Those who travelled to India last winter do still recollect the dreadful congestion at New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru airports, where insufficient staffing and inbound as well as outbound passenger influx threw the system out of gear. During peak hours of daily arrival and departure, the Indian metro airports were so overcrowded that it evoked comparisons to ‘Kumbh Mela’, Kolkata’s fish markets, and old Delhi’s hawkers markets across social media. The concern about the unaccompanied elderly parents being subjected to long hours of immigration clearance delay on arrival had thrown NRIs into a tizzy.
Finally, India launches Fast Track Immigration Trusted Traveler Program (FTI-TTP)
To avert a repeat of the grim airport congestion in India this summer, the government launched a tech-driven immigration clearance process for pre-verified Indian nationals and OCI cardholders. Similar to the Global Entry program in the USA, India’s Fast Track Immigration – Trusted Traveler Program enables low-risk travelers to bypass immigration queues and have a seamless travel experience.
Image by Freepik
Who can avail India’s newly launched trusted traveler program?
Initially, only low-risk Indian nationals and OCI cardholders can have expedited immigration clearance through the trusted traveler program, FTI-TTP in India. The program will be extended to foreign nationals and Indian-origin foreign citizens without OCI cards in the second phase. Unlike the United States’ Global Entry, India’s Fast Track Immigration – Trusted Traveler Program is available for both international departures and arrivals.
Interestingly, unlike other countries including USA, India will be offering the accelerated immigration facility for free of cost. Precisely, there is no fee for India’s trusted traveler program, FTI-TTP.
Which Indian airports to offer Fast Track Immigration?
India’s first-ever trusted traveler program, FTI-TTP, has been launched at Indira Gandhi International Airport. The faster immigration clearance facility will soon be rolled out at Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Kochi airports in the first phase. The second phase will see the program expanded to a total of 21 airports across the country.
How to apply for Fast Track Immigration Trusted Traveler Program?
The application process for FTI-TTP begins with online registration and proceeds to biometric submission. If you hold an Indian passport or an OCI card, you can apply through Indian government’s Fast Track Immigration website. Online registration is confirmed upon successful authentication of your identity through email verification and mobile OTP.
Your passport must be valid for 6 months and more while applying for seamless immigration clearance in India. You would receive a message to the registered email ID and mobile number for scheduling an appointment for biometrics submission. You can submit your biometrics at the nearest FRRO office in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Amritsar, Cochin, Trivandrum, or Kozhikode.
As many as 31 airports in India have been designated as biometrics application centers for FTI-TTP. You can choose to enroll your biometrics at Goa, Varanasi, Pune, Nagpur, Madurai, Indore, Kannur, Jaipur, Port Blair, Chandigarh, Guwahati, Trichy, Bhubaneswar, Mangalore, Visakhapatnam, Coimbatore, Cochin, and Amritsar other than the top 10 Indian airports.
Documents for Fast Track Immigration Trusted Traveler Program
- Your passport size photograph in JPEG format (10 KB to 1 MB)
- Scanned copies of your passport’s front and last pages (within 1 MB)
- Your proof of address (10 KB to 1 MB)
- A scanned copy of your OCI card (if you are an OCI cardholder)
Key details for Fast Track Immigration (FTI-TTP) Applicants
- Your membership of FTI-TTP is valid for 5 years from the date of approval. The membership will be nulled if your passport expires within 5 years.
- If your passport linked to the Fast Track Immigration clearance program is expired, lost, stolen or damaged, you need to apply afresh and submit biometrics again.
- You must provide a valid mobile number and email ID for successful FTI-TTP registration.
- If there are any queries, you can write to india.ftittp-boi@mha.gov.in.
How Trusted Traveler Program works for faster immigration at Indian airports?
India’s Fast Track Immigration Trusted Traveler Program works through electronic gates at airport terminals. New Delhi IGI Airport has already got 8 e-gates in Terminal 3; four international departures and four for international arrivals. Travelers who will be adjudged eligible for pre-approved immigration clearance will go through the e-gates. Electronic gates will speed up passenger identity and document verification without human intervention, thereby automating the immigration clearance process and reducing the manual workload.
Travelers under the Trusted Traveler Program will be required to scan their passports and other documents. On successful scanning, a camera attached to the scanner at e-gates will click a picture of the traveler’s face. The picture will be matched against a database of blacklisted travelers to check within seconds if the traveler is prohibited from flying abroad or banned from entering the country. Travelers will also submit a biometric scan of their fingerprints to the automated immigration clearance system.
On successful clearance, the e-gates will open for them to board their flights for departure or proceed to the baggage claim area. If a traveler is flagged as a ‘person of interest’ (a crime suspect), he/she will be denied clearance through the e-gate. The flagged traveler will have to undergo manual immigration checks.
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Unfortunately not available for seniors over 72 yrs. Why the discrimination. I would assume seniors need FTI so they don’t have to stand for hours in line. If they can’t offer FTI to seniors they should open a counter servicing senior citizens exclusively.
Hi Avtar! We have no such updates that senior citizens over 72 years are not yet eligible for India’s trusted travel program.
The website doesn’t allow for addresses outside India which one would assume is very normal requirement given OCI card holders are included there .. Also a lot of Indian passport holders NRIs are long term resident of other countries which means they will get the address of their local residence on their passports .. little disappointing, I couldn’t use it
The sign up page does not work. It verifies the phone number but fails to send OTP for email verification. Unless you can log in you can not fill out the form. This sucks!!!!
Hi Deepak! Maybe, there are initial hiccups in the recently launched process. Hope the issues are rectified asap and the process is further streamlined.