How to apply for a Passport in India?

A passport is an official document issued by governments to allow its citizens to travel abroad. A citizen of any country going abroad for any reason be it travel, business, pleasure, studying, conference, sports tournament etc. the person needs to have a passport.

So if you want to apply for a passport in India to go abroad and don’t know how to get one you have to come to the right place. We will tell you how to get your first ever passport.

How to apply for Passport online?

Applying for a passport online is a fairly easy and fast process. The applicant must follow the steps provided below to apply for the passport online.

Step 1: Create an account on the Ministry of External Affairs official passport website: passportindia.gov.in by clicking ‘New User Registration on the homepage of the website.

If you already have an existing account on passportindia.gov.in you can skip the first step.

Step 2: Log in to the account created by you and choose the application type.

Step 3: Fill out the application form containing your details such as Name, Date of Birth, Father’s Name and Mother’s Name, Address, Contact Info, Place of Birth.

Step 4: After filling the form the applicant need to pay the application fees and schedule an appointment to the nearest Passport Seva Kendra (PSK).

• To pay your application fees re-login to your passportindia.gov.in account and click on Save/Submitted Applications
• Upon clicking the ‘Save/Submitted Applications’ button select the submitted passport application.
• Click on the Pay & Schedule appointment option from the list of available options
• Choose the payment method – Applicants can pay from one of the two provided payment methods (Online Payment or Challan Payment)
• After Payment, a Screen will prompt up containing available appointment slots. 
• Choose your desired slot.
• After choosing your desired slot you’ll have your confirmed appointment number and an SMS will be sent to your registered mobile number containing information about your appointment.
• DO NOT FORGET TO PRINT YOUR COPY OF THE APPLICATION RECEIPT AND APPOINTMENT CONFIRMATION RECEIPT.

How to apply for a passport through Digilocker?

You came a long way to the passport office. You sit in front of the agent and realize that you forgot to bring your graduation certificate. Now you go all the way back to your home, apply for another slot booking, and have to travel back again to the passport office. This is frustrating and hectic, right?

Well taking another step towards making India digital, a new scheme has been launched by government of India making the passport applying process a lot easier and paperless work. Now applicants don’t have to carry the documents instead of submitting paper documents, applicants can share the link of the uploaded document in the DigiLocker.

DigiLocker is a mobile app a safe locker to access confidential and important documents whenever in need. DigiLocker provides every aadhaar card holder about 1GB cloud space to upload scanned documents and to retrieve documents if the physical copy is lost. You can also apply for a passport through DigiLocker and share their documents digitally.

DigiLocker is a paperless alternative to certificates, licence or ids such as school certificate, Aadhaar card, PAN card, Driving License, and many other documents. List of the documents that can be shared with Passport Seva Program through Digilocker account:

1. Aadhar Card
2. Voter ID Card
3. Driving License
4. PAN Verification Record
5. Issue of Arm License
6. Caste Certificate
7. Pension Card
8. Insurance Policy Certificate-Life
9. Class X and XII Passing Certificate 
10. Birth Certificate
11. Ration Card
12. Electricity Bill
13. Telephone Bill

Steps to apply for a passport:

Step 1: Create a Digilocker account and upload your documents.

1. First sign in your account with entering your full name, same as in your Aadhar card, Aadhar number, date of birth, phone number and email id. 
2. A One Time Password (OTP) will be given to you on your phone number which is registered. Enter the OTP to log in your DigiLocker Account. 
3. In this step you have to upload your documents in your DigiLocker account. You have to upload your documents in your account, you will have an option to upload the documents.

Step 2: Now, recheck that all the necessary documents are already uploaded to your Digilocker account. Then log on to the Passport Seva Program [STEPS MENTIONED ABOVE] and upload your documents from DigiLocker. 

1. After getting the self-declaration screen, then in the front, you will get the option to  “Grant DigiLocker Access”. You will need to fill out your “birth proof”. 
2. Then you need to log in to your DigiLocker account and for that, you have to fill in details such as Username, Aadhar card and phone number.
3. You have to enter One Time Password (OTP) and give permission to Passport Seva to access your DigiLocker Account.
4. You will see the option “Fetch From DigiLocker”. Now click the option and after that, all your documents are successfully uploaded.

Extra Information:

Recently, Government of India also issued some e-passports. The concept of e-passport is pretty new but revolutionary. Soon everyone will have the latest and fastest e-passport technology, that will help in faster airport checks and reliable information storage. It is an embedded microchip that is faster than the procedure with hand held passports with sturdy cover. This microchip will make forging duplicate cards difficult with technology like watermark and micro text.

Governmental works are always deemed to be tiresome and sluggish. But with the amazing new transformation of digital application acceptance and digital documentation, people are set to work with ease. No bothering about forgetting the documents at home because now documents will be with us everywhere. A new step towards modernization, boon to digitization.

Applying for Passport Offline

To apply for a passport offline a passport applicant can submit his/her application at the following of the three places.

• District Passport Cell
• Speed Post Center
• Citizen Service Center

Note: Only the New/Fresh Passport applications can be submitted at these three places.

Offline Passport Application procedure:

Download the Passport Application form from passportindia.gov.in on A4 size plain white sheet. 

Carefully fill out the Passport Application form. Instead of downloading the form the applicants can also purchase the form from District Passport Cell for Rs. 10 and from Speed Post Centers for Rs. 20.

Documentation and Application process for applicants at District Passport Office

The applicant must bring the following documents to the District Passport Office to submit his/her application.

• Passport Application Form
• Self-Attest photocopies of the required documents as well as an original set of documents for verification.
• Photograph of 4.5×3.5 cm with a white background.

Note: The applicant needs to sign the photograph and the application form.

Documentation and Application process for applicants at Speed Post Centers

The passport application facility is not available at all Speed Post Centers. Applicants before going to the Speed Post Center must verify that the passport application facility is available at the speed post centre near their vicinity. 

The applicant needs to bring:

• The passport application form with the attached photograph.
• Self-Attested documents 
• A Demand Draft in favour of PAO-MEA. The backside of the demand draft should contain your name, date of birth and the date of submission of application.

Documentation and Application process for applicants at Citizen Service Center

The Applicant needs to bring:

• A duly filled application with the applicant’s photograph attached to it.
• Self Attested Copy of all the documents as well as original documents.
• The Applicant also needs to pay the passport fees via Cash or Debit/Credit Card.