For ex-pats there are many reasons to spend a day at the FRRO. Andi and I have enjoyed a number of fun-filled, exciting, and not-a-waste-of-a-day day's there for our initial registration, change of address(es), visa extensions, and the submission of our Indian tax return. Each of our five visits has entailed a slightly different process. Which, if you are looking for silver linings, means that someone realizes the FRRO is a broken office. Unfortunately, each of the changes has made the process worse, not better. Today might have been our worst experience (which is saying a lot, considering that our last time to the FRRO was dangerously interrupted by the fact that I brought copies of documents that we needed originals of, originals that were safely hidden away at home).
For today's adventure, Andi and I needed to register our new address and submit our Indian Tax Return. Our FRRO agent (one of the few amazing employees at our relocation company) estimated that it should take about an hour and a half. Seven hours and ten minutes was close.
The old FRRO process, you might remember, began with an 8:00am arrival, prepping for the 8:30 stampede to the token window; a stampede that I had gotten quite good at - having hips at everyone else's chest height comes in handy when trying to hip check and fight your way to the front of a line. This stampede was followed by a downstairs wait for your token number to be called when you were allowed upstairs to begin waiting in lines to collect signatures. (Unless, of course you are Bill, and you decide to play dumb American and just walk upstairs before the FRRO is even open, shrug your shoulders whenever a security guard tells you to go downstairs, and smile nicely at the first employee to get to the office, at which point just to get rid of you they sign your paperwork.) For some things, this still seems to be the procedure. But they are trying something new for the change of address and ITR submission.
In its previous layout, the downstairs desk was managed by three employees: one person to push the button to forward the electronic token number board, one person to verify and sign your token sheet, and one person to supervise the operation. Now there is one person working the downstairs desk, assisted by a runner, who is responsible for doing the paperwork at least on changes of address, passport changes, and ITR submissions; it seems, though, that he is responsible for anything related to a change in status on an already registered visa. And he doesn't start work until 10:00am. By 10:30 he had a stack of about 25 applications for various things.
At first, it seemed that this new over-worked agent was going to be quite good: he smiled at us when we got to the desk, he seemed to be forming a line in his head putting our application packet in order on his desk telling us that he would work on our file when he had finished with the family that arrived before us, and he was generally pleasantly chatty and friendly. Unfortunately, appearances can be deceiving, and all that surface beauty translated into the s l o w e s t w o r k e r e v e r ! ! ! He seemed most efficient at repeating "I am only one person, sir, I cannot do everything at once." Paperwork, not so much with the efficiency. Our application packet was probably around fifteen pages. It took him about thirty minutes to verify that we had all the right documents (well, ok, he didn't actually do that, but more on that later): he would get through verifying about 5 pages when someone would come up to the desk to ask him a question (oh yeah, because, of course, there was a sign over the desk that said "Help Desk", so I guess he also had that job, too; did I forget to mention that earlier?) and he would answer and chat them up all friendly. Unfortunately, he wasn't too good at the multi-tasking, so that when he returned to our file he had lost track of what he was working on and would need to start over again and again and again. This process wasn't helped by the fact that FRRO has now gone virtual, a process that is great in theory, not so good in a city where the internets can only be described as spotty in the best of situations. And the FRRO government office is far from the best of situations. So of course, everytime he would get half-way through transfering the information from our paper packet to his online form the internet would go out and eveything would be lost, requiring another round of starting over again and again and again. Finally at 12:45ish he told us that he had finished with our file and that it now needed to go upstairs to get verified and signed. It should be ready at 2:30.
After a wonderful lunch, Andi and I returned to the office at around 3:00, greeted by the now too familiar "Have a seat. I will get to you next." By 4:00 our file had been brought back down ready for one more signature, to which we added our signatures confirming receipt of the change of address document, and we were out the door to meet our relocation agent who would make copies for their files. Giving us an ETA at home 5:00!!
Until our relocation agent asked to see the proof of submission of the ITR so he could make a copy of that, too.
So, back we went to the downstairs desk and the "only one person who can't do everything" to ask about the ITR submission form. "You can come back tomorrow for that." "No, actually we won't come back tomorrow for that. Today." "No, no, that is a separate application, this is change of address." "Yes, I know this is change of address, and all the other documents we submitted were for the ITR submission." "No, no, this was change of address. Tomorrow you can submit ITR when you bring the right paperwork." "Yes, all the paperwork we gave you six hours ago as we said 'We need to change our address and submit our ITR.'" "No, no not enough time today. Come back tomorrow." "Oh we're fine. We'll wait. This is going to be done tonight." "OK, I will do my level best." Which was, surprisingly, true. After a few too many trips across the street to get copies (seriously, if you know what I need in duplicate, tell me all at once so that I only have to make one trip across the street in the monsoon rains) the ITR submission proof was completed in just over an hour, and Andi's FRRO Stay Visa now has a nice handwritten note on the back saying that "F has sumbitted ITR," a note that is officially stamped and signed. As a Calvinist always with the cup half-empty and leaking, this might have been the most infuriating part of the whole day: a process that actually takes about an hour would have taken 5 hours during the day. But anyway, we survived and now hopefully only have one more trip to the FRRO awaiting us. Which is kind of sad, in a way.
Oh, and we also met some really nice young men from Sweden.
For today's adventure, Andi and I needed to register our new address and submit our Indian Tax Return. Our FRRO agent (one of the few amazing employees at our relocation company) estimated that it should take about an hour and a half. Seven hours and ten minutes was close.
The old FRRO process, you might remember, began with an 8:00am arrival, prepping for the 8:30 stampede to the token window; a stampede that I had gotten quite good at - having hips at everyone else's chest height comes in handy when trying to hip check and fight your way to the front of a line. This stampede was followed by a downstairs wait for your token number to be called when you were allowed upstairs to begin waiting in lines to collect signatures. (Unless, of course you are Bill, and you decide to play dumb American and just walk upstairs before the FRRO is even open, shrug your shoulders whenever a security guard tells you to go downstairs, and smile nicely at the first employee to get to the office, at which point just to get rid of you they sign your paperwork.) For some things, this still seems to be the procedure. But they are trying something new for the change of address and ITR submission.
In its previous layout, the downstairs desk was managed by three employees: one person to push the button to forward the electronic token number board, one person to verify and sign your token sheet, and one person to supervise the operation. Now there is one person working the downstairs desk, assisted by a runner, who is responsible for doing the paperwork at least on changes of address, passport changes, and ITR submissions; it seems, though, that he is responsible for anything related to a change in status on an already registered visa. And he doesn't start work until 10:00am. By 10:30 he had a stack of about 25 applications for various things.
At first, it seemed that this new over-worked agent was going to be quite good: he smiled at us when we got to the desk, he seemed to be forming a line in his head putting our application packet in order on his desk telling us that he would work on our file when he had finished with the family that arrived before us, and he was generally pleasantly chatty and friendly. Unfortunately, appearances can be deceiving, and all that surface beauty translated into the s l o w e s t w o r k e r e v e r ! ! ! He seemed most efficient at repeating "I am only one person, sir, I cannot do everything at once." Paperwork, not so much with the efficiency. Our application packet was probably around fifteen pages. It took him about thirty minutes to verify that we had all the right documents (well, ok, he didn't actually do that, but more on that later): he would get through verifying about 5 pages when someone would come up to the desk to ask him a question (oh yeah, because, of course, there was a sign over the desk that said "Help Desk", so I guess he also had that job, too; did I forget to mention that earlier?) and he would answer and chat them up all friendly. Unfortunately, he wasn't too good at the multi-tasking, so that when he returned to our file he had lost track of what he was working on and would need to start over again and again and again. This process wasn't helped by the fact that FRRO has now gone virtual, a process that is great in theory, not so good in a city where the internets can only be described as spotty in the best of situations. And the FRRO government office is far from the best of situations. So of course, everytime he would get half-way through transfering the information from our paper packet to his online form the internet would go out and eveything would be lost, requiring another round of starting over again and again and again. Finally at 12:45ish he told us that he had finished with our file and that it now needed to go upstairs to get verified and signed. It should be ready at 2:30.
After a wonderful lunch, Andi and I returned to the office at around 3:00, greeted by the now too familiar "Have a seat. I will get to you next." By 4:00 our file had been brought back down ready for one more signature, to which we added our signatures confirming receipt of the change of address document, and we were out the door to meet our relocation agent who would make copies for their files. Giving us an ETA at home 5:00!!
Until our relocation agent asked to see the proof of submission of the ITR so he could make a copy of that, too.
So, back we went to the downstairs desk and the "only one person who can't do everything" to ask about the ITR submission form. "You can come back tomorrow for that." "No, actually we won't come back tomorrow for that. Today." "No, no, that is a separate application, this is change of address." "Yes, I know this is change of address, and all the other documents we submitted were for the ITR submission." "No, no, this was change of address. Tomorrow you can submit ITR when you bring the right paperwork." "Yes, all the paperwork we gave you six hours ago as we said 'We need to change our address and submit our ITR.'" "No, no not enough time today. Come back tomorrow." "Oh we're fine. We'll wait. This is going to be done tonight." "OK, I will do my level best." Which was, surprisingly, true. After a few too many trips across the street to get copies (seriously, if you know what I need in duplicate, tell me all at once so that I only have to make one trip across the street in the monsoon rains) the ITR submission proof was completed in just over an hour, and Andi's FRRO Stay Visa now has a nice handwritten note on the back saying that "F has sumbitted ITR," a note that is officially stamped and signed. As a Calvinist always with the cup half-empty and leaking, this might have been the most infuriating part of the whole day: a process that actually takes about an hour would have taken 5 hours during the day. But anyway, we survived and now hopefully only have one more trip to the FRRO awaiting us. Which is kind of sad, in a way.
Oh, and we also met some really nice young men from Sweden.
may that be your last visit ever to that office.
ReplyDeletehello! for submission of itr, what would the other requirements be? thank you.
ReplyDelete