The Passport Office

I applied for my daughter’s passport today. I had applied for my passport about 5 years ago and the process, while clearly laid down, its execution was horrendous. My wife applied 3 years ago in Mumbai and her experience was no different. I was in one for a major surprise…

Fearing the worst, I started the “preparation activities” about a week ago. I asked around to ensure I had all the requisite documents, practiced filling in the passport application form on plain paper and also shot about 30 different photographs of my daughter (allright…, the last one was only because trying to get a 2 month old baby to focus into a camera is an extraordinary example of precision, skill and a huge amount of good luck!). Anyways, to make sure I wasn’t missing anything, I decided to check out the process on the web. Surprise #1 – they now accept online passport applications for all fresh applications. Being a technologist, I first wanted to make sure that the web site was hacker safe and that our personal data was not getting splattered half way across the globe. Fairly satisfied (though the web site can use a bit of a refresh along with some additional functionalities – to be covered later), I proceeded to input some basic details. On submitting the data, I was prompted to show up at the regional passport office at 12:30 PM on May 29 (two days later). Surprise #2 – no more running around; the passport office only allows you into the premises if you have a time stamp or if you have a token (which is issued between the hours of 0930-1230 everyday at the passport office). So, NIC (National Informatics Center) has finally been able to get its ultra-smart engineers to add business value. Now, surprise #3 - an online passport application form (PDF version) is generated with the basic information pre-filled and a bar code generated with a reference to the back office file/ docket number! Mind blowing!

So, on the pre-determined date and time (today at 12:20 PM), I showed up at the New Delhi Passport Office. There were 2 counters for “Online Submission” – one had about 5 people in a hustle and other had two (the concept of queuing is still fairly alien – that hasn’t really changed!). I, naturally, chose the path of least resistance and joined the group of 2 people. 7 minutes later, the official inspected my application printout, asked for the originals, asked me sign on my daughter’s photograph (the instructions do not call out what needs to be done in case a minor cannot (or as in my case, does not want to!) sign the application form. Another 4 minutes passed as he made some notes, scribbled on the form, stamped on the form (smudging his own notes) and then asked me for Rs. 600 (the application fee for a fresh passport for a minor). A receipt with an online status tracking number was generated and handed over to me. Done! That is the process – now, hopefully, I will have M’s passport in 20 days.

All good, eh? Well, it has definitely improved from 5 years ago but I have a few suggestions to make this process even more streamline

• Waiting Area at the passport office – Instead of making people wait in queues (or in groups!), we can easily arrange for a common seating area and call people as and when their token number comes up (we do this at the Indian Airlines office in New Delhi and it works like a charm).
• Technology to the rescue – The NIC has taken the first bold step in trying to make India’s technology skill visible in the government’s business context. Let us take this a step further – for one, the web site needs to be certified as “safe”. Two, the online application generated should be a “writable” PDF document (the basic data should be read-only once entered into the system) – this will ensure that the online applicant is typing instead of writing additional details (this would minimize errors which these PDF’s are machine scanned)
• Documentation Required – While there is a checklist of documents required, each case is unique. Depending on the basic information added, one should get a custom list of supporting documentation that needs to be brought in for verification
• Online Photographs/ Finger printing – We should be incorporating these changes now and stay ahead of the world. Instead of people carrying in their photographs, we should take photographs in the office along with the applicant’s fingerprint and store it digitally. The UK had experimented with smart chips in their passports – I think it is a brilliant idea to make cloning or misuse difficult. We should embrace this technology immediately – it might even make our emigration/ immigration process at our over-crowded airports easier.

Fortunately, all these changes are very doable and can be easily undertaken if the MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) starts to focus a little more on its citizens and overall improvement in its infrastructure.

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