Passport renewal & Address change

My passport expired early last year and for some reason I dilly dallied about the renewal .. Don't ask me why!And when I finally got around to it, all it took was a few minutes to fill out the form, figure out a day for the appointment at the Passport office and 10 mins to complete the process. Following it was the shortest wait ever, even my Amazon orders take longer. The new passport was in my hands in less than 3 days... 

I had to renew my passport and also do a change in address. It was currently in my grandparent's home address, I was changing it to my parent's house address [which is what I have used in all my other ID documents]

The Steps involved 

Step 1-

Visit Passport Seva Online Portal and click on "new user, Register now" if you are here for the 1st time, else use "Existing user?Login". Make sure to remember your Login details - write them down somewhere or mail it to yourself.

Step 2-
Click on "Apply for Fresh Passport/Re-issue of Passport" link.

Step 3-
Fill in the required details in the form and click submit.

Step 4- 
Documents required for reissue - this differs based on the category you are applying for, so make sure to read the list and various categories before making copies of the same. [There is no need to upload them online as you have to carry the original along with a copy when you go to the office for the renewal appointment] 


Step 5 -
Click the "Pay and Schedule Appointment" link on the "View Saved/Submitted Applications" screen to schedule an appointment. You will see a table with list of centres in your city along with the Closest dates available.Else, you can click on the calendar and choose a date convenient to you along with the time slot. You can check for Appointment availability here

Payment options:

Online Payment has been made mandatory for booking appointments at all Passport Seva Kendras/Passport Offices.

Online Payment can be made using any one of the following modes:

▪   Credit/Debit Card (MasterCard and Visa)

▪   Internet Banking  

# Fee calculator- This again depends on what your issue is. And if you are requesting for a passport with 60 pages, the rate is different from the smaller booklet. Check this page for the same...

Step 6 -
Check your email and SMS- Once you are done filling out the forms, making payment and choosing the date of your appointment, you will receive intimation via email and SMS as well. It will also send you a reminder about half an hour prior to your appointment. 

Note: In case of doubts, do read the "getting started" section on the website. 

Step 7 -
The Appointment day- On the date, make sure to reach the Passport office atleast half an hour ahead of your scheduled appointment. 

Why? This is to the person at the counter can check your documents and make sure they are all in order. 

What documents? - The ones you need to carry for your renewal - Refer to Step 4 above. 
[Link -http://passportindia.gov.in/AppOnlineProject/docAdvisor/reissuePassport]. Do remember to carry your old passport as well. 

What next? - Once you are cleared, the person will ask you to move to the next counter where you will be given a small slip that has your token number on it.  You take the slip and your documents and move into the main area.

What happens there? 

• There are 3 sections you need to go through before you are done. A, B and C. 
• You visit A section and relevant counter when your token number flashes on the screen.
• The person at the desk will examine your documents, take your signature, do biometrics [ finger print of both hands] and take your photograph as well. 
• They will then show you the screen with all information. Make sure to check and edit if any changes required. 
• Once cleared, you go to next section and wait your turn there.
• This is done twice more till you reach C section where they sign you out and give you the slip [given at the initial counter]
• Near the exit is another smaller counter/booth of sorts. You give them this slip, they tell you if there is Police verification or not and approx how long it will take to receive your new passport. 

Step 8 -
You will receive an SMS once you reach this phase, and updates as your passport is printed and despatched. The 1st sms will contain a 15 digit number, which you need to quote to the mailman/woman when they come to deliver the new passport. 

DO NOT DELETE THE SMS's. 

Voila, you are done!! Time to plan your trip and pack your bags... Hope this helped.. :) 

Srilanka- The departure

So, now that we were done with the Planning and Research, we had our ticket and our bags were packed. Since we were flying out of Madurai, both of us left our resp destinations the prev night and reached Madurai morning 6ish. We met, had some breakfast, freshened up and hailed an auto to go visit the Temple. The auto driver offered to wait, and drop us at the airport for Rs300. We agreed, esp since it gave us peace of mind regarding our luggage [ we were wondering if we had to lug it around] and we had a ride to the airport [12-15kms away]. 

He patiently waited the hour while we did the Temple Darshan and dropped us off at Madurai airport. We were early, we had reached by 9.15 when the gates were opening only at 10. We sat and waited in the lounge. At 10am, we checked in our bags,  and were asked to fill out Immigration form - it contained fields where you had to fill in- Name, nationality, city of residence, date of travel, passport number, issue & expiry date and the address we were headed to [make sure to mention city name if not the entire address]. Once this was done, we once again had to wait for a while for the Immigration counter to open.  A man checked out passport and the form, and put a stamp and sent us on our way.  

Always carry your passport and a copy of the ticket/visa along with you!!

{yes I clicked this selfie after the stamping]

We made our way upstairs and waited few minutes before security check in. Once that was done we were off to the gate to wait for Boarding call. 

Ta da.. we were all set to hop on the shuttle and get into our flight. Lo Behold, I noticed that our flight was a small one, a Spicejet "Laung" Bombardier Q400. Our seats were in the 18th row and so we had a short walk to our seats.! Buckled in, we were all set to take off.. 

And this began our Sri Lanka Holiday....................... :-)) 

Srilanka- The Hotel Research

Now that you are done with Planning the trip, it is time to do some research and get some information on the country, places to see, things to do, and other little matters. 

While my friend continued to speak to the contact she had in SL, I did some research through friends and the good ol internet as well. I gathered itineraries from friends who had visited, from a travel company nearby and even checked out quite a few blogs. There were a few places that all of them recommended, and some were extra, which left me with a lot of thoughts. My friend and I went to and fro on Whatsapp talking about the list of places to see, where to stay and local transport, etc.. It was mind boggling, but amazes me now that we managed to pull off a trip entirely via Whatsapp.. :D 

Some sites to refer for 

Hotel options:

http://www.agoda.com/en-in/country/sri-lanka.html

http://www.booking.com/country/lk.html

http://www.tripadvisor.in/Hotels-g293961-Sri_Lanka-Hotels.html

B & B's

http://www.tripadvisor.in/Hotels-g293961-c2-Sri_Lanka-Hotels.html

http://www.bedandbreakfast.com/sri-lanka.html

http://www.bedandbreakfastworld.com/sri-lanka/asia

On our 1st night in Colombo, the one thing we both wanted was to stay at a place that had the Ocean view. And for this, we chose "Lafala Hotel and Service Apartment". It was a brilliant place, the room was lovely, balcony doors opened to the view of the ocean. There was a large palatial bathroom, with a huge bathtub and a view of the ocean as well. The entire road Welawatte beach road was a pleasure to walk on. The ocean on one side, rambling trains nearby and buildings/hotels on the other side.  The one thing I noticed that most hotels here had was "free wi-fi" [It was such a blessing as I had work and friend was able to skype/whatsapp her family as well]

You can book a room here via Ctrip or Agoda. The room costed us $54 and they threw in Breakfast for one person complementary, the other we paid for. 

In other places we stayed sheerly based on inky pinky ponky, and ofcourse whatever looked impressive [good yet affordable]  :- ) But if you know exactly where you are headed, you can book ahead and save a few dollars here and there!! 

More to come in the next post.. 

Sri Lanka- The Planning

This was a trip like no other. Why do I say that? There is only one reason why! This is my 1^st ever trip across the Indian borders, yes, I was finally gonna get a stamp on my passport and setting foot on foreign land. So what if it was Sri Lanka, our neighbouring country. It was still a country that needed a passport and visa and all that jazz! For those who have travelled across the globe, this is no big deal, but trust me – it was such a huge deal for me! Actually, this was true both for me and my friend. We had kinda made a pact a year or so ago that we would make our 1^st international trip together and it so happened that the dream came true…

She called me towards the 3^rd week of March and asked if I was game to do a trip to Sri Lanka and I immediately said Yes. She had done quite a bit of research and began rattling out flight and visa details even before the whole thing settled in my mind. I checked the net, got her passport details and booked our tickets and Visa. Within a day we had also booked the hotel for the 1^st night and we had decided to take the rest as the days progressed. I took 2 friends into confidence and asked them about places to go, things to do and so on.  I also referred to the net, checked out quite a few sites of which I found Sri Lanka Travel portal to be quite good and informative! 

[Image courtesy: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/asia/sri-lanka/map_of_sri-lanka.jpg]

We booked tickets on Spicejet from Madurai, cos that was the cheapest flight available on the dates we wanted to travel. There are quite a few other Airlines- Air Lanka, Air India Express and so on. 

The Visa was done online, and it took a few minutes only. All I did was Google “Sri Lanka visa” and the “https://eta.gov.lk/” site popped up. In that, after reading the process, i clicked on “Apply” which opened out a form that i filled out [name, passport number, issue and expiry date, address, dates of travel, and an address at the destination], then make the payment via credit card [USD 15]. However, visa is also available on arrival, but that costs USD 30.  Once you are done filling out the form, check and make sure the information provided is correct, esp passport number. If you don’t really know where you are staying [which was the case with us], just fill in Colombo [landing destination] and it works! Now when you are done with payment gateway, you will receive an email saying your visa is under process and you will hear from them in 24hours. I received a “visa approved” mail within that time and I had it on my phone in case anyone asked for it [which none did]

Similarly, for the ticket, you just need to store the email on your phone, don’t need print outs. Just make sure you are carrying your passport with you as you will need to show it at multiple places.

With regards to Foreign Currency- we did a rough estimate after talking to friends/travel agents and people living in SL, and decided we might need about 50K Sri Lankan Rupees [LKR], which was equal to Rs25000 INR. So, I called up a money exchange company, took a copy of the passport and ticket and cash and got the LKR money.

LKR is quite interesting- the notes are all different, some large, some small but all of them have a collection of birds/animals/symbols/masks on them. Quite colourful.  The LKR 2000 notes are much larger than LKR 5000. They also have coins, very similar to ours except theirs is all gold in colour.  The normal conversion rate is 1 INR= 2.17 LKR, but most places give upto 2LKR.  We needed little more and so when we approached Western Union in Galle, they offered us 1.9LKR only [lost about 500 bucks in that transaction].

That is all you need! Oh and you can draw cash if required using your ATM card from your local Indian Banks. The ATM machine gives a good rate – 1INR= 2.17 LKR. Our Credit cards also work everywhere, for no additional charge! The credit card slip comes in LKR, while the SMS/email notification in our INR.

Now that you know what you need to plan a SL trip, I shall talk about my experiences in the next post.