Form C for Hotels (Now Form-III): Reporting Foreign Guests in 24 Hours

A German couple arrives at a heritage hotel in Jaipur at nine at night. The desk photocopies their passports, notes the visa numbers on a register, and means to file the foreigner report in the morning. The morning is a wedding check-in for forty rooms. The report goes in four days late — and under the law that now governs it, late is not a clerical slip.

Every hotel, guest house, homestay and serviced apartment in India that accommodates a foreign national has to report the stay to the immigration authorities. This guide explains what changed in 2025, what has to be reported and by when, and how to make the report part of check-in rather than a task left for later.

What is Form C for hotels?

Form C was the form an accommodation provider used to report a foreign national's arrival and stay to the registration authorities, submitted online on the Bureau of Immigration's portal. Under the rules made in 2025 it has been replaced by Form-III, which serves the same purpose. Most hoteliers, and most hotel software, still call it "Form C".

What changed with the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025?

The Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025 came into force on 1 September 2025. It consolidated the older laws on the entry and stay of foreigners — including the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939 — into one statute, and the Immigration and Foreigners Rules, 2025 made under it set out the reporting duty for accommodation providers. The changes that matter at the front desk:

• The report is now made on Form-III, transmitted electronically through the designated portal or app.
• It must be sent within 24 hours of the foreigner's arrival.
• Arrival and departure details must be kept electronically for at least one year.
• OCI cardholders are now reported in the same way as any other foreign national.

Enforcement is real. Police have registered cases against hotel managers under the new Act for submissions filed weeks late, and state authorities have issued fresh directions to hotels to comply.

Who has to file the report?

Any person who provides accommodation to a foreign national: hotels, resorts, guest houses, homestays, serviced apartments, hostels, dharamshalas and private individuals letting rooms. Before submitting, the property registers as an accommodation provider on the portal, and that registration is approved by the local registration authority. A property that does not yet have its login should treat getting one as urgent.

What details does the report need?

The guest's identity and travel details, taken from the passport and visa: name, nationality, passport number with place and date of issue and validity, visa number, type, place and date of issue and validity, date of arrival in India and at the property, the place they arrived from and where they are going next, and their address and contact details in India and abroad. A photograph of the guest is part of the record. On departure, the date of leaving is recorded against the same stay.

How do hotels file within 24 hours?

By capturing the details at check-in, not after it. The 24-hour clock is easy to miss when the information sits on a photocopy; it is hard to miss when the check-in screen will not complete without it. A practical routine:

• Read the passport's machine-readable zone (the two lines of characters at the bottom of the photo page) instead of typing it, to avoid transcription errors.
• Capture the visa details and the guest's next destination at the desk, while the guest is in front of you.
• Keep a foreign-guest register that shows, for every stay, whether the report has been filed and when.
• Make filing the duty of a named role on each shift, with the register checked at the night audit.
• Record departures the same way, so the stay is closed in the record.

What about online check-in?

Online check-in helps. A foreign guest who checks in on their phone before arrival can photograph their passport and enter their visa details at leisure, so the desk only verifies them on arrival. It is the single easiest way to remove the late-night backlog for properties with many international guests.

Where Kōami Hotel360 fits

Kōami Hotel360 makes the foreign-guest details part of check-in. At the desk, the passport's machine-readable zone is read rather than typed, and Form C details are required by default for foreign nationals; in the guest portal, guests can complete their ID and Form C details as part of online check-in before they arrive, for the desk to review and approve. A Form C register lists every foreign stay, and the details are exported in a file ready for submission on the government portal — the submission itself is made under the property's own registered login.

For the rest of the check-in-to-check-out flow, see hotel management software for India; for resorts with many international guests, see resort management software.

This article summarises the reporting duty as it stood at the time of writing and is not legal advice. Forms, portals and procedures are set by the Bureau of Immigration and the local registration authority; confirm current requirements with them.