Form C for foreign guests — what a homestay must file, and by when
If a foreign national, OCI cardholders included, stays at your homestay, guesthouse or hotel, you must report them on Form C, now called Form-III, within 24 hours of arrival, on indianfrro.gov.in or the Indian Visa Su-Swagatam app. You report their departure within 24 hours too. The guest files nothing; the host does.
Key takeaway: register on the portal before your first foreign booking, because a hotel account needs approval. Then every foreign guest is a five-minute routine: copy their passport and visa details into the form on the day they arrive, submit, and file the departure on the day they leave. Never keep a copy of anyone’s Aadhaar.
TL;DR
- • Who files: whoever runs the accommodation, from a 40-room hotel to a single room in a Goa home.
- • When: within 24 hours of arrival, and again within 24 hours of departure.
- • Where: indianfrro.gov.in (Form C / Form-III) or the Indian Visa Su-Swagatam app.
- • New since 2025: OCI cardholders are included; the law is the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025.
- • What to collect: passport and visa (or OCI) details, arrival dates, next destination, contact, a photo.
- • Indian guests: see the ID, note its type and last four digits, hand it back.
What changed in 2025
The Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025 came into force on 1 September 2025. It replaced four older laws: the Passport (Entry into India) Act 1920, the Registration of Foreigners Act 1939, the Foreigners Act 1946 and the Immigration (Carriers’ Liability) Act 2000. Under its Rules, the old Form C is now Form-III, and Rule 17 sets the duties of a “keeper of accommodation”.
Three things are new or newly explicit. OCI cardholders, who were earlier left out, must now be reported like any other foreign guest. The departure has its own 24-hour deadline. And you must keep the records electronically for at least a year and show them to the registration officer or police when asked. The idea has not changed: the government wants to know where foreign visitors are staying.
Who has to file
Anyone who provides accommodation to a foreign national: hotels, guesthouses, homestays, B&Bs, cottages, hostels, paying-guest rooms, rented flats, dharamshalas and tented camps. Size does not matter. A two-room homestay in Kerala’s backwaters and a resort in Goa have the same duty.
How the guest booked does not matter either. If they came through Airbnb, Booking.com or a travel agent, the platform does not file Form C for you; you are the keeper of the accommodation. The one grey area is a friend or relative staying free in your family home. Ask your district’s Foreigners Registration Officer (often at the Superintendent of Police’s office); many advisories suggest filing anyway.
The deadline and the penalty
File within 24 hours of the guest arriving, and file the departure within 24 hours of them leaving. A Government of Goa notice from December 2025 says not reporting a guest breaks Section 8 of the Act and Rule 17 of the Rules, with a penalty of ₹50,000 in each case. Some reports quote other figures, so read your own district’s notice, but the point stands: filing takes minutes, and missing it costs a season’s profit.
Step 1: register once, before your first foreign guest
- Open the Form C (Form-III) page on indianfrro.gov.in and choose Sign Up (Register).
- Pick your category. Hotels and guesthouses register as accommodation providers; private home owners use the individual home category.
- Fill in the property details (name, full address, number of rooms, phone, email) and the owner’s or manager’s details.
- Hotels and guesthouses: per the Goa notice, print the application, sign it, put your seal on it and take it to the FRRO office, which approves your user ID. Individual homes: an OTP is sent to your mobile to activate the login, with no office visit.
- Log in and change the password. The portal asks you to change it every 30 days, so keep a reminder.
You need an Indian mobile number for the OTPs. Do this in a quiet week, not on the evening a guest from Germany walks in.
Step 2: what to collect at check-in
Ask for the passport and visa (or OCI card) at the desk and note what the form will ask for. The rules also say the guest should sign the particulars on arrival, so keep a simple register they sign.
- • Passport: full name, nationality, date of birth, passport number, place and date of issue, expiry.
- • Visa or OCI: visa number and type, place and date of issue, validity; or the OCI card number.
- • The trip: date of arrival in India, where they arrived from, date and time of arrival at your property, how long they plan to stay, purpose of visit, next destination.
- • Contact: phone and address in India and in their home country.
- • A photo of the guest, which the form asks you to upload.
Field names can change on the portal; this list is what it typically asks for. If you photograph the passport pages to type them in later, delete the photos once the form is filed. The filed form and your signed register are your record.
Step 3: file the form, then file the departure
- Log in on the website or the Su-Swagatam app and start a new Form C (Form-III).
- Enter the guest’s details, upload the photo and submit. One form per foreign guest, including each member of a family.
- Save or screenshot the acknowledgement. That is your proof of filing.
- When the guest leaves, open the same record and file the departure (check-out) entry within 24 hours.
Indian guests, and why you should not copy Aadhaar
Form C is for foreign nationals only. For Indian guests you check a photo ID (Aadhaar, passport, driving licence or voter ID), and some districts ask for a guest register too; your local police station will tell you.
What you should not do is keep a photocopy. UIDAI has repeatedly cautioned against storing copies of Aadhaar, and its officials said in December 2025 that hotels photocopying and keeping Aadhaar cards goes against the Aadhaar Act, while announcing a move to QR and app-based verification. A drawer of photocopies, or a WhatsApp chat full of ID photos, is a leak waiting to happen. Look at the ID, write down its type and last four digits, and hand it back. Guests can also show a masked Aadhaar, which shows only the last four digits.
How SitesPlaced reminds you
On a SitesPlaced stay website, check-in happens in the Bookings tab of your dashboard. You pick the ID you saw and type its last four digits; there is no field to upload a copy, and the form says so: “Only the last 4 — never keep a copy of the ID.” Enter the guest’s nationality, and if it is not Indian a red reminder appears: report within 24 hours on Form C / Form-III on indianfrro.gov.in or the Su-Swagatam app. The reminder stays on that booking. The Today screen shows who is arriving and leaving, which tells you when the next two filings are due.
SitesPlaced does not file Form C for you; that stays your five minutes on the portal. It just makes sure you never forget. See the SitesPlaced Hospitality overview for the rest of the dashboard.
Common mistakes
- Registering after the guest arrives. A hotel account needs FRRO approval, which is not instant, and the 24 hours do not wait for it.
- Filing at checkout. The 24 hours run from arrival, not from departure.
- Forgetting the departure. It is a separate filing with its own deadline.
- Skipping OCI guests. They were exempt; they are not any more.
- Keeping ID photos on your phone. Note what you need, then delete.
Frequently asked questions
What is Form C for foreigners?
Form C is the report an accommodation provider in India sends the immigration authorities when a foreign national stays with them. Under the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025 and its Rules, it is now called Form-III, though most people and the portal still say Form C. It records who the guest is, their passport and visa, and when they arrived and left.
Is Form C mandatory for homestays and Airbnb hosts?
Yes. The duty is on the keeper of the accommodation: hotels, guesthouses, homestays, B&Bs, cottages, hostels, rented rooms and similar places, whatever their size and however the booking came in. A booking platform does not file it for you. If a foreign friend stays in your family home for free, ask your local Foreigners Registration Officer; many advisories recommend filing anyway.
What is the time limit to submit Form C?
Within 24 hours of the foreign guest arriving at your property. The departure must also be reported within 24 hours of the guest leaving. Records are to be kept electronically for at least a year.
Do I need to file Form C for OCI cardholders?
Yes, now you do. OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) cardholders were earlier left out, but the indianfrro.gov.in portal says they are included under the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025. Enter their OCI card details in place of a visa.
What is the penalty for not filing Form C?
A Government of Goa notice from December 2025 says not reporting a foreign guest breaks Section 8 of the Act and Rule 17 of the Rules, with a penalty of ₹50,000 in each case. Figures quoted by different states vary, so check your district's notice; either way, one missed guest costs far more than the five minutes the form takes.
Can I file Form C on my phone?
Yes. Besides the website (indianfrro.gov.in), the government's Indian Visa Su-Swagatam app, on Android and iOS, lists Form C e-submission among its services. You still need an account approved or activated first, and an Indian mobile number for the one-time passwords.
Can I keep a photocopy of a guest's Aadhaar card?
Better not. UIDAI has repeatedly cautioned against keeping copies of Aadhaar, and its officials said in December 2025 that hotels photocopying and storing Aadhaar cards goes against the Aadhaar Act. Look at the ID, note its type and last four digits, and hand it back. Guests can also show a masked Aadhaar, which shows only the last four digits.
Does SitesPlaced file Form C for me?
No, you file it yourself on indianfrro.gov.in or the app. What SitesPlaced does is remind you: when you check a guest in and enter a nationality other than Indian, the booking shows a reminder to report them within 24 hours on Form C / Form-III. At check-in it records only the type of ID you saw and its last four digits, never a copy.
This guide is based on the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, the indianfrro.gov.in portal and official state notices as of October 2026. It is not legal advice. Rules and forms change; when in doubt, ask your district’s Foreigners Registration Officer.
Bookings, check-ins and the Form C reminder in one place
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