[Zappo]

Guys I need some help. Those of you from hyd probably know the current state of affairs in the RPO here. The entry to the passport office is restricted as they keep the main entrance locked. There are teeming millions jostling outside to somehow figure out a way in. 100s have applied for a new or renewed passport even under tatkal scheme and yet have no clue about when they will get it after more than 6 months have elapsed. Some have even lost hopes after 12 months.

Under such incredulous circumstances my wife's passport is now coming up for renewal and she needs it early. I am willing to spend some moolah provided a reliable agent has enough clout inside to get it done. I do not want an agent who will merely submit the forms on my behalf. If anyone has some contacts please help.

[DerAlte]

Try FCm Travel Solutions (I will PM you the details).

[srishiva]

There is no Seva kendra or Bangalore One kind of places in Hyderabad?

[sreedotk]

Zappo,

I did renew my passport about 16 months back. The process is fairly straight forward if you follow it by the book. It is only until the paper work that even an agent can help you, anything other than that even the passport office does not let people in.

Yes even though i applied in Tatkal the passport took about 25 days to reach my home . In case you need it earlier than that you need to fix an appointment with the Regional Passport officer and put in a personal representation.

In my experience i dont believe a passport agent can add much more value addition than making sure your papers are in order and you have the necessary notary stamping done.

In case you need the detail process the Passport office's website does detail all the information you need along with the formats for various applications like change of address, adding spouses name to passport. Etc.

If the passport delays more than 4 weeks there is a lok adalat every month (i think) which address all these issues.

If you know some one in the passport office then you can get most of the work done easily. (But knowing one is the hard part :-) )

[woof]

Why don't you register for a new passport online on Indian Passport, Ministry of External Affairs, Govt. of India You will be allotted a certain time slot, when you can personally go and submit your form and relevant documents. No need to pay a penny to an agent, IMO.

[DCEite]

If i were you i would avoid agent like a plague.

Once bitten, twice shy. I had applied for name change in passport an year back through an agent. "Shivam International". - he still gives advertisements in leading dailies.

He took away some documents and forms along with Old Passport from me, but didn't do anything for 1 month. I used to call him and he kept giving excuses that forms and old passport have been submitted and police verification can happen anytime. 5 months, YES 5 months passed, and still nothing happened, he kept giving different excuses.

Finally i threatened him on phone one day that i would lodge an FIR against him, and within 30 mins he came rushing to my house to give back my old passport. Finally i took some leaves and did the task myself - for sure it was tough but not impossible as i had thought. Got name changed passport within one month.

[Zappo]

Thanks DA. Will get in touch with these guys and see if they can help.

Guys, thanks for your inputs. Actually, the passport application (new or renewal) is supposed to be a pretty straight forward thing. Unfortunately things are on an altogether different plain when it comes to the Hyd RPO. The city is filled with the horror stories of the way the RPO is mismanaged here now. And the wrongly/partly filled forms or misunderstanding of procedures have nothing to do with it. You are just a sitting duck here, unless you have good contacts. No lok adalat and such lucks here either. Some months back one MLA had a huge fracas when his or his brother's passport application also met the same fate and to make matters worse his PA was thrown out of the RPO gate when he went to mediate.

So there...

[mobike008]

I perfectly agree with your original post Deb. We are one such case right in front of you.

My passport got expired in July'10 so i applied in June'10 and got my police verification just 2 weeks back. I am not even expecting my passport to be delivered to me for another 2 months atleast.

My wife won a contest in her office and she is being sent to Thailand for a week on Sep 3rd. Her passport is getting expired in Jan'11 and it seems you cannot travel if your passport has less than 6 months expiry you cannot travel.

She got more contacts than me ( she being from Delhi) and she went directly in through her contact and met the CPO ( Chief Passport Officer) and got her verification done the very next day ( 3 police office officers came to our house for vefication) and her certificate was signed personally by DSP and application submitted on this monday.

She is expecting her passport to be delivered on Tuesday. If she gets it, she will travel or less she will rue at her luck

[satish_appasani]

I too didn't have a good experience with agent. It was in 2008, my passport was already expired and my company wanted to send me to US within couple of weeks.

First i approached an agent referred by a good uncle of mine. He got all the paper work done. I went for submitting the application. As it was a tatkal application, they wanted more address proofs and rejected my application. When i called the agent, he was helpless.

Again the same uncle helped me get a certificate through a relative who was in army and i managed everything by my own. I got my passport with in two days. The agent was shameless to not even follow-up with me.

But i think from what i observed there, knowing an insider will surely help.

[ampere]

In fact in Bangalore they (Regional Passport Office) now discourage to go with agents.
They say, if you go by the book, you can it faster as compared to going with the agent.

On top of it, all back office work has been sub-contracted to TCS.

[MileCruncher]

@Zappo: If you get the address please let me know as well.

Thanks!

[mobike008]

Update :

A miracle happened. Folks who know how Hyderabad Passport office is these days. My wifey applied on last Monday and she used some of her high contacts and got her passport delivered today. 1 week flat

She can now board her flight to Thailand tomorrow

Now thats what I call "A close call"

[Zappo]

Saar, can I borrow your wife's contacts for a one-off passport office work saar? I desperately need something that sort. If you insist I will even promise not to flog your wife's contacts as hard and will settle for a 20 days time frame.