Indian Passport

Hello,

I applied for passport in October 1st week, police verification is done and now my passport is at CKGS and status is showing Sorting.

I took next day delivery, how much time normally they take here(Applied for my wife and it shipped the same day) ?

I sent 4 follow up email to identify issue, however they are not replying at all, bit concern as CKGS contract is going to over on 31st

Please suggest

Regards,
Purvesh Shah

Hello,
 I have submitted application for passport renewal under Tatkal scheme. The application has been “Under Process’ at the Consulate” starting 19-October. Today, I got an email stating that “Police Verification Request has been sent to the Police department in India. You are requested to get in touch with the respective Police Office if verification is not done in three weeks”
Is it normal/logical to get police verification of NRI applicant who has been living outside India for >15 years ? Is it even practical to get police verification of an NRI without physical presence at the stated address in India ?
Looking for input from NRI community.
Thanks
Vinay

Hello,

My passport was received by the embassy on September 8th and it has been "under process" since then. I have had absolutely no updates since then
despite multiple calls and emails. Is there a specific email/number I should call? I have no idea what to do. It has been 1.5 months now. Has anyone been
to the embassy, is it worth going to the embassy to find out what is going on? Please do help if you can!!

Due to the contract ended with CKGS, Indian consulate only supports emergency passports. Did anyone try using that? I need passport urgently for identification/documentation purposes, though not sure they'll consider that as emergency. What is the process for emergency passport services?

I had submitted for renewal of my passport on Sept 3rd and it was processed by consulate and sent back to CKGS for dispatch on Sept 22nd. They kept it on 'Sorting' status till Oct 19th and after repeated emails and contacting Consulate helpline, it's now changed to 'Dispatch' with a note that the passport was picked by UPS. I had provided the return label and so have the AWB number. But there is no update on UPS if it was picked and scanned even after 24hrs. Does anyone know if the UPS takes longer time to pick and change the tracking status? I can't figure out if it still sitting in CKGS dispatch for pickup or already picked-up by UPS.

UPS lost and then found my passport from CKGS. Story below. Hope this is helpful for the future reader

Passport while with UPS below
Delivered 10/19/2020 2:14 P.M. YYYY YYYY X, MA, US DELIVERED

Proof of DeliveryOpen the link in a new window
Out for Delivery 10/19/2020 8:42 A.M. Wilmington, MA, United States Out For Delivery Today
10/19/2020 8:10 A.M. Wilmington, MA, United States Destination Scan
10/17/2020 3:56 A.M. Wilmington, MA, United States Arrived at Facility
10/17/2020 3:55 A.M. Chelmsford, MA, United States Departed from Facility
10/16/2020 10:29 P.M. Chelmsford, MA, United States Arrived at Facility
10/16/2020 10:13 P.M. Nashua, NH, United States Departed from Facility
10/16/2020 7:25 A.M. Nashua, NH, United States We've incorrectly sorted this package which may cause a delay.
10/13/2020 5:41 P.M. Wilmington, MA, United States We're attempting to verify the package location. / Claim issued.
10/07/2020 8:51 P.M. Wilmington, MA, United States We're attempting to verify the package location. / Investigation only
10/01/2020 1:06 A.M. Hartford, CT, United States Arrived at Facility
09/30/2020 10:30 P.M. New York, NY, United States Departed from Facility
09/30/2020 9:07 P.M. New York, NY, United States Origin Scan
Shipped 09/30/2020 3:00 P.M. New York, NY, United States Pickup Scan
Label Created 09/30/2020 2:06 P.M. United States Order Processed: Ready for UPS

While in CKGS hands
Sep 30, 2020 - Wednesday 02:14 pm Passport picked up by UPS.
Sep 30, 2020 - Wednesday 10:47 am Passport ‘Received’ at the CKGS application centre and is at the ‘Sorting Facility’ where it is being processed for delivery. Sep 30, 2020 - Wednesday 10:46 am Application 'Reviewed' by Consulate and ‘In Transit’ to CKGS Application Centre.
Sep 23, 2020 - Wednesday 08:54 am Application is 'Under Process' at Consulate for decision making. Please continue tracking your application status online. Sep 23, 2020 - Wednesday 08:44 am Application is 'In Transit' to the Consulate. Please continue tracking your application status online.
Sep 22, 2020 - Tuesday 11:19 am Application is ‘Under Process’ at CKGS.
Sep 21, 2020 - Monday 02:22 pm Application Verification is ‘Complete’.
Sep 17, 2020 - Thursday 04:25 pm Application ‘Received’ by CKGS and 'Not Verified'.

I have sent passport for renewal on August 18 and police inquiry is done 4 weeks ago, application is stuck on under review. Anybody is some situation, consulate won’t even reply to my mails. It’s gonna be 2 months in couple of days.

I tried to squeeze in the application before the deadline and managed to submit it, but looks like I might have to give up and wait for VFS.

Notary refused to notarize the color copies of license and immigration citing that they will have to make the copies and not use my copies and they don't carry a color copier! Bank guy also said that they can't magnify the docs as asked by CKGS.

The notary pointed out that in the affidavit for change of appearance, my name appears with the first and last name switched (appears as last name-first name). My name shows up in the correct order in the order receipt page and I don't recollect entering the name after the first page, in any other forms (just chose yes/no answers and entered parent's name). Is anyone else facing the same issue? There is no option to check correctness and to edit these values.

They make you enter the banker's check details before you can proceed to the next page - I chose the number as <to be updated> and it allowed me to proceed, but doesn't give me an option to go back and edit it, even though the website said I can change it later.

Im giving up at this point and will have to wait until VFS takes over. Only issue is that my passport is due to expire early November. Will there be any additional challenges in getting the passport after expiry of original? Website mentions no issue up until one year after expiry, but would be nice to know if there are any personal experiences with that situation.

Rant:

Its 2020 and we still don't have an option to pay using credit card. What era are we in! Hopefully VFS allows to pay by cc/online banking/check and not make us all go to the bank for a BC.

No one in UPS knows what an AWB number is. Hope they just ask for tracking# or better, take the money and ship it themselves.

VFS is expected to go live Nov 2nd. God knows what's that supposed to mean. How can such a critical service having a gap between vendor switch and no firm start date.

Its a shame that India produces world class IT folks and we have to settle for a 2000 era website with red fonts thrown everywhere. Instead of putting a note that CKGS shipping option has been disabled, they just removed the value from the drop down and I ended up switching browsers, computers, going through HTML source code to check if Im doing something wrong or if that option is not available anymore.

Hopefully, VFS has a cleaner and user friendly website with less ambiguity.

Hello,

I have completed all the steps of my passport renewal application. The mode of document submission on my order form shows (Windows/Walking). Surprisingly, I see the shipping label when I log into My account. Can I ship the documents irrespective of this? I am not able to edit my application and assuming CKGS office must be closed due to COVID.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Friday, September 4 - Mailed out the application. 

3-day weekend. 

Tuesday, September 8 - Delivered at 10:14 am and CKGS website acknowledged receipt at 11:10 am. 

Wednesday, September 9 - CKGS sent me an e-mail saying that my payment was incomplete.  I found this strange because I had triple-checked the payment amount.  It turns out that my passport was beat up enough that they decided to change my application to "Lost & Damaged" of their own accord.  Replacing a damaged passport costs $75 more.  I got the money order made and sent it to CKGS within an hour of getting the email.

Thursday, September 10 - UPS tracker said the payment was delivered.

Friday, September 11 - CKGS website acknowledged that the payment was received at 3:09 pm. Application is complete and under process at CKGS at 5:03 pm. 

Monday, September 14 - Application in transit to Consulate at 9:17 am and under process at Consulate at 9:33 am. 

Monday, September 28 - At around 2:30 pm, I got a call from the Consulate asking for a notarized copy of my green card and they gave me an email address to send it to.  I sent them a colored copy less than an hour after the phone call.

Thursday, October 8 - The Consulate finished reviewing my application and sent it back to CKGS and CKGS processed it for delivery.  The label was created and at this point, CKGS's job was done. The status on their website said "Dispatch."  UPS's website said my new passport would be delivered Friday.

Friday, October 9 - I didn't get it Friday.  UPS's website said "shipped" but the delivery date was pushed back to Monday, October 12.  This made no sense to me.  I paid Next Day Air Saver, which guarantees 24-hour delivery.

Monday, October 12 - UPS's website pushed back my delivery date to Tuesday, October 13.  The status had changed from "Shipped" to "In Transit."  For future reference: In UPS language, "Shipped" does NOT mean shipped.  It means that it's waiting to be picked up. This happens a lot.  There is no explanation for this.  CKGS puts your new passport into this weird limbo where they have no more responsibility but UPS hasn't picked it up yet either.  It's just sitting somewhere for two days. So you can't call out either organization on this. UPS will pick it up when it's good and ready. "In transit" is when you know for sure your passport has actually started to move in your direction. 

Tuesday, October 13 - By this point, the UPS tracker was giving me very detailed updates, which confirmed that the passport had indeed been picked up on Monday and was moving in my direction.  It arrived by noon, as guaranteed by the shipping speed I had paid for. 

Overall, there was nothing unusual about the timeline of the application or the delivery.  I have read about all these experiences before on this website. There were two takeaways for me here: 

1. UPS sucks at English.  Shipped doesn't mean it's shipped and I have submitted many complaints that they use more accurate language to reflect where your sensitive documents actually are.  I doubt they will listen.  So don't get your hopes up just because the CKGS status says "Dispatch" or you see a few pickup scans on the UPS tracker.  Your passport has only started moving  when you see the words "In transit" on the UPS tracker.  

2. Buy a passport case.  Don't just stick it in your backpack, especially when you travel as much as I did before the pandemic.  A passport is not built to get jostled around by keys, books, and cables for ten years.  I completely understand why CKGS charged me more for a damaged passport.  $75 is not a huge amount but it added at least two or three days to the whole process.  You can do without both the additional cost and time.