Reissue/Renewal of passport before expiry date in Bangalore:

If you have a valid visa in the old passport, you have to apply in the regional passport office. It is better to apply before your passport expires as tatkal is not allowed if you apply after it does.

Steps are very simple if you have all the proofs required.

Take an online appointment. This can be taken only between 9:30 am till 12:30 pm everyday for the next day. 150-180 tokens are given for a day. Follow the instructions for filling up the forms diligently.

While filling up the appointment letter, ensure that your name is filled up correctly. You can fill the full name 'fully' or fill up the first name and then fill up the surname in the next field. Other wise, you will have the surname repeated twice.

Similarly go through each and every field value properly before you submit. You can also correct those entries before paying at the last counter, but it is better to review it while applying to avoid any hassles.

Apart from the appointment letter (without this, you will not be let in), copy of first two and last two pages (include the ECNR stamping as well), application form, I had taken one copy of following documents along with original.

- BSNL bill for address proof.
- PAN Card
- Voters id - for checking if I can apply on tatkal
- Degree certificate

When you enter, you will be directed to counter #1 in the first floor for tagging. It is the righmost counter and you will always find a queue there. That person will check all the documents based on the type of application, staple it in order and will ask you fill up the form to be sent for police verification. I was asked to take another copy of all the documents. Photocopiers are available if you come out of the passport office, walk to your right for a few metres and cross the road. If the person at the tagging counter tells a correction, get back to the same counter after you correct, until it is given back to you with no comments.

Once tagging is done successfully, sit and wait for your turn in the next counter. Token numbers are called out and gets displayed in two or three places in the hall.

In this counter, all the originals are checked. If you want to apply in tatkal scheme, you need to inform the person at this counter and any corrections in the appointment letter also needs to be mentioned. If the application is in the normal scheme, i think you will be asked to pay the money in the next counter, and you will be done.

If it is tatkal, there is another person who checks everything once again, and you will be asked to meet the Assistant Passport Officer (APO) in room 11. She will tell you how much you need to pay and when your passport will be despatched. After that you will be sent to counter 8. When I went, the tatkal queue was longer - obviously as the time taken in tatkal is 3 days while the normal one takes 4-6 weeks!

Wait for your turn, pay the money, get the corrections done, and take the receipt that will have the file number.

Using the file number you can check the status online. If there are mistakes, even at that time, you have the option to correct the details as applicable. On the day stated by the APO, you will get your passport.

I had made a BIG mistake though it was just a letter change in the passport. When I filled up the online form, field capturing the Sex was having a default value of 'Male' and I had not changed it :(. So here goes how the correction needs to be done!

Correction in your passport:

For this also, fix an appointment. It is the same process, only in the 'type' you will select it as 'Misc services'. Check the faq for more details.

Fill up the form . Proofs differ based on the correction. Once the tagging was done, I was immediately sent to APO. I think it was mainly because that I applied in Tatkal and had got a correction to be done. APO sent me to the regional passport office who is in the second floor.

For my case, the seceratary called the correction officer. He had a chat with me to understand the correction, made me wait to get the original application, then gave me a slip saying that am supposed to come at 4 pm to the collection counter the next day.

I went there the next day and waited at the collection counter. There are no tokens/queue. You have to wait till your name is called. Names that were called first on that day were all those 'special' cases is my guess. None of the correction cases passport was with him . He then took the file numbers from our receipts/slips and went somewhere. Got a couple of them and distributed. It was like giving orders for hot samosa's and wait for it to be taken out of the pan to your plate... My turn came at 5:45 pm. I checked and rechecked and finally I had my passport! It is a reissue on the old application with this correction with no charges applied as it was in the tatkal scheme. Otherwise any mistake from the applicant side costs 500 Rs.

There was one corrected passport with entries smudged. That was re printed and given in a jiffy!

I hope the information is useful for people who are applying for passport. My first attempt through an agent costed me more than a years time when I gave up and tried and learnt the process myself and got the passport. I feel it is better you do it yourself as the process has been made much easier than it was before.