Students from abroad have to apply for permission to stay in India at the foreign registration office (FRO) every year. This registration should be done fourteen days upon arrival in the country. Failure to do so might warrant arrest and deportation for illegal stay in the country.  

One would think this is a simple and straight forward procedure but the matter is almost as bent as the workers working at the Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO). It took me quite some time to recover from the jet lag from flying from Gambia, my home, and the cultural shock that I received in India. Soon, I realised that I was supposed to go to the FRRO for my registration. When I got to the office, the first thing I was asked to do was to write an application letter for the registration and also get a ‘bonafide’ certificate from my school( bonafide certificate is the certificate issued by the School/College/University to prove that one is studying there). In order to get that certificate from my school, I had to write another application indicating the purpose for which I needed the certificate. It took me two days to finally get it from my school and soon I was playing merry-go-round with FRRO.

I got to the office on a Monday morning at around 10 am. The man responsible for issuing permits was sitting at his desk while a long queue of expats waiting for him to finish what he was doing on his computer had already formed in front of it. I joined the queue and patiently waited as people went in one after the other. Soon, it was my turn. I submitted my documents him. He went through them and then made a phone call. I didn’t understand what he was saying to the person at the other end of the line because he was speaking in Hindi. When he hung up, he told me to come back a week after, by 3 in the afternoon. I was confused because I had just handed him all the detailed information that he needed to process my papers. So, I asked what happens next and he told me that the procedure will take a short while as there some verification had to be made.

I was told the same thing the first, second, and third time I came to FRRO that month for the registration document which was supposed to be delivered in a week. Nothing good ever come easy, I sighed to myself.

On my fourth visit there, I got my registration certificate. Just when I thought my problems had ended and had begun enjoying the incredibleness that is India unfettered, I had to start worrying about my visa which was valid for ten months. Where else would I have to go but the FRRO, the same office that stood me up for a resident’s permit for a month!

Just thinking about the stress and the many “Go and come later with XYZ document” that I would have to hear frequently made me want to disappear. The push and pull began, and just for a second, I almost felt like I was born to be friends with pain and tribulation, at least during my stay in India.

This grind proved to be worse than the one earlier. My passport was stuck at the FRRO office for six months! For these months, I was felt like a fugitive as I could do nothing without my passport.

Six months that seemed like an eternity and many rounds of the FRRO later, I got my passport back — only to find out that my extension had been granted for six months from my date of application, the same six months my passport spent lying at the FRRO! It meant, within weeks, I was back at the same offices, standing in queues, pleading and arguing with the same officers. But this time round, thankfully some of the foreign students had approached their schools and their respective embassies and lodged complains. Now, visa extension can be applied for online. This is faster and more convenient than making rounds of offices and saves time and energy.

But for resident permits? Sadly, it still means rounds of the FRRO!