Immigration and Registration

This morning I had to go down to the Immigration office here in Chennai to register my presence here in India. You are probably asking "haven't you lived in India for almost 10 months? Why are you just down registering that you live there?" Well, these are the questions that I was asking.

Well this story really starts way back in June when we moved here. S and I headed down to the Immigration office to register. This must be done within 14 days of arriving in India. There is a company that helps us with this process as there are a lot of forms and paperwork involved. Since S is here on an employment visa, this is a very important step that he has to complete in order to get his employment card here. It also has something to do with making sure that the appropriate income taxes are paid on his working here (yes, believe it or not, the U.S. is not the only country where income taxes are paid).

When we arrived at the office in June, S was able to register without any problems. It was a completely different story for me though. All of the appropriate paperwork was completed and ready for me to register. However, the immigration officers took one look at my passport and wouldn't let me register. On my India visa in my passport, there is a special endorsement that says "REGISTRATION NOT REQUIRED, IF CONTINUOUS STAY ON A SINGLE VISIT DOES NOT EXCEED 180 DAYS." They told me to come back in December if I hadn't left the country. Well I have never bothered to go back as I left India in July, September, October, November, December, and February. I have never ever came close to staying here for 180 consecutive days.

I thought it was a little weird that I didn't have to register because everyone else I know (spouses who aren't working) had to register. I was the only one anyone had ever heard of who didn't have to register. We checked into this further through S's office, and it was confirmed that I was OK with not registering. Also, I figured if there was a problem with this that I would find out on one of my many exits or entrances through immigration at the airport. Nothing has ever been said there so I haven't really thought much about it lately.

However, now S and I are in the process of renewing our India visas. We were only given a one year visa, and even though we didn't move here until the middle of June, our visa was issued at the beginning of May. It actually is much harder to get a visa renewal than it is to get an initial visa. From what I have been told, we will be given a 3 month renewal visa. During those 3 months, we have to do more paperwork, and I think they check to make sure the income taxes have been paid. After this, we will then be given another visa that will be valid for 9 months. At that point, we will be good for about 3 months at which point the process starts all over again.

Anyway, during this process of renewing S's employment visa (his is much more important than mine as I am really just added on to his paperwork as being the spouse), it was determined that I would now finally have to register with immigration in order for S to get another visa. So, I went down to the office this morning. A representative from the company who is helping us with this mess met me there with all of the paperwork. First, I had to stand in one line so it could be determined what the next line would be that I would stand in. The guy in the first line didn't understand why I was registering. My representative had to explain to him what was going on. I was then given a number and told to go into another room and wait at a certain counter for my number to be called. When I went into this room, my number was already up, so I didn't have to end up waiting at all. However, then because my representative couldn't come into the room with me, I had to explain why I was wanting to register. Finally the guy behind the counter understood enough to go ask another guy about me. It was finally determined that yes I would be allowed to register. However, of course, it couldn't be quite that simple. One of the required forms wasn't in the packet of paperwork. Luckily, it was just a copy of a page out of my passport. My representative ran outside and to another building to get a copy made for me. Finally, after standing in line again, I was good to go. Now, I just have to go back on Wednesday to pick up the registration forms. Hopefully everything will go smoothly on that day.

The worse part of this whole experience is that the Immigration office isn't air conditioned. So for anyone reading this who will have to partake in this activity, just be prepared for a hot room full of a bunch of sweaty, smelly people. Not fun, not fun at all.