Registration at FRRO

This may not be very useful for most entrepreneurs in Mumbai, but it is part of my life as an Entrepreneur here because of not being an Indian citizen. Besides, I think it can be useful to many other people.

Part of the information that I am going to give here can be found at http://www.immigrationindia.nic.in/

Every person living in India with a visa which lasts for more than 180 days needs to register at the Foreign Regional Registration Office or FRRO. FRRO Mumbai is located very near VT and behind St. Xavier’s college. The exact contact details are:

Telephone No.: 022-22620446 (O) 022-22620721 (Fax)

E-Mail Address:  frromum@nic.in  dcpsb2.frro@indiatimes.com 

Address: 3rd Floor, Special Branch Bldg., Badruddin Tayabji Lane,
Behind St. Xaviers College, Mumbai-400001.

This registration must be done within 14 days from landing in India and must be done at the city where you have your residence.

They often change the papers required, just as it happened this month, and this is what inspired me to write this post in the blog so that those registering can have the latest information. The site http://www.immigrationindia.nic.in/ gives some information in the “Registration Req” link, but is not updated and they don’t give you any templates there which they do give when you are there. Currently, the documents required for Employment Visa are:

• 4 recent passport size photographs;
• Photocopy of photo page and valid Indian Visa page of the passport;
• Proof of residential address in India;
• Request letter
• Undertaking letter
• Contract agreement from employer

The undertaking letter is what has changed recently. Before they had a very small format which was required, later on they added the requirement of an Indian person signing the letter (and you must accompany the letter with an identity proof of that person, such as passport copy), and now they are giving a new template for the letter which must be printed in the Company’s letter head. I will be uploading that template in a future post.

The request letter is for the company to request the registration of its employee. It should mention the passport number and address of the foreigner. I like to include other information as well, just in case, such as visa number and nationality. I will also upload that in the same post as the other.

Make sure you know where the time period of the contract agreement is specified in the document and where are the details regarding salary as this is what they look for and you could save them some valuable seconds by finding it for them.

People wanting to register who have other types of visa, such as student visa, need other documents such bonafide certificates from their institute. I guess they won’t need a contract agreement, but I assume that they also need the undertaking and request letters.