Form C for hotels: who files it, the 24-hour rule, and how to stay on time

Any accommodation provider that houses a foreign national — hotels, guesthouses, homestays, lodges, serviced apartments and similar — must report that guest. It applies to every foreign guest, whatever their visa type or length of stay.

Indian citizens do not need a Form C; they go in your normal guest register.

Within 24 hours of the foreign guest’s arrival at your property. The clock starts at check-in, so a guest who arrives late at night still needs to be reported the next day.

• The guest’s name, nationality and passport details
• Visa details (number, type, validity)
• Arrival date, where they arrived from, and where they are going next
• Your property’s details

• The guest checks in on a busy night and the separate Form C website is forgotten until the next shift
• Details are copied by hand from the passport and typed again on the portal, so errors creep in
• Nobody can see, at a glance, which foreign guests are still waiting to be reported

When you check in a foreign guest, Kiauth captures the passport and visa details once and prepares the Form C record. The Foreign guests page shows every guest whose Form C is due, with a live countdown to the 24-hour deadline (amber in the last six hours, red once overdue), and you mark each one as filed after submitting it on the government portal.

Kiauth does not yet submit Form C to the portal for you — it makes sure the filing is ready and that nothing is missed.