My passport application reached CKGS in Chicago today and I just received an update that
Application ‘not accepted’ by CKGS.
Place of Birth in the NRI Form does not match the place of birth mentioned in the Indian Passport. Please reapply with the Place of Birth exactly as in your current Indian Passport.
In my passport, my place of birth is “CHENNAI [TAMIL NADU]”
In my Government form, I filled it in as “Place of birth: Chennai” and “District/Country of birth: India” (attached image)
So I should’ve entered “Chennai [Tamil Nadu]” in all the forms? (they don’t accept characters such as square brackets anyway).
Honestly I can’t believe that is reason enough to reject the application. Chennai is not a godforsaken town in India. And why do they say “District/Country of birth”? District and Country are not interchangeable words.
Also, do you know what will happen now?
Are they going to ship all the documents and my old passport back to me?
Then I’ll have to go through the entire process again?
I lose the $130 from this application and have to simply pay again?
Most of the time, CKGS just sends you an email on what to do next. If they can fix the issue, they will ask you to just send the updated document and they will continue the application from there.
I haven’t received an email (yet). Maybe they’ll send me one tomorrow? The tracking page has this update:
I called them.
They said my application will be returned to me within three business days.
I have to then reapply using a brand new application.
I can’t believe they (CKGS, on behalf of the Indian Embassy) have a problem with something like entering “Chennai” instead of “Chennai Tamil Nadu” when their instructions, forms, and questions are not exactly crystal clear themselves.
I got my new and old passports today (!!!). Just wanted to share the timeline here:
Friday, Apr 13, 2018: Application ‘Received’ by CKGS and ‘Not Verified’.
Friday, Apr 13, 2018: Application Verification is ‘Complete’. Processing of your application will continue.
Friday, Apr 13, 2018: Application is ‘Under Process’ at CKGS.
Monday, Apr 16, 2018: Application is ‘In Transit’ to the Consulate.
Monday, Apr 16, 2018: Application is ‘Under Process’ at Consulate for decision making.
Wednesday, Apr 18, 2018: Application ‘Reviewed’ by Consulate and ‘In Transit’ to CKGS Application Centre.
Wednesday, Apr 18, 2018: Passport ‘Received’ at the CKGS application centre and is at the ‘Sorting Facility’ where it is being processed for delivery.
Wednesday, Apr 18, 2018: Application is ‘Dispatch’. Passport picked up by .
Thursday, Apr 19, 2018: I received the package with both passports.
$77 must be 75 for passport renewal + 2 ICWF fee. CKGS service fee (19.95), shipping costs (2x15), and convenience fee (4.44) have all been spent/considered spent.
I don’t understand why “refund amount” is less than the “entitled to” amount though.
Place of birth in the old passport was: CHENNAI [TAMIL NADU]
in the rejected application: CHENNAI
in the accepted application: CHENNAI TAMIL NADU (since the form fields “eat up” special characters such as square brackets; they’re not even allowed)
in the new passport: CHENNAI TAMIL NADU
No, my old passport was issued in India.
I’m not sure how/why mine was issued so quickly. Is it possible that the sample population we hear from online has more people whose passports are taking longer to process (for what ever reason), and so the accepted time frame is assumed to also be longer, like 4-6 weeks?
And maybe there are many others out there whose processing doesn’t take as long, but we just don’t hear about them online?
Basically, the times reported by applicants who are vocal online will skew the average processing time, making it seem longer than the true average. Just a theory. I’m sure you’re more aware of how the “average” time is estimated to be what it is.
Hi my passport got rejected today and i received an email which says that its cause of my mothers name is not correct in the NRI form, My name isnt correct in the NRI form and also the place of birth is wrong.
my question is do they refund the money and if yes then how much refund do i get ?
what is their helpline number (i called some number and it was charging me around 2$ per minute to speak to some representative)
The number you called is probably correct.
CKGS customer care is NOT free. They charge a hefty amount per minute.
You will spend at-least $10 if you want to speak.
@Anonymous: Thank you for sharing your experience, I am in a similar situation and my application got rejected today. I was just wondering, did you have to create a new application once you got the rejection and if so, how were you able to track the refund status for the old/rejected application? ( I thought once we generate a new web ref number the older one gets cancelled?) And eventually how long did it take for the refund to get processed?
I Have applied renewal for my daughter. It says STATE of birth is missing. I am not sure where I need to mention. In the application it says District/Country of birth: so I have mentioned as “INDIA” then they rejected it…
Hi @Anil_Gupta,
My application got rejected yesterday for incorrect place of birth. My place of birth on expiring passport is “SOLAPUR MS” .
When i fill NRI form, i marked village/town/city as SOLAPUR MS while state as Maharashtra from drop down.
When they complete NRi form, it gets updated as “ SOLAPUR MS , MAHARASHTRA”. If they add state ( mandatory field) by default , it will never match my current passport.
@Arpita_Murar Were you able to get in touch with ckgs about the place of birth? I am having a similar question.
My old passport says place of birth as: BANGLORE KARNATAKA.
Now there are 2 issues:
a. The spelling of Bangalore is wrong and the name has changed now (its Bengaluru now).
b. If I write BANGLORE KARNATAKA in Place of Birth(village/town/city), it shows as
BANGLORE KARNATAKA, KARNATAKA in the final Passport preview page.
Any suggestions as to what should be done in this case?
