He landed in India. Watched his phone clock tick.
45 minutes later, he was still in the immigration queue.
A week earlier, in Singapore?
45 seconds. 😶
That's the story Venkat Patakota, Group CFO of A-Sunmarine Engineering, just dropped on X — and it's hitting a nerve every Indian traveller already knows too well.
6:45 PM. Long queue. Around 75 people.
Officers on duty? Just two.
Then 7:15 PM hits.
15 panicked flyers cut the line — "boarding closes at 7:45!"
No one stops them. No supervisor in sight.
He finally cleared in 45 minutes.
Walk up. Scan passport. Face the camera.
Done.
Same passport. Same person. Completely different planet.
On the return leg, Venkat got lucky — seat 8A, off the plane first, cleared in 15 minutes.
Behind him? 100+ people. Same two officers. Same manual stamping.
Then came the new Ebola health declaration.
He filled it online. Reached the counter expecting a physical signature check.
👉 Nobody was there.
His verdict was sharper than the wait time:
"Immigration officers seemed indifferent. No higher authority to even escalate to."
Hyderabad Airport's X handle slid into the thread with a suggestion:
"Sir, please enroll in the Fast Track Immigration – Trusted Traveller Programme."
Translation: the system is slow, so pre-register to skip the system. 😅
For context, FTI-TTP launched in June 2024. As of late 2025, around 3 lakh travellers had registered — in a country that sees tens of millions of international departures a year.
This isn't just one CFO venting on the internet.
It's a mirror.
India is building world-class terminals, billion-dollar airports, shiny lounges.
But the last 50 metres — the human counter, the manual stamp, the empty laptop tray — still feels stuck in 2005.
Singapore figured out one thing early: don't make the traveller pay for your staffing gaps.
Until that mindset travels to Indian immigration counters, glossy airports will keep losing to a 45-second face scan.
The runway is ready. The front door isn't.
That's all for now!
