Do I have to file Form C for Indian guests?

No. The duty under section 8 of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025 relates to foreigners staying in your accommodation. Indian guests are covered by a different set of requirements: your homestay registration's check-in and check-out register, and your District Magistrate's standing order about verifying photo identity.

Do OCI cardholders need to be reported?

Yes, and this changed recently. The government's C-Form portal states that the forms must be filed for all foreigners including OCI cardholders, and that OCI cardholders were previously exempt but have been included under the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025. If you have long-stay OCI guests, this is the thing to fix first.

I let my own flat out a few weeks a year. Does this apply to me?

Almost certainly yes. The proviso to section 8(1) excludes residential premises of a non-commercial nature, which is aimed at hosting a friend rather than at letting for money. A flat let to paying guests is accommodation under the Act's definition, which covers temporary premises of any nature where a foreigner is accommodated. Section 8(3) also lets the civil authority for an area require reporting even from ordinary residential premises.

How quickly do I have to file?

Within 24 hours of the guest's arrival is the long-standing requirement and the one the industry works to. The sign-in page of the C-Form service does not state the deadline, and we could not quote it from the 2025 Rules, so use 24 hours as the working rule and check the guidance shown when you register your property.

What is the penalty for not filing?

There is no penalty specific to this failure, so the residual provision applies. Section 23(b) of the Act makes contravening a provision for which no specific punishment is provided punishable with imprisonment which may extend to three years, or a fine which may extend to three lakh rupees, or both.

Can my caretaker file it instead of me?

Yes. The Act defines the keeper of accommodation as the person in charge of the management of the accommodation, and expressly includes any person authorised by them to perform the keeper's duties. If your caretaker is the one meeting guests, authorise them and let them file, rather than relaying passport photographs over WhatsApp.

For hosts

Form C and foreigner reporting, for a Goa host

If a foreign guest sleeps in your house, you have to tell the immigration authorities. The law behind this changed in 2025, the forms were renumbered, and one exemption that a lot of hosts relied on has gone: OCI cardholders now have to be reported like anyone else.

Checked September 2026. This is a practical summary, not legal advice.

The law changed in 2025

The Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025 received the President's assent on 4 April 2025, and it repealed the four statutes this area used to run on: the Foreigners Act, 1946, the Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939, the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 and the Immigration (Carriers' Liability) Act, 2000.

If you have a compliance note from before 2025 that cites the Registration of Foreigners Rules, 1992, it is citing a repealed instrument. The duty itself has not gone anywhere, and in one respect it now reaches further than it did.

Who has to report: the keeper of accommodation

The Act puts the duty on the "keeper of accommodation", and both halves of that phrase are defined broadly. Accommodation means "a temporary or permanent premises of any nature, where a foreigner is accommodated". The keeper is "the person in charge of the management of an accommodation", and the definition expressly includes anyone authorised by them to do the job.

So a villa, a flat let by the week, a homestay with two rooms and a guest house are all accommodation, and the manager or caretaker you authorise can file on your behalf. Section 8(1) then states the duty plainly: it is the duty of the keeper of accommodation to submit to the Registration Officer such information about the foreigners staying there as is prescribed. Section 8(2) puts the matching duty on the guest, who has to give you the particulars you ask for.

There is one carve-out, and it is narrower than it sounds. The proviso to section 8(1) says the duty does not apply to "residential premises of non-commercial nature". A friend staying in your spare room is not an accommodation business. A house you let for money is. And section 8(3) lets the civil authority for an area direct that every person occupying residential premises must report foreign guests too, which switches the carve-out off wherever it is applied.

Universities and educational institutions have their own duty under section 9, and hospitals and nursing homes under section 10. If you run a stay attached to either, you are likely covered twice.

OCI cardholders now count

This is the change most likely to catch a Goan host out. The government's own C-Form portal states that all accommodators, hotels and educational institutes are obliged to file Form II (Form A) and Form III (Form C) "in respect of all foreigners including OCI Cardholders", and says in terms that OCI cardholders were "hitherto exempted from provisions of Form C and Form A" and have been brought in by the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025.

A great many long-stay guests in Goa hold OCI cards, and a host who learned the rules a few years ago will remember them as exempt. They are not any more. Ask for the passport and the OCI card, and file for them like any other foreign national.

How to file

Filing is online, through the Bureau of Immigration's C-Form service at indianfrro.gov.in. An accommodation provider registers once for an account, and then files a form per foreign guest per stay. The registration is the part worth doing before your first foreign booking rather than at eleven at night when one arrives, because it is the step that needs approving.

On timing: reporting within 24 hours of arrival is the long-standing requirement and what the hospitality industry works to. We could not open the 2025 Rules to quote the deadline directly from them, so treat 24 hours as the working rule, and confirm what the portal tells you when you register.

Register your property as an accommodation provider on the C-Form service before your first foreign guest.
Collect the passport, visa and, for an OCI cardholder, the OCI card at check-in.
File the form for each foreign guest, and keep the acknowledgement with the booking.
Authorise your manager or caretaker if they are the person actually at the house.

What happens if you do not file

The Act does not set a separate penalty for this particular failure, which means the residual offence provision catches it. Section 23(b) covers contravening any provision of the Act for which no specific punishment is provided, and it is punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with a fine which may extend to three lakh rupees, or both.

In practice the thing hosts notice first is not a prosecution but friction: questions from the local police station, and problems for the guest rather than for you. Neither is worth the ten minutes the form takes.

What this does not cover

Form C is about foreign guests. It says nothing about the photo ID you should be taking from an Indian guest, which comes from your District Magistrate's order and your tourism registration, and is a separate piece of paperwork with separate rules about what you may keep.

It is also separate from the guest register itself. Your homestay registration requires a check-in and check-out register including passport details for foreign tourists, and an electronic register satisfies that. Filing Form C does not replace keeping the register, and keeping the register does not replace filing Form C.

Common questions

Do I have to file Form C for Indian guests?: No. The duty under section 8 of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025 relates to foreigners staying in your accommodation. Indian guests are covered by a different set of requirements: your homestay registration's check-in and check-out register, and your District Magistrate's standing order about verifying photo identity.
Do OCI cardholders need to be reported?: Yes, and this changed recently. The government's C-Form portal states that the forms must be filed for all foreigners including OCI cardholders, and that OCI cardholders were previously exempt but have been included under the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025. If you have long-stay OCI guests, this is the thing to fix first.
I let my own flat out a few weeks a year. Does this apply to me?: Almost certainly yes. The proviso to section 8(1) excludes residential premises of a non-commercial nature, which is aimed at hosting a friend rather than at letting for money. A flat let to paying guests is accommodation under the Act's definition, which covers temporary premises of any nature where a foreigner is accommodated. Section 8(3) also lets the civil authority for an area require reporting even from ordinary residential premises.
How quickly do I have to file?: Within 24 hours of the guest's arrival is the long-standing requirement and the one the industry works to. The sign-in page of the C-Form service does not state the deadline, and we could not quote it from the 2025 Rules, so use 24 hours as the working rule and check the guidance shown when you register your property.
What is the penalty for not filing?: There is no penalty specific to this failure, so the residual provision applies. Section 23(b) of the Act makes contravening a provision for which no specific punishment is provided punishable with imprisonment which may extend to three years, or a fine which may extend to three lakh rupees, or both.
Can my caretaker file it instead of me?: Yes. The Act defines the keeper of accommodation as the person in charge of the management of the accommodation, and expressly includes any person authorised by them to perform the keeper's duties. If your caretaker is the one meeting guests, authorise them and let them file, rather than relaying passport photographs over WhatsApp.