A new passport is not enough on its own
This catches a lot of parents out. The baby has a passport from your country and the flights are booked, but the first departure still runs through the FRRO. A baby born in India holds no Indian visa and has no record of ever arriving, so there is nothing for an immigration officer to check its departure against. The Foreigners Regional Registration Office fills that gap — and it is worth starting as soon as the baby's documents are in hand, not the week you plan to fly.
This guide covers babies born in India to parents who are both foreign nationals. If an overstay or a lost passport is also part of your situation, our main guide to the exit permit in India covers those cases.
First, check whether your baby is a foreign national at all
Everything below assumes both parents are foreign nationals. If one parent is an Indian citizen, the baby may be an Indian citizen by birth under the Citizenship Act, and the process is entirely different. Settle that question before anyone applies for a foreign passport for the baby, because citizenship decisions are hard to undo.
A parent's OCI card does not change this: OCI cardholders are foreign nationals, so the baby still goes through the FRRO process below. What can differ is the family's route to staying on, covered in the next section.
Two FRRO services: a visa to stay, or an Exit Permit to leave
The Ministry of Home Affairs lists two separate FRRO services for a newly born child of foreign nationals:
- New Visa — if the baby is staying in India with you for now.
- Exit Permit — if you are taking the baby out of India.
Both are applied for online through the e-FRRO portal, which is the route MHA sets for visa services inside India, including exit permission. Choose the service that matches your plans. If you intend to stay for a while first, apply for the visa, and ask the FRRO how departure will be handled when you do.
The visa category depends on your own status. A child of an Indian citizen, a Person of Indian Origin or an OCI cardholder can be granted an Entry (X-2) visa; a child of a foreign national working, studying or researching in India usually takes a dependant visa tied to that parent's. Our X visa guide covers both.
The order that works
- Register the birth and collect the birth certificate. The FRRO needs a certificate that names both parents, so check every name against your passports before you leave the registrar's counter.
- Get the baby's passport from your embassy or high commission. If a full passport will take too long, your mission may be able to issue an emergency travel document instead, which the FRRO list accepts for an Exit Permit.
- Decide whether you are staying or leaving. That decides which of the two services you apply for.
- Apply on e-FRRO with the documents below, uploaded as clear scans.
- Book travel you can change. The Exit Permit application asks for a travel ticket, but the grant is not instant, so a flexible or refundable fare saves money if dates move.
- Travel once the permit is granted, keeping the permit, the baby's passport and the birth certificate together for the airport.
Documents the FRRO asks for
MHA's published list of supporting documents for an Exit Permit for a newly born child:
| Document | What it needs to show |
|---|---|
| Photograph | A recent photo of the baby |
| Parents' passports and visas | Photo page, validity page, arrival stamp page, and the visa itself |
| Proof of residence | Form III (formerly Form C) from a hotel or lodge, a landlord's utility or municipal bill with their letter and photo ID, or your lease and licence agreement (first, last and validity pages) |
| Birth certificate | The names of both parents |
| The baby's travel document | A new passport, or an emergency travel document issued by your country's mission |
| Travel ticket | The departure the permit will cover |
For a New Visa, the list is the same without the travel ticket: the photograph, your passports and visas, proof of residence, the birth certificate, and the baby's passport.
The portal may ask for more in your circumstances — an explanation letter, for example, if dates or names do not line up. Our guide to Form III explains the residence reporting that hotels and landlords file.
Where families get held up
- Names that do not match across the birth certificate and the passports. Correct the certificate first; everything downstream copies it.
- A parent's own visa running out. The baby's application rests on your passports and visas. If your own permitted stay is close to ending, deal with both together — an expired parent visa turns a paperwork task into an overstay.
- Booking a fixed flight too early, then chasing the permit against the clock.
- Leaving an FRRO query unanswered. Reply the same day where you can. Our guide to delayed or rejected exit permits covers the usual causes and how to fix them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a baby born in India to foreign parents need an exit permit?
Yes, before its first departure. A baby born here holds no Indian visa and has no arrival record, so immigration needs the FRRO's clearance before it leaves. The Ministry of Home Affairs lists an Exit Permit for a newly born child as its own FRRO service, applied for through e-FRRO, alongside a New Visa for families who are staying on for now. This applies where both parents are foreign nationals. If one parent is an Indian citizen, the baby may be an Indian citizen by birth, which changes the process entirely, so settle that question before applying for anything.
Do we need to register the baby with the FRRO?
Registration and clearance are different things. MHA's published regulations exempt children below the age of 12 from FRRO registration, so a newborn does not need a registration certificate of its own. What the baby does need is either a visa to stay in India or an Exit Permit to leave, which are the two FRRO services for a newly born child. Your own registration obligations as parents are unchanged, and if you hold registration certificates, keep them to hand, because the FRRO works from your documents when it considers the baby's application.
What if one parent is an Indian citizen?
Stop and check citizenship before doing anything else. A child born in India to an Indian citizen parent may be an Indian citizen by birth under the Citizenship Act, in which case the baby is not a foreign national and the Exit Permit process does not apply. Applying for a foreign passport for the baby first can create problems that are difficult to reverse, because Indian law does not permit dual citizenship. The answer turns on both parents' status at the time of the birth, so take advice before applying for any passport.
How long does a newborn exit permit take?
There is no published processing time, and it varies by office and by how complete the file is. The practical way to keep it short is to have the birth certificate and the baby's passport in hand before you apply, check that every name matches across them, and answer any FRRO query the same day. Because the application asks for a travel ticket, book a fare you can change rather than a fixed date you then have to chase. Our guide to exit permit processing time covers what drives timelines generally.
Can the baby leave on an emergency travel document?
Yes. MHA's supporting-documents list for a newborn's Exit Permit accepts either the infant's new passport or an emergency travel document issued by the parents' mission. An emergency document can be quicker to obtain than a full passport, but ask your embassy what it allows for onward travel and for coming back to India later, because those conditions are set by your country, not by India.
Does a newborn's exit permit cost anything?
Fees are set by the authorities and change over time, so confirm the current position on the e-FRRO portal when you apply rather than relying on figures found online. Our guide to what an exit permit costs explains how government fees and overstay penalties differ, and why no honest source quotes a single figure for every case.
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If you are working against a flight date, or a parent's own visa is part of the picture, our exit permit service can prepare the file and handle the FRRO side.
India Visa Experts is an independent private consulting firm, not affiliated with the Government of India, the FRRO, the Ministry of Home Affairs, or any government agency. Documents, fees, deadlines and processing times are set by the authorities and change over time. This article is general information only, does not cover surrogacy arrangements, and is not legal advice.