For the past one week, me and my Appa were laboring to submit a Passport renewal application for him using the new website called Passport Seva Portal. He could not successfully get past the login screen at his end in India, so he officially appointed me his travel agent in US. After getting through the creation of application and uploading the documents, we were shocked to note that the Normal appointment at the passport office is too far away for our needs. We needed to get an express appointment to proceed with our plans. Looks like these appointments open up a 8AM IST and they get filled up in no time and you had to wait the next day or another.
Since then my job was to book a Tatkal (meaning instantaneous) appointment - which was not an easy task. Every time I check for the availability of the Tatkal, all I got was "All Tatkal appointments have been booked, please try again later or another day". I kept trying at different times with despair.
Yesterday night, I tried at exact 8AM IST and I could not believe my eyes. I FINALLY saw the tatkal slots listed. My hands were literally shaking because I KNEW these will get filled up in no time. As I picked a slot and clicked "Book Appointment" keeping my fingers crossed, I saw the words "The slot you selected has been taken by another person. Please try again later". My heart sank! All the efforts went futile, I thought.
I knew LATER I may not even get this far. I could see that all the open slots that I had seen a minute earlier for the location I selected within Bangalore were GONE. I just tried another location in Bangalore and voila, I saw just ONE slot. I pounced on it and prayed to all Gods. My dad was doing the same thing from the one end - except that he can't even get as far as I can within the website. And I got the appointment!
I was never THIS happy in the recent past. Phew..! I called Appa to narrate this success story and now we can go ahead with the plans. Interesting experience - frustrating for the whole time but since I finally succeeded - now I have a smile! Little joys of life! Sense of satisfaction and accomplishment - isn't that all we want to take away from any experience!
8 comments:
There must be a simple system for getting a passport for senior citizen
Indian websites for travel/immigration are a PIA, true representatives of Indian bureaucracy on the internet. Instead of a govt. official flatly denying you something these websites flash a 403, 404 or 503 to confuse public. Glad you could get the task done.
I almost wish they'd put a "Give Kaikkooli" button which will ensure 100% success every time.
hurray indeed, three cheers to you...
lol..at D's 'Give Kaikkooli button'.an essential UI.
huraay ! is he visitng soon then?
@shreyas - There are positive aspects of it - completely agents are out of this picture i hear! But website is not there yet!
@D - ironically, me and my Appa kind of wished if we could bribe someone!His visit to the passport office seemed to be comparable to US DMV office. So looks like we should be happy!
@UL - Thanks!enjoy your India trip!
I have been trying from past two days for an tatkaal appointment I cannot get past the initial few screens only. Any tips :-)
@Vishwa - you have to get the application created to generate an ID, download e-Form, fill it and upload it and upload supporting document. After all that is ready, you have to be at your computer by 8AM IST and looking for Tatkal appointment. Try using a different computer that is fast - that is what we had to do.
Well written! May be useful to others also. But the arrangements in the Passport Office are excellent. After getting the appointment, I went to the Office to get the token. All facilities like xeroxing, computer terminal, enquiry counter, ATM are available. After initial checking of the documents, we go inside and wait for our turn. When our token number comes along with counter number, you move to that. Every counter is having a PC, camera, fingerprint recording gadget with a helping assistant. The fee can be paid there in cash. It took only 5 minutes there. And after that another ten minutes and I walked out with a granted Acknowledgment. After two days, the passport got delivered at home.
APPA
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