Form C for foreign guests: what Indian hotels must do under the 2025 rules

If a foreign national stays at your hotel, the law requires you to report it to the immigration authorities. For years this was called Form C. Since September 2025 the rules have a new home and the form has a new name, Form III, though many people, and the online portal, still say Form C.

This guide explains what the current rules ask of a hotel, in plain language, with links to the official texts. It is general information, not legal advice. For a specific case, ask your local Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) or Foreigners Registration Officer.

What changed in 2025

The Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025 replaced four older laws, including the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939 (section 36 of the Act). The Immigration and Foreigners Rules, 2025, dated 1 September 2025, set out how hotels report foreign guests (Rules). The form a hotel sends is now Form III; the Rules print it with the note "Earlier FORM C".

The core duty is the same as before: tell the Registration Officer about every foreign guest within 24 hours.

Who has to report

Section 8 of the Act puts the duty on the "keeper of accommodation". Rule 17 defines accommodation widely: it includes hotels, boarding houses, clubs, dak bungalows, rest houses, hostels, paying guest houses, sarais, rented accommodation, home stays, tents and similar premises. Section 8 says its duty does not apply to residential premises of a non commercial nature, unless the civil authority directs otherwise for an area.

Rule 17 also makes clear that the duty covers Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholders, not only guests on a visa.

What the hotel must do, step by step

Rule 17 of the 2025 Rules sets out the process:

1. At arrival, ask every foreign guest to give the required details and sign. A guest who cannot write can give a thumb impression.
2. Within 24 hours of arrival, send a filled in Form III to the Registration Officer electronically, through the online portal indianfrro.gov.in or the Indian Visa Su Swagatam mobile app.
3. At departure, record the date and time the guest leaves and the address they are going to.
4. Within 24 hours of departure, send the departure details electronically in the same way.
5. Keep the records electronically for at least one year, ready for inspection on demand by the Registration Officer, the District Magistrate or a police officer not below the rank of Head Constable.

Two smaller points in the rule are easy to miss: the details must be recorded in English if the hotel is able to, or otherwise in an Indian language, and if a guest does not understand English, the hotel must explain the requirement to them when asked.

What Form III asks for

The form printed in the Rules asks for, among other things:

• the name and address of the hotel and its phone number;
• the guest's full name as in the passport, nationality and passport number;
• visa details (visa number or OCI number, and type);
• the guest's phone number in India and email address;
• where the guest arrived from, and the date and time of arrival;
• departure details and the next destination;
• a photograph of the guest.

What happens if a hotel does not report

Section 23 of the Act says that contravening its other provisions, or the rules made under it, where no specific punishment is set, is punishable with imprisonment of up to three years, a fine of up to ₹3 lakh, or both. Local police have issued public notices reminding accommodation providers of these duties (for example in Dimapur, Nagaland), so treat the 24 hour deadline as firm.

Making it routine at the front desk

Most missed reports happen on busy nights, when a late arrival is checked in and nobody files the form before the shift ends. A few habits help:

• Register on the portal before you need it. Keep the login with the duty manager, not one person.
• Capture the details once. Copy the passport and visa details at check in into your hotel system so the night auditor can file from them.
• Make the deadline visible. A list of foreign guests not yet reported, checked at every shift change, catches most misses.
• File the departure too. The 2025 Rules ask for departure details within 24 hours, which older habits sometimes skip.
• Protect the data. Passport numbers and scans are personal data. Limit who can see them and keep scans in a private store, in line with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

A hotel system can do much of this for you. Keyvasa, for example, tags foreign guests on the front desk, lists every foreign guest whose form is not filed yet with the most urgent first, and shows staff only the last 4 digits of an ID number. Whatever you use, the legal duty stays with the hotel, so check your process against the official Rules.

Sources

• The Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, sections 8, 23 and 36: prsindia.org, also on indiacode.nic.in
• The Immigration and Foreigners Rules, 2025 (G.S.R. 596(E), 1 September 2025), rules 12 and 17 and Form III: thc.nic.in
• Ministry of Home Affairs, acts and rules of the Foreigners Division: mha.gov.in
• Bureau of Immigration, Online Form C: india.gov.in
• Department of Information and Public Relations, Nagaland, a police notice on reporting foreigners under the 2025 Act: ipr.nagaland.gov.in