anyone renewed their indian passport in the US recently? F1 student in SD, tight-ish timeline
short context: F1 student in san diego, indian passport expires dec 29 this year (issued 2016). hoping to travel to india first week of july and planning to start the renewal process this week.
i'm leaning toward the tatkal option because my only government photo ID right now is my passport. i don't have a driver's license, and my CA real ID (applied apr 22) still hasn't been delivered from DMV. so i'm pretty hesitant to be without my passport for any longer than necessary.
would love to hear from anyone who has done this in the US recently:
- tatkal or regular?
- how long start to finish, from mailing your passport to getting the new one back?
- any unexpected gotchas or stuff you wish you'd known going in?
- realistic to have a new passport in hand by end of june if i mail this week? (SD falls under VFS SF jurisdiction)
- the police verification thing: does this happen for everyone renewing, or only in certain cases? my parents split their time between andhra and telangana, and my passport has my andhra address. worried about the logistics if PVR does get triggered and they need to coordinate visits across two states. also, is it even possible to list two indian addresses on the application?
any advice or pointers really appreciated, thanks!