We should have known when the hospital here in Chennai failed to put Emily's name on her birth certificate, that she was destined to be a child for whom obtaining official documents would be a nightmare. This fact was quickly confirmed a few weeks in to the passport process.
Due to the slow issuing of her birth certificate we knew that the 16 week processing time on new passport applications from India would take us right up to the date we wanted to fly. But that was not a problem we thought, we would just have a shorter trip home this summer.
After the UK passport office had had our application about six weeks I gave them a call to find out where in the process Emily's passport was. Undergoing routine security checks was the response. I happily ended the call thinking that it was good that it was progressing. However, the following week my father was admitted to hospital and I telephoned the UK to see if I could speed the passport up in case we needed to fly home. I was promised a phone call from the examiner dealing with Emily's passport, to this day I have never received the call. I was also advised to go down the route of an emergency travel permit. Therefore I contacted consulate services and they gave me an email address of someone at the Deputy High Commission in Chennai. I sent an email explaining the situation and got one back not saying they were sorry for the situation we were in but with a first line which asked 'how did you get this email address'! From there everything went downhill.
I began to phone the UK once a week to track the progress, each time the response was that it was undergoing routine security checks. It was incredibly frustrating being abroad and not being able to get any sort of response. Eventually we were called to an interview at the Deputy High Comission. Everyone else there was Indian, the woman interviewing us even did a double take when we sat down. When I questioned why we had been called for interview she said that all overseas passport applications go through the same process. I informed her that I knew of three British family's in our situation who hadn't been called and she basically insinuated that I was a liar!
Following the interview it took a further two weeks until the passport was finally printed. It was then couriered to Delhi where is must have sat on someone's desk for over a week! I tried to telephone but was told they didn't take phone calls about passports and if I needed further information I should phone the UK!! I was transferred to consular services who told me in no uncertain terms that this was nothing to do with them. Eventually the passport made its way to the visa office in Chennai where we went to collect it.
Having received the passport we were able to book our flights and begin the, not so simple, process of getting Emily a visa. For the visa they require fresh copies of all the information they already have, letters from Sam's work and any other bit of random information they can think to ask for. Sometimes despite what is on their website they ask for further documents!
Finally we got a date for an interview at the FRRO (Foreigners Regional Registration Office) and Sam, Emily and I went along. The first hitch (because whoever you are and however well prepared you are there is always a hitch) was that the photocopy of our marriage certificate provided by the immigration specialists was missing a cm, basically the outside line of a box! However that paled in to insignificance when we realised the 'specialists' had forgotten to included the Form C- the most important document. The agent headed back to his office to collect the paperwork needed, telling us he would be twenty minutes. An hour and a half later he turned up and the visa process began. Finally Emily was issued with her visa after being at the office for five hours!
And the exciting thing is we are all due back there in October to begin the visa renewal process for all of us!
