A was done quickly. It was B and C, that took lot of time. Surprisingly, we did notice that many people weren't called at counter B and went directly to C. Even then, it was 2 hrs by the clock and we were out of the PSK with the approval done and token surrendered.
BTW, the only additional thing to keep in mind is that when you apply for renewal, and its gets approved, the earlier one gets cancelled immediately. The passport office, puts a stamp on the current one, making it cancelled, but any visas in there remain valid. So if you are planning a travel soon, factor in the time it will take to get the renewed passport.
Now it is wait and watch for the passport to be printed and sent to us. They do try to sell you a passport cover, costing around ₹ 500. There are 2-3 variants. And ₹ 50 for getting SMS updates about the passport processing.
[Updated 2 Nov 2018]
The passport processing has really been spruced up significantly. The passport was ready and dispatched within 2-3 days. I missed its delivery at home, because had some urgent work to attend. But picked up the next day and also the police verification, which was set to 'post verification' mode.
The police verification was also very smooth. Got a call, with details on documents required and time. On reaching there was told to buy an application form from a Xerox shop outside the station. The form is Rs. 10 and is about personal, criminal, address and general data validation.
The officer (there are 3 of them at Wakad passport verification center) took the photo copies of the document, this form, and had a tablet where he made some checks and took a photo from it and it was done. All in call it took us little more than 15 min. No money exchanged hands. Am impressed :-).
The process is similar to what i have shared in my case. Login into the passport website, download the form, fill the PDF, validate and then upload. We had some constraints with regards when we could visit the PSK, as daughter is in XII and cannot miss school that easily now. So I kept a tab on the next date available for the appointment.
Once I found a comfortable date, i went ahead in the portal for the payment. Interestingly, before making the payment, the site shows the next available date and one could hence decide to go ahead and make payment and book a slot or not. Note that the slot booking is automatic i.e. you don't get to select either the date or the time slot. Also when making the payment, what date you see, may not be the same post payment, as many others could be making bookings at the same time.
Having the booked the appointment, which I got on the day I was looking for, the next task was the prepare the documents. This being a simple case of renewal, with no change of any information, the process is actually very simple. The only document really required is the current passport and its photocopy. Even for the photocopy, what is required is the first (photo and name etc) and last page (address details). Carrying Aadhar would be a good idea. Being minor, for my daughter, there were 2 additional things required. First is our (parents) passports and their copies and second is Anex D, which is a consent form to by filled by parent(s) for applying for the passport.
As my daughter has cleared class X and I had read somewhere that class X certificate is required for the ENCR category, I decided to carry the mark sheet and passing certificate. For all documents you carry, carrying a photocopy (signed) will be a good idea. For minors, parent(s) can attest the photocopy documents. It turns out carrying the class X certificate was a good idea, as they asked for it. Not sure if they would have rejected If i had not carried it, but why worry now.
The good thing is there is *no* need to carry the payment receipt and the appointment letter anymore. The SMS you receive about the appointment is good enough to get entry at PSK. There is no need to print and carry the application form as well, as they print one there, after filling in details themselves and also taking the picture. So even getting passport size photos aren't required anymore. We had carried, but no one asked for it.
The process inside was fairly smooth. Since we had our appointment in the afternoon, there were enough people in there already. Counter A was done quickly. It was B and C, that took lot of time. Surprisingly, we did notice that many people weren't called at counter B and went directly to C. Even then, it was 2 hrs by the clock and we were out of the PSK with the approval done and token surrendered.
BTW, the only additional thing to keep in mind is that when you apply for renewal, and its gets approved, the earlier one gets cancelled immediately. The passport office, puts a stamp on the current one, making it cancelled, but any visas in there remain valid. So if you are planning a travel soon, factor in the time it will take to get the renewed passport.
Now it is wait and watch for the passport to be printed and sent to us. They do try to sell you a passport cover, costing around ₹ 500. There are 2-3 variants. And ₹ 50 for getting SMS updates about the passport processing.
[Updated 2 Nov 2018]
The passport processing has really been spruced up significantly. The passport was ready and dispatched within 2-3 days. I missed its delivery at home, because had some urgent work to attend. But picked up the next day and also the police verification, which was set to 'post verification' mode.
The police verification was also very smooth. Got a call, with details on documents required and time. On reaching there was told to buy an application form from a Xerox shop outside the station. The form is Rs. 10 and is about personal, criminal, address and general data validation.
The officer (there are 3 of them at Wakad passport verification center) took the photo copies of the document, this form, and had a tablet where he made some checks and took a photo from it and it was done. All in call it took us little more than 15 min. No money exchanged hands. Am impressed :-).
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