The Government of India has made it mandatory for all international passengers arriving in the country to complete the Air Suvidha Self Declaration Form to inform their current health status in the background of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Although the process was created to facilitate the process for flyers, the Air Suvidha registration process has caused a lot of inconvenience to masses of inconspicuous flyers who are caught totally unaware as soon as they land at the airport. Many airlines also do not actively inform passengers of the need to fill it, and most flyers are advised of this requirement by airline staff at/in front of the check-in counters.
Please note that the airlines will not issue the boarding passes if you do not present the registration number at the check-in counters.
Mind you, the form itself is quite long to fill out and the exercise quite cumbersome. Many flyers have run amok to get the necessary documents in place to upload. It’s a common sight to see distraught faces, either clinging to their mobile devices or frantically calling relatives to upload the forms on their behalf.
Here you thank God/airport authorities for the free Wi-Fi in airports, and pat yourself on the back for carrying that laptop (which was so frowned upon by his wife) because completing the process on the cell phone took the concentration of Arjuna and the computer skills of Bill Gates.
And God bless you if you travel with a bunch of not so computer savvy people – it will only strengthen your determination to get such members to take that computer course in India whose pamphlets you had been glad to throw in the trash cans all along.
Reports show that some passengers even missed their flights because they were unable to complete the formalities on time.
The intent is noble, but rely on our bureaucracy to do the job in such a way that people get frustrated and scratch their heads. Kudos to the form designers; they managed to create a web form that has almost every barrier imaginable to stand in the way of a successful completion.
And the great thing is that hardly anyone looks at it once you land in India. Please make a mental note to save yourself the frustration of NOT being CONTROLLED for once in your life.
So, while we discuss and debate the usefulness of this and fervently hope that someone will bring some sensibility to the process, here is a list of must-dos for anyone taking an international flight to India:
1. Check RT-PCR Negative Certificate Requirement –
a. Passengers who are fully vaccinated in the list of countries mentioned by MoHFW (https://www.newdelhiairport.in/pdf/ListofCountries-14June2022.pdf) are required to upload either a negative Covid-19 RT-PCR report (test completed within 72 hours prior to undertaking the trip) or the Certificate of completion of the complete Covid-19 vaccination schedule with the date.
b. If you are flying from a country not on the list, the Covid-19 negative RT-PCR report is required.
c. Therefore, plan the test at a suitable time in the country of origin of the flight. If you have a reliable travel agency, well and good otherwise the local hotel staff would be able to help you.
2. Be sure to complete the form before you leave for the airport, if not before. There is no closing time for filling and it can be filled at any time before boarding. DO NOT let it happen at the airport – unless you’re up for that blood flow – or are really looking forward to visiting the airport and not at all excited about taking the flight back home.
3. Budget Time: Set aside half an hour to prepare your documents according to the requirements and complete the process.
4. Please have the following documents/data to hand for each passenger:
a. Basic passport data
b. Flight details and seat number. For those who have not checked in, please add ’00’ to the seat number. Please note, the website says: “The passenger is responsible for editing the SDF themselves and providing the correct seat number before boarding the aircraft. This is a mandatory requirement and essential for contact tracing.”
5. Below you will find the necessary documents with specifications for uploading:
a. Passport
b. Vaccination Certificate
c. RT-PCR negative certificate (if applicable).
6. File Specifications: Now comes the masterclass.
a. All the above documents to upload must be PDF (word doc, jpeg, png etc. not allowed). So if you have a scanned image or word document with pic, convert it to pdf with one of the online pdf converters. Google baba comes to your rescue.
b. File name – no special characters are allowed in the file name, only hyphens and underscores are allowed. So if your filename has a space (“Passport itself”), use your filename editing skills and remove or replace that space with a hyphen or underscore. This is where the laptop comes in handy.
c. File Size – Each document must be less than 1 MB. The website is helpful and states, “Passengers can download all the free apps available on both iOS and Android to reduce the file size. For iOS, one can use the PDF compressor or Android users can download the Comprim PDF app to download the reduce file size.” Here goes your crash course in compressing PDFs.
7. Log in to https://www.newdelhiairport.in/airsuvidha/apho-registration and fill in the primary traveler details first. If there are people with you, you need to add the number of passengers at the end of the form – then re-enter all the details for each of them. It would have helped if there was an option to replicate basic flight details, destination address details, contact numbers etc. But then God also needs ways to teach us patience.
8. For children yet to be brought under the purview of vaccination, you may be scratching your head over what to enter/upload. You can try leaving the details blank, and if the form is still there, one way out may be to upload the parents’ details.
9. Remember to pray before clicking the submit button. Upon submission, the form proceeds to issue a Registration Number/Application Reference Number – which will be emailed to the primary applicant’s email ID.
10. Flyers must carry a printout of the application or a soft copy to present at the airport, which will be duly checked and then boarding passes will be issued.
11. Once you have your boarding passes, don’t forget to put on a fist pump and celebrate a customary candy.
It might not be entirely far-fetched to think of an ingenious desire in the near future to set up shops in international airports to facilitate this – as are the numerous ticketing offices that can be found near our train stations. Until then, make sure to follow the above guidelines when flying to India, spread the word and earn countless blessings!
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