Hello All,

My sister who lives in US who is on H1 Visa had to return to India for few months due to personal reasons and now her Indian passport expires by end of this year.As now she is in India and for renewal of passport the passport office is asking her for residence proof in India because the address mentioned in her passport is not the current place of her residence.
In case of NRI's who are living abroad for long and when they return to India how can they get a proof of residence as for passport renewal in India they ask for utility bills,adhar card,ration card as residence proof.
Could anyone please let me know how an NRI can proove his/her identity in India without a residence proof.
I know while living abroad its possible for us to renew the Indian passport by giving the address proof here but in situations when one has to return to India before we get the passport renewed and the only option left for us is to get it renewed from India then why do passport office creating such hurdles with residence proof even they know its not possible for every NRI to have a residence in India.

Thanks
Payal

Hello,

I had similar problem when my passport lamination was damaged and I was asked to get it renewed by immigration staff in Delhi from regional passport office. The procedure for getting passport renewed and obtaining a new passport in India are very similar which means the submission of all documents once again. I took risk, flew back to Germany and got it renewed by embassy, becasue I was Non-resident India, then how could I obtain a proof of residence in India? To obtain such papers one has to stay in India for few months and I had my return ticket booked.

But in your case, since your sister is living/residing in India and is getting her passport renewed in India, the passport office will need a proof of residence, if she was in the US, they (embassy) would have asked her residence proof valid for the US. So in my opinion they are not wrong because you can not get a passport in any country without telling the autorities where you are residing.

Does she has a proof of residence for the US? Have you tried submitting it as a proof of residence in passport office? Even then, they ask for permanent residence in India, where she may give parental home address. If I remember righly, the police will conduct a formal enquiry.

Regards,
Tony

PS: This is not a legal advice.