Form C (Form III) for Hotels in India

Form C is the report an Indian hotel sends to the immigration authorities when a foreign national checks in. Since the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, its official name is Form III, but the job is the same: report the guest within 24 hours of arrival, on the FRRO portal.

This guide covers who has to file it, what changed in 2025, what to collect at the desk and how to make the 24-hour deadline a routine rather than a scramble. It reflects the rules as of November 2026. Check the current requirements with your local FRRO or the Bureau of Immigration before relying on them.

Who has to file Form C

Anyone who provides accommodation to a foreign national for payment: hotels, resorts, guest houses, hostels and homestays. The Act calls them keepers of accommodation. Residential premises of a non-commercial nature are carved out, which is why a family hosting a friend is treated differently from a homestay taking bookings.

The report is made for each foreign guest, not each room. A couple on foreign passports means two reports.

What changed in 2025

• The form is now called Form III, and it is filed on the Form III page of the FRRO portal. Most people still say Form C.
• OCI cardholders are covered. They were exempt before, so hotels that skipped them need to change their routine.
• Departure details have to be reported as well as arrival.
• The particulars have to be kept electronically for at least one year.

What to collect at check-in

Collect the details while the guest is at the desk, on the guest registration card. Chasing a guest for a visa number after they have gone to their room is how deadlines get missed. For each foreign guest you will usually need:

• Passport number, place and dates of issue and expiry
• Visa number, type, and dates of issue and expiry
• Date and place of arrival in India
• Address in the home country and the next destination
• Arrival and intended departure dates at the hotel

A clear photo of the passport's photo page and the visa saves retyping, and makes a typo in a passport number easy to spot later.

Making the 24-hour deadline routine

The hotels that never miss a Form C treat it as part of the shift, not an admin task for later. Submit each report before the end of the shift in which the guest checked in, and report departures as part of check-out. Then check once a day that every foreign arrival has a report: the night audit is a natural point, because it already reviews the day's arrivals.

Make sure more than one person can log in to the hotel's FRRO account. If only the front-office manager can file, a day off becomes a missed deadline.

Common mistakes

• Waiting until check-out to file the arrival report
• Skipping OCI cardholders, who are now covered
• Forgetting the departure report
• Typos in passport or visa numbers copied by hand
• Relying on one person's FRRO login

How StaySynq helps

StaySynq reads passport details from a photo into the guest registration card, collects the Form C details at check-in and produces the PDF in the Form III layout. It also records each foreign guest's departure, so the departure report has what it needs. Details are remembered for the guest's next stay, and a daily police report of arrivals is generated too. StaySynq does not file on the FRRO portal for you: you submit the reports yourself. See StaySynq for Indian hotels.