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Amazingly, we are done!!! No amount of exclamation marks can truly demonstrate the relief and happiness at the process being done. For now. Post adoption checks will take 6 months once we get back home. Not a big deal really. After a lot more grovelling and running around every day to the passport office, we finally got Sofi's passport. It took 10 days. Issued April 18, 2011. Creepy crawly Krishin Kumar caved in after alot of pleading, sucking up, name dropping, actually showing up daily, until I think he realized that I don't take no for an answer. I have climbed up and down the passport office stairs many many many times, being sent to one person or another.  I think the Regional Passport Officer got sick of seeing me too.  And the fact they could not fault our paperwork.  Yet, we are the lucky ones.  Many people fared much worse than us. Even the day the passport was issued, I showed up at the designated time of 4:30. Hovering around the counter, asking again and again if t...

Apparently, for a long time in India, it was not considered a right to have a passport. Now there are more than 1.2 billion people who are eligible. Not surprisingly, the passport offices simply cannot deal with the volume of applications. Plus, given terrorism and many other concerns, there is a fear of wrongly issuing passports. The process is quite complex. I was told the average passport is between 1 and 2 months to issue. Emergency/Tatkaal passports supposedly in a week or less. Getting all the paperwork in place to be able to submit a tatkaal application is no mean feat. We had to fill out many affidavits, have them notarized. We had to submit obvious proofs of adoption and residency. But probably the most bizarre was that we had to have a senior government officer vouch for her moral character and reputation. I can see that being required of an adult, but of a 1 year old?! Well, we finally managed to get it done after a lot of pleading phone calls to many friends. A few more si...