Http://www.indiacgny.org
Summary: Extremely poor quality of services, low grade workflow management, conflicting information on website, poor administration
1. For renewal of passports, multiple visits are required (3-4) and each visit requires 3-4 hours of waiting time in line during week days even if you arrive on time
2. Status request for passport sent via their online form are never returned. I sent 8-10 requests using their online form for status and no response was ever received till today (after 6 months of service approx)
3. Status requests via phone is never successful as nobody picks up the phone. I tried calling all phone numbers (6-7 numbers given online and reception/operator) over a period of 2 weeks (made 15-20 calls) and not even single call back and just one pick up. When phone was picked up once, they re-routed me to another operator who never picked up and it went to voice mail. I did not recieve any response back to voicemail even today (6 months after first call)
4. Same windows are used for filing fully filled passport application and for inquiries. There is no single place where one can drop of or quickly submit fully filled passport application. It requires a wait time of 3-4 hours to subit application even if application is complete in all respects.
5.organisation is equipped with bad photo scanners. After paying three visits during busy weekdays with 3-4 wait time for each until i reached counter window, i discovered that photo on my passport was not scanned properly enough to satisfy requirements at port of entry. Area around my eyes was totally dark. I submitted standard passport size photo from duane reade which works at almost every other place. I had to submit passport renewal request again after filling application form completely *again* with high resolution photographs just to get a normal looking photo on my passport.
6. Meeting requests with their consul general were never honored
7. Extremely poor service quality, environment of chaos and frustration is very common inside the building due to lack of good administration and proper workflow of activities
8.information available online on their site is not very clear and if one would investigate different areas of site, he would find different and conflicting documentation required for same service making it difficult for a person to compile a final set of documents required for a service. Hence long lines at each counter windows for correcting applications and repeated visits (3-4) for each kind of service making it a crowded place
6. Bad policies -
1. Collection of documents like passport etc only happens between 4:30 pm to 5:15 pm. At this time period, area becomes highly crowded and then there is very long wait time even if you arrive on time.
2. Application of passports is only recieved from 10:30 to 12:15 hours on weekdays. One has to fit his schedule to file application, corrected applications and additional documents during this window only.
7. Site says following (http://indiacgny.org/php/showContact.php? Linkid=196&parentid=0)
"since there is extreme pressure on our telephone system, kindly use the email service.
Your queries will be replied at the earliest"
As said earlier, no queries was ever answered even after sending 8-10 requests from their online form till this date.
8. Overall extremely poor quality of services, low grade workflow management
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