Indian Passport renewal experience in Houston (Regular)

I applied for passport renewal (regular/not tatkal) in USA(Houston) recently and this is my experience.

My passport is valid until Oct, 2026 but my company is filing for H1-B renewal in November and so I thought of renewing the passport and file for H1-B renewal with the new passport. You aren't eligible to apply for Indian passport renewal 1 year before expiration date but if you add any details like your Spouse Name etc, you can renew even before the 1 year limit and I used that.

Timeline (2025)

• Sep 6 - Mailed Application, Photos and other required documents
• Sep 8 - Passport reached VFS Houston
• Sep 12 - VFS status update saying passport was sent to Indian consulate
• Sep 17 - Passport portal status change to Application Form Submitted
• Sep 17 - Granting Initiated/ Sent to go
• Sep 30 - Application granted on post police verification basis/Granting set as Clear
• Sep 30 - Print and PV Initiated/ Escalated to CPPF
• Oct 3 - Approved and Submitted as Clear by Police
• Oct 3 - PVR scan and uploaded successfully
• Oct 15 - Printed: Passport No. <PassportNumber> of type Ordinary-Normal
• Oct 15 - QC Accepted and Dispatch Initiated
• Oct 16 - Passport Number <PassportNumber> dispatched through International Post/Courier with tracking no <TrackingNumber> to issuing Mission/Post
• Oct 22 - Passport Received/Reconciled and Dispatch by OSP initiated
• Oct 23 - VFS sent passport using their own courier (USPS)
• Oct 24 - Passport delivered by USPS

On Sep 30 or Oct 1st, we got an email saying local police will contact my parents for police verification and we proactively reached out to the police to complete the verification faster.

From Oct 16-Oct 22, passport is in transit from India to Houston, I used to think that the local consulates print the passport but our passport came printed from India and that delayed the process by a week.

If anyone's interested in the tracking of passport from India to USA, here are the details

• Oct 16 6:43pm - Label Created, UPS has not received the package yet.
• Oct 17 5:43pm - We Have Your Package, Okhla, India
• Oct 17 11:44pm - Arrived at Facility, Okhla, India
• Oct 18 2:44am - Departed from Facility, Okhla, India
• Oct 18 3:50am - Arrived at Facility, New Delhi Airport
• Oct 19 10:22am - Departed from Facility, New Delhi Airport
• Oct 19 12:23pm - Arrived at Facility, Dubai
• Oct 19 3:05pm - Departed from Facility, Dubai
• Oct 20 2:03am - Departed from Facility, Koeln, Germany
• Oct 20 3:45am - Arrived at Facility, Newark, NJ, USA
• Oct 20 6:47am - Departed from Facility, Newark, NJ, USA
• Oct 20 11:26pm - Import Scan, Louisville, KY, USA
• Oct 21 3:23am - Departed from Facility, Louisville, KY, USA
• Oct 21 4:42am - Arrived at Facility, Houston, TX, USA
• Oct 21 5:24am - Departed from Facility, Houston, TX, USA
• Oct 21 6:42am - Loaded on Delivery Vehicle, Houston, TX, USA
• Oct 21 9:46am - Out For Delivery Today
• Oct 21 12:58pm - Delivered, Houston, TX, USA

As you can see, it took more than 1.5 months for me to receive my passport since it is delivered to VFS, which is more than the VFS/Consulate said time for regular passport renewals.

Link used for tracking on passport seva https://portal3.passportindia.gov.in/Online/index.html

You can open Passport seva tracking link on Google Chrome and before clicking submit after providing the details, right click and select Inspect. Then click on submit > Network tab on Inspect > trackStatusForFileNoNew > Preview > right click on statusMap > Copy value and post to Notepad to view more details about your passport status rather than the basic details you see on the seva tracking.

As you might have already noticed from the tracking info I shared above, you will be able to see your passport number before you actually get your passport.

I posted on Twitter(X) after a month of applying for passport and tagged Indian Embassy etc but not sure if it helped, someone replied to me saying he knows a contact in Indian Embassy and he will get my passport delivered within a week if I pay 10,000 INR.

I was tempted to pay as I have an international trip planned (Last minute plans to attend Cousin's wedding, which I got to know after I sent my passport) but I asked them for more details on why the passport is delayed and wanted to confirm my passport number etc before I pay them but that's where they backed off and I'm glad that I didn't fall for this scam. They also mentioned that there were some remarks from police verification but when I looked at the statusMap, it said police verification is cleared and that too helped me realize that its a scam.

tldr: Applied for regular passport renewal in Houston and it took more than 45 days for me to receive my passport whereas the official site says consulate just needs 3 weeks to process the application once it reaches them. Follow the instructions I shared above to get more details from the passport seva website.

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