The Bureau of Immigration in India has introduced a fast track immigration for frequent travellers called the FAST TRACK IMMIGRATION – TRUSTED TRAVELLERs PROGRAM or simply FTI-TTP – In this program pre registered travellers can pass through the electronic gates( E Gates) at the immigration counters in India -both inward and outward – no more standing in long queues waiting for your passport to be stamped. This is great relief for passengers for Indian Nationals and OCI card holders  arriving in the middle of the night after a long transcontinental flight. And  no more flashing your passport for the stamp to be checked multiple times on the way out – Something which is peculiar to India . While it is a great way to provide employment to a few more people  it seemed infructious to me. Or so I thought till I checked with someone  connected with the system.  In my home airport at Hyderabad there are a large number of passengers travelling between the Gulf countries and India and most of them are either  illiterate or illegals who attempt to game the system and hence the need for an additional check .

Launched in Jun 2024 at Delhi the  E-gates  facility for speedy immigration clearance has been gradually extended to  thirteen international airports in India namely Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Cochin, Lucknow, Amritsar, Calicut, Trivandrum and Trichy. The process to register is quite simple.Log onto to the web site  of the program (https://ftittp.mha.gov.in/fti/), register yourself and fill the online application. Once approved you will be directed to register your biometrics which can be done at any of the Fourteen Foreigners Regional Registration offices in India (FRRO) or 31 International airports. The process is fairly simple and the details asked for are minimal – Just passport and identity details  and the approval at each stage is quite fast – from a few minutes to a few days .

I was quite excited and enrolled my wife and myself for the program as soon as it was available in Hyderabad. I encouraged members of my family and friends to enrol as well. The results for registration were mixed – Approvals for the application stage took some minutes to a few days with only one rejection on the grounds that the photo was not matching- Not understood what that means because the photo was taken by the Bureau of Immigration itself. Biometrics were easy to handle but in some cases the fingerprints just did not go through – For example my fingerprints took at least ten attempts to be recorded and in the case of my wife apart from multiple attempts in the first try were succesfully recorded on the second attempt a few minutes later – In other cases barely approaching the reader was enough !

And so armed with succesful registration on the program, Malati and I set out on our trip to Hong Kong last month.  We reported at the E gates and were very  delighted to note that we were the only ones at time of the night.The passport was easily  scanned and the biometrics opened – It took me many attempts and fingers before the gate finally opened.  I walked though albeit disappointed that there was  no stamp on my passport – I am of the old school where I collect stamps on the passport !! As for Malati she tried all fingers and thumbs on both hands -She then rubbed her fingers and sanitised the hands till  the Immigration officer called it off and sent her to  join the long line at the  manual counter –

It was a repeat of the same story on our return. In my case a few tries and a few fingers and got through, But for Malati it was a repeat – we tried all fingers and thumbs many times – she sanitised her fingers and even rubbed them to “improve blood circulation” and finally abandoned the idea and went to the manual counters which had a line.  But she got a stamp on her passport! What should have been fast track was a double track immigration and it took us much more time than just standing in line with the ordinary unregistered citizens – And as for the missing stamps on the passport your travel details are recorded in FTITTP portal .

It was  a lean period and i got talking with the immigration officer – He said this was very common with senior citizens as their fingerprints age – While that could be a possible reason, Malati’s prints are still visible and were very easily captured at Hong Kong immigration and easily retrieved. So also in Thailand a few months earlier when we presented our digital arrival card. When other biometric validation at the sub registrar’s office or at the bank also proceeded very smoothly then why this glitch at the E gates. And more so when the internet is flooded with happy stories of avoiding the long lines at the immigration counter. Hence this is the question  that puzzles  me – Is the fault with our fingers or with the scanning and fingerprint reading software. I have writen to the Bureau of  Immigration and am awaiting an answer – I shall update this post when i hear from them.