Holding client passports for visas: custody, couriers, liability

Peak season, and your visa desk holds 30 to 40 client passports at once: some with a runner to BLS or VFS, some in one courier bag. The moment a client hands over a passport, you have passport custody, often with no receipt and no log. That gap is how a four-day delay becomes "deficiency in service" at a consumer commission, and a ₹5,000 courier cap becomes the only money on offer. This post gives you a receipt, a handover log, the courier rules that matter, a first-hour drill, and why you never hold a passport against unpaid dues.

Who carries the risk once you take a passport

You do, from the moment you accept it. The closest legal frame is custody: holding someone else's goods makes you a bailee, bound to take as much care as "a man of ordinary prudence" would of his own. Take that care and, absent a special contract, the loss isn't yours; fail to return the goods on time by your own fault and any loss from then on is yours (Indian Contract Act ss.151, 152, 161).

A consumer commission asks whether there was "deficiency" in service (Consumer Protection Act 2019, s.2(11)), which includes negligence that causes loss and deliberately withholding relevant information. An agent's Blue Dart consignment, carrying a family's passports for Singapore, Malaysia and Japan visas, went missing in 2009; the courier told the agent on 22 August, the agent told the family only on 26 August, and the State Commission found "some sort of deficiency in service" on the agent's part for that silence (Travel World v Pulakhandam Naga Srinivas, AP SCDRC, 26 Feb 2013).

Paper decides it: a receipt, a logged handover, a same-day message to the client.

The passport custody receipt (copy-paste template)

Issue this the moment you take a passport:

PASSPORT CUSTODY RECEIPT

Receipt No: PR-2026-[serial]   Branch: [ ]   Date/time: [DD/MM/YYYY, HH:MM]
Client/file name: [ ]           File ref: [ ]

Passport(s) received (one line per holder):
 1. Holder: [ ]  Passport no: [ ]  Expiry: [ ]  Condition: [ ]
 2. Holder: [ ]  Passport no: [ ]  Expiry: [ ]  Condition: [ ]

Other originals taken: [ ]
Purpose: For [country] [visa type] at [VAC/consulate, city] ONLY.
Will travel by: [runner / courier + AWB no. / VAC pass-back]
Expected return date: [ ]

We will return these passports on request at any time, whether or not
any amount is outstanding on this file.

Received by (staff): [name, signature]
Handed over by (client): [name, mobile, signature]
 OR WhatsApp ack. from client's own number, date/time: [ ]

--- RETURN SECTION ---
Returned on: [ ]  To: [ ]  ID seen: [ ]  Condition: [ ]
Visa page checked: [yes/no]  Client signature: [ ]

Three lines matter most: the per-holder list, since you can only claim for what you can prove was in the packet; the capped "ONLY" purpose line; and "return on request" itself, written before any balance is an issue.

The custody log: one line per handover

Run one per passport or family file, not just in a courier app:

CUSTODY LOG. File: [ref]   Passport(s): [list]

1. RECEIVED FROM CLIENT   Date/time: [ ]   Taken by: [ ]
2. LEFT OFFICE             Runner [name] / courier [company, AWB, value]
3. REACHED HUB/PARTNER     Signed for by: [ ]
4. SUBMITTED AT VAC        VAC receipt no: [ ]
5. WITH MISSION            Status/date: [ ]
6. OUT OF VAC              Collected by [name, letter no.] OR courier
                            to applicant's address, AWB: [ ]
7. BACK WITH CLIENT        Signature / return section signed: [ ]

Current holder: [ ]  Days in custody: [ ]  Collect-by: [ ]

Event 6 is where VACs differ. VFS returns an uncollected passport to the mission after a country-specific period; set your alert from that country's page. BLS's Spain page goes further: no third party, including a runner, may collect at all; the passport is couriered to the applicant's home or office, never your agency, at ₹885 per passport, plus ₹171 per application for its "Courier Assurance" add-on (as of October 2026). Who may still collect, and how, is covered in the VFS/BLS authorisation letter format.

If a sub-agent carries passports for you, get them to sign this log too: in one appeal, the second agency that actually sent a client's passport was cleared for want of any fee or contract with him, and the commission pointed instead at the courier that lost it and the firm that took the fee (Associated Tours v Vaithianathan, TN SCDRC, 28 Feb 2011).

What a courier will actually pay if the packet disappears

Very little. Blue Dart carries every shipment at the owner's risk and caps an uninsured one at the lower of ₹5,000 or the loss actually sustained, with no consequential damages payable (Blue Dart, Conditions of Carriage, live 17 Oct 2026); its paid shipment insurance excludes indirect loss and delay. The Supreme Court has held that a person who signs a consignment note is normally bound by its terms, read or not (Bharathi Knitting Co v DHL, Supreme Court, 9 May 1996).

That cap, with no insurance, no declared value and no proven wilful fault, is why the Travel World award above fell from ₹3,00,000 to ₹5,000 on appeal, still against agent and courier jointly. Other couriers have used passport-specific caps: a DTDC declaration signed in 2013 limited liability to ₹1,500 per passport, and in 2025 a State Commission, while holding the courier deficient, cut a ₹25,000 award to ₹7,500 (DTDC Courier & Cargo v Deepak Sherwani, MP SCDRC, 6 Nov 2025). Read any courier's current form before signing it.

Courier rules for your SOP: one family per waybill; a tamper-evident, photographed packet; declared value or insurance, knowing it still never covers the trip; daily tracking with same-day escalation; a written claim inside the carrier's window; and never courier a passport abroad, since MEA says passports "should not be sent out to any country by post/courier."

Example: Seven passports for Spain visas, two families (five adults, two children under 15), go missing in one uninsured Blue Dart packet nine days before departure. MEA's lost-passport replacement fees (as of October 2026): ₹5,000 per 36-page, 10-year adult booklet and ₹4,250 per child's 5-year one, so 5x₹5,000 + 2x₹4,250 = ₹33,500. Blue Dart pays at most ₹5,000, a ₹28,500 gap on fees alone, before fresh visas, cancelled flights and hotels, or a reissue MEA puts at about 30 days against a 9-day departure. Two waybills, one per family, would at least give each family its own cap instead of one shared ₹5,000; neither comes near the fees.

A passport goes missing: the first-hour drill

1. Get the loss confirmed in writing from the courier or runner, not a call alone.
2. Tell every affected client the same day, in writing; a four-day gap has itself been called deficiency.
3. File a police complaint naming every holder and passport number; MEA requires the original report for a reissue.
4. Send a written claim inside the courier's window (Blue Dart: 30 days from the date it accepted the shipment), and stop further dispatches on that route.
5. Brief the client: a reissue needs the police report, their own Annexure F affidavit, police verification, no Tatkaal (Passport Seva portal, live 17 Oct 2026).
6. Quote the fee: ₹4,250 (36 pages, 5-year), ₹5,000 (36 pages, 10-year) or ₹6,000 (60 pages), as of October 2026.
7. Plan a fresh visa application; any visa in the lost booklet went with it.
8. Put in writing who pays for what, before any of this moves.

Dear [Name], [passport holder]'s passport, submitted for [country] visa
on [date], was lost in transit on [date]. We've filed a police
complaint (ref: [ ]) and a written claim with [courier]. Reissue of a
lost passport means no Tatkaal, about 30 days, police verification.
We'll share the document list by [date].

Why you cannot hold a passport for unpaid dues

You can't, and trying is riskier than the balance itself. Only the passport authority may impound a passport, the Supreme Court has said, and keeping a seized one for a period counts as impounding; even the police and the courts can't do it (Suresh Nanda v CBI, Supreme Court, 24 Jan 2008). An airline that withheld a deported passenger's passport over her return fare was told it could not: only the Central Government may withhold a passport, and then "for valid reasons" (Dayaben Bhupesh Halai v Air India International, Gujarat HC, 10 Aug 1998). A client can also go to the police: the Madras High Court once directed police to register an FIR and recover a passport relatives had kept, as "the property of the Union of India" that "cannot be illegally retained by any individual" (Bilal Ahmed v Inspector of Police, Madras HC, 28 Oct 2015).

Section 170 of the Contract Act lets a bailee who has worked on goods keep them until paid, unless a contract says otherwise, but we found no order upholding such a lien over a passport, and MEA calls a passport government property. Don't build your collections on it.

Collect your fee up front, and write "return on request" into your receipt and terms. A balance still owed goes through the recovery ladder for unpaid dues, not through the passport.

That's not how we can run it, I'm sorry. The passport goes back to you
the moment it's ready, paid or not, because it isn't ours to hold. What
we need before we submit is [fee]; any balance, we sort out separately
once you have your passport.

The documents-in-custody clause for your terms

DOCUMENTS IN CUSTODY

While your passport and other originals are with us for a visa
application, we will issue a signed receipt at intake, log every
handover, use an insured courier where a document must travel, and
notify you in writing the same working day of any loss.

Your passport remains your property at all times. We will return it to
you on request, whether or not any amount is outstanding on your file.

Couriers, visa centres and foreign missions set their own terms once
documents leave our custody. Replacement cost for a lost or damaged
document is agreed case by case, not automatically waived or charged.

We keep this receipt and the handover log for at least two years after
the documents are returned to you.

Skip the blanket "not responsible for loss of documents" line many templates carry. A State or National Commission may declare an unfair contract term null and void (Consumer Protection Act 2019, ss.2(46), 49(2), 59(2)), and a District Commission can still award compensation for negligence, and punitive damages, under s.39(1)(d). Two years matches the s.69 limitation period for a consumer complaint, which a commission can extend for sufficient cause, so treat it as a floor. The clause slots into the fuller terms template.

Common questions

Agent ne passport kho diya, kaun compensate karega?

Depends on who was negligent and what's provable. In a 2013 appeal the commission faulted the agent for telling the family four days late, though the award was cut to the courier's ₹5,000 cap. The courier's own liability is often that small. Keep your receipt and log.

Lost passport ka Tatkaal ho sakta hai?

No. The portal excludes lost and stolen cases from Tatkaal (as of October 2026). Expect the ordinary route instead: police report, affidavit, verification, about 30 days.

How long should I keep passport receipts and custody logs?

At least two years, matching a consumer's limitation period to complain. A passport a traveller loses on their own is a different playbook.

The short version

• Issue a signed, serial-numbered receipt the moment you take a passport, and log every handover from received to back with the client.
• One family or file per courier waybill. Several passports sharing a waybill share one liability cap.
• A courier's uninsured liability is small: Blue Dart's cap is the lower of ₹5,000 or actual loss, no consequential damages (as of October 2026).
• If a passport goes missing, tell the client the same day in writing. A delay has itself been treated as deficiency.
• A lost passport means a new passport number, no Tatkaal, roughly 30 days, and fees of ₹4,250 to ₹6,000 (as of October 2026).
• Never hold a passport against an unpaid balance. Courts reserve impounding a passport to the passport authority; collect fees before you submit.
• Keep every receipt and log for at least two years after the file closes.