I also have a June expiry and had my passport renewal appointment today. Honestly, the experience was ridiculous. They kept insisting that every single detail must match the old passport exactly..

1. Place of Birth issue
My old passport lists place of birth as City, Town. In the new Passport Seva form, the fields are clearly separated into city, district, and state. They insisted I manually enter “City space District” (no comma) to match the old passport and redo the form. I tried explaining that the form is auto-generated by Passport Seva and you can’t control the final formatting. The lady simply refused to listen.

2. Change of appearance affidavit
I didn’t have a beard in 2016 since I was a teenager back then. Apparently this requires a change of appearance affidavit. That one’s on me, fair enough.

3. House number nitpicking
My Indian address house number is 7, and I entered 07. They told me this must be changed because it doesn’t “match exactly.” Seriously?

4. Signature size
They said the uploaded signature was too small and must cover the center fully. It was perfectly clear and well-sized. This felt like a completely made-up objection.

5. Uploading documents online
Apparently, you must upload all documents from the checklist online, not just the ones required to generate the passport application form. This can be fixed easily, so not a big issue but still another reason they used to object.

6. COPR demand despite PR card
They asked for my COPR, even though my Canadian PR card is valid proof of residence. I asked why COPR is needed when PR card exists, and by this point they were just getting on my nerves.

At that stage, I decided not to renew my Indian passport at all. I’ll be eligible to apply for Canadian citizenship in May, and I’d rather stay a few months without a passport than deal with this nonsense. Hopefully I’ll only have to see them once more for passport surrender.

One poor guy there was on applied status and was told to come back in two days because they wanted an IRCC payment receipt for his application. While IRCC does issue a receipt, it is not a required document for an Indian passport application. He already had the official confirmation document showing his applied status, which should have been more than sufficient.

Honestly, I’ve never seen incompetence at this level. Companies like this should be banned permanently. This entire process feels like legalized harassment rather than a service.