Maine Duplicate Insurance License Request: Fill & Download for Free

Unlike most sourcing agents I didn’t have a clue about how sea freight worked by the time I set up my first business. Another thing that struck me was the fact that it was, and still is, very hard to find decent information on how sea freight and shipping from China is actually working. I know that this is a big concern for small businesses import from China and I receive questions about this topic on an almost daily basis.My hope is that this article is going to provide the reader with a well rounded introduction to shipping and sea freight. In this article I’ll introduce the reader to the shipping process and some of the things that you better keep an eye on when importing from China.IncotermsShipping Incoterms are international standard codes that decides when and where cargo shall be transferred between the supplier and the importer.FCL & LCL shippingSea freight is not exclusive to those importers who purchase large quantities from China.. If you want to import by the container then FCL (Full Container Load) shipping is the right choice, it’s also the cheapest mode of transportation if counted by cost per kilogram. However, for smaller buyers LCL (Less than Container Load) is available. In fact, you can basically ship cargo with very small volumes – even less than one cubic meter.“Who’s managing the sea freight?”Here you basically got two options, either the supplier or you. I’ll begin with explaining the latter. Letting the supplier manage the shipping is common among inexperienced importers and even we let the supplier manage the shipping from time to time. It’s very simple and all you need to do is to tell the supplier that you want them to ship the cargo as CIF “Port of destination” (you actually have to specify which port you want it to be delivered to) and they’ll do the rest. The downside is that you’ll probably end up paying a bit more than if you would have managed the shipping by yourself.As mentioned, you can also manage the shipping by yourself. This doesn’t mean that you have to swim all the way to China, pick up your cargo and then swim back home. It can be done from the comfort of your home and office by hiring a shipping and logistics agent. These companies are everywhere and they tend to offer discounts in return for a fairly small yearly service fee. The shipping agent can then manage your shipping all from the Chinese supplier to a nearby port or a specific location within your country (i.e your warehouse).“Do I need to pay any fees or taxes in China?”No, you don’t need to pay any “export tax” when importing from China. However, you will need to pay for transportation to the port of loading in China and the cost for export clearance papers. Both of these are included in every incoterm from FOB (Free on Board) and above so you don’t need to even bother with this unless you select EXW as your incoterm.“ What about insurance?”Insurance is included when you select CIF, that’s why it’s called “Cost Insurance Freight”. However, the definition of the insurance may vary between different shipping companies. When you let your supplier manage the shipping you are not in control of which shipping they select, which is probably the cheapest. I suggest that you contact a local shipping agent if you want to know what the insurance actually covers.Delivery timeThe transit time from China to most locations in Europe and the United States is roughly 29 – 35 days. However, keep in mind that it can take a few days – sometimes up to a whole week – before your cargo is loaded in the port of loading in China. The same thing is true in the Port of Destination, it usually takes 2 – 3 days before your cargo is cleared and ready for pick up.Sea freight is indeed quite slow and this means that importing from China certainly requires a lot more long-term planning compared to domestic product purchases. This has also been a major cause for the recent surge in reshoring in Europe and the US. In general I recommend businesses to place an order at a minimum 3 months before they need the products in their warehouse.“What happens when the cargo arrives at the Port of Destination?”When the container vessel arrives the containers are first unloaded. Some may be inspected by the local customs authorities, but most are not. Regardless of whether you or the supplier managed the freight, the port authorities will begin customs clearing which basically means that you are invoiced any duties, VAT, port fees and service fees (Yes, there are a lot of fees).“How do I get my stuff from the port?”You got two options; either you pick it up yourself or you ask your shipping agent to load it on a truck and deliver it to a specific location. It’s not harder than that. When the cargo arrives at the Port of Destination you will likely be notified by the port agent. In most cases you can book the transportation directly through the port agent.If you are ordering a full container load this is certain to recommend. Upon delivery you can expect to have somewhere between 30 minutes to an hour to unload the cargo. Be well prepared because you don’t want to waste your time.“What will happen if the cargo is damaged?”This actually happens a lot more often than most importers would believe. This is also the time when that insurance turns out to be a pretty good investment. If your cargo is damaged then I advise you to follow this process:1.) Take photos and videos of the damages2.) Estimate the total number of damaged cartons and products3.) Make a calculation of the total value loss. Keep in mind that this should be supported by the value stated on the invoice. (Insurance companies are not stupid and fraud was still a criminal offense last time I checked)4.) Send the material to your insurance companyThe last point is not always that easy if you let your supplier manage the sea freight and have no clue of which insurance company they selected. Therefore I suggest that you ask your supplier for a copy of the sea freight insurance policy before the cargo is shipped. Then you’ll know who to contact in case your cargo would be damaged during the transportation.If you have a valid claim it’s usually a rather quick and painless process to go through in order to get your money back. However, keep in mind that most sea freight insurance only covers the value of your products – not the shipping costs.ContainersIn case you decide to import full container loads you have three different options:1. FCL 20’’ (Volume: 33.2 cbm)2. FCL 40’’ (Volume: 67.7 cbm)3. FCL 40’’ HQ (Volume: 76.3 cbm)4. FCL 45’’ HQ (Volume: 85.9 cbm)The container volume may differ slightly between different shipping companies. The volumes above are valid for Maersk containers. However, the difference is so small (+/- 0.1 cbm) that you don’t need to bother. There is still one way to save quite a lot of money based on the sea freight cost that’s related to the container volume. That is to place orders based on the units that fit in a specific container size rather than a pre-determined quantity.This way you can avoid situations where you pay for empty space or have to order one FCL container and one LCL container. The latter situation can become rather costly since LCL comes with higher port fees than FCL shipping.Export packingThe best insurance is high quality export packing. It would be natural to assume that the Chinese suppliers would have this figured out. However, I’ve seen countless of times when Chinese suppliers use cheap and low quality export packing to wrap up cargo worth tens of thousands of dollars. NEVER make this assumption or you might end up bankrupt.Prior to your order you shall clearly specify to your supplier which export packing you require. At a minimum I recommend the following specifications:1. Outer cartons: 5 layer cartons2. Inner cartons: 3 layer cartons3. Pallets: Wooden freight pallets (dimensional standards vary between different countries)4. Protective plastic: Yes (wrapped around the outer export cartons)5. Plastic straps: Yes (shall fix the cartons to the pallet)Once upon a time I made the terrible mistake of only telling the supplier that the cargo should be stacked on pallets. They were indeed stacking the cargo (1000 pcs x 25 kg PVC tarpaulins) on pallets, but not on the kind of pallet that you use when you ship 25 tons of cargo from China to Europe. No, they used plastic pallets. The kind of pallet Chikita stacks their banana cartons on.The result was almost a complete disaster. The pallets were crushed and the plastic turned into sharp edges that penetrated the cartons. However, in the end we got lucky since the cargo was not damaged.Shipping documentsAs you would’ve probably expected shipping comes with a fair share of paperwork, below I explain the basic documents:Bill of LadingThe main freight document issued by the transportation company that specifies the shipping company, exporting company (seller), consignee (buyer), products, volume and incoterm. The Bill of Lading is mandatory when shipping from China and shall be delivered (along with C/I & P/L) to the buyer within 2 weeks (counting from date of balance payment)Mandatory for all types of products: YesCommercial InvoiceA document specifying the order value, types of products and consignee. This document is used by the Port Agent for customs clearance and calculation of VAT and custom fees. The Commercial Invoice is mandatory and shall be delivered (along with B/L & P/L) to the buyer within 2 weeks (counting from date of balance payment)Mandatory for all types of shipments: YesPacking listA document specifying the volume, different types of products and quantity per type of product. The Packing List is mandatory and should be delivered (along with B/L & C/I) to the buyer within 2 weeks (counting from date of balance payment)Mandatory for all types of shipments: YesCertificate of Origin / Form AA document specifying the origin of the raw material and / or the products. May be used to determine the custom rate but also for statistics and enforcement of embargoes. Different countries got different custom rates that are applied when importing products to the EU or USA. (I.e. the EU offers a reduced tariff for textile import from India. The importer is required to prove that the true origin in order to be granted the reduced tariff)Mandatory for all types of shipments: No (Required in certain countries and markets for food, chemicals, raw materials and if the buyer is requesting a reduced tariff)Licenses & certificationCertain products require additional documentation. In most countries this includes agricultural products, food and vehicles. There’s no global standard for this and it would take me the whole weekend to write about all the different licenses in Europe, USA and Australia. However, that doesn’t prevent more from writing about something really scary that happened a few months ago.I was just about to leave office when I received a phone call from an importer in my native Sweden. He had purchased two Jet skis from a Chinese suppliers. Everything went fine until the cargo arrived in Gothenburg, the Port of Destination. Upon arrival the local customs requested the customer to show them the proper certification for usage within the European Union. Like many importers before him that made this mistake, he didn’t have any documents apart from the ordinary shipping papers.The customs refused to let him clear the cargo and he called his supplier in China. I was not very surprised when he told me that his Chinese supplier had no clue about EU vehicle certification. In a situation like this there’s nothing you can do. The only way to at least prevent further expenses was to request the local customs to destroy the Jet Skis… a tough choice considering they cost more than USD 50,000 in total.Sea freight related costsShipping from China involves a multitude of different fees. The cost is closely related to the selected incoterm. As I said in the beginning of the article, we’ve already covered that topic and since Google doesn’t like duplicate content I won’t copy paste it. However, below I list a number of costs that you should keep in mind when shipping from China:· Transportation to Port of Loading (included in FOB)· Export clearance (Included in FOB)· Sea freight charge (included in CIF)· Insurance (Included in CIF)· Port fees (Included in DAT)· Customs clearance fees· Custom duties· VAT (not really a cost though)· Transportation from the Port of DestinationShipping fraudYou’ve probably heard stories about importers receiving containers filled with brick stones. While I think that the real risk lies in Payment fraud and suppliers cutting corners on the product quality, these things actually happen. The only way to be certain that your supplier is not shipping a container filled with cow dung instead of high end furniture is to hire an agent that performs a container loading inspection.A container loading inspection consists of two phases and begins with a stocktaking on cargo that’s about to be loaded. When that’s done the next step is to witness the cargo being loaded and the container being sealed.Sea freight process summary1. Transportation to the Port of Loading2. Export clearance3. Cargo loading on container vessel4.i) Shipping to the Port of Destination4.ii) The supplier (or the freight agent) sends the Bill of Lading, Packing List and Commercial Invoice to the importer4.iii.) The importer receives the shipping documents and forwards them to the agent in the Port of Destination (this company is specified in the Bill of Lading)5. Arrival in the Port of Destination & cargo unloading6. The port agent notifies the importer about the cargo arrival. The importer may now choose additional services such as customs clearing and transportation to a specific address in the importer’s country. In most cases it’s also possible to pay the customs and VAT directly to an agent instead of dealing directly with the government for the customs duty and VAT declaration.7. The cargo is ready for pick up at the Port of Destination or transported to a designated location within the country.Got more questions about Sea Freight and Shipping from China? Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us, we’re always happy to answer your questions. e-CantonFair.com

Unlike most sourcing agents I didn’t have a clue about how sea freight worked by the time I set up my first business. Another thing that struck me was the fact that it was, and still is, very hard to find decent information on how sea freight and shipping from China is actually working. I know that this is a big concern for small businesses import from China and I receive questions about this topic on an almost daily basis.My hope is that this article is going to provide the reader with a well rounded introduction to shipping and sea freight. In this article I’ll introduce the reader to the shipping process and some of the things that you better keep an eye on when importing from China.IncotermsShipping Incoterms are international standard codes that decides when and where cargo shall be transferred between the supplier and the importer.FCL & LCL shippingSea freight is not exclusive to those importers who purchase large quantities from China.. If you want to import by the container then FCL (Full Container Load) shipping is the right choice, it’s also the cheapest mode of transportation if counted by cost per kilogram. However, for smaller buyers LCL (Less than Container Load) is available. In fact, you can basically ship cargo with very small volumes – even less than one cubic meter.“Who’s managing the sea freight?”Here you basically got two options, either the supplier or you. I’ll begin with explaining the latter. Letting the supplier manage the shipping is common among inexperienced importers and even we let the supplier manage the shipping from time to time. It’s very simple and all you need to do is to tell the supplier that you want them to ship the cargo as CIF “Port of destination” (you actually have to specify which port you want it to be delivered to) and they’ll do the rest. The downside is that you’ll probably end up paying a bit more than if you would have managed the shipping by yourself.As mentioned, you can also manage the shipping by yourself. This doesn’t mean that you have to swim all the way to China, pick up your cargo and then swim back home. It can be done from the comfort of your home and office by hiring a shipping and logistics agent. These companies are everywhere and they tend to offer discounts in return for a fairly small yearly service fee. The shipping agent can then manage your shipping all from the Chinese supplier to a nearby port or a specific location within your country (i.e your warehouse).“Do I need to pay any fees or taxes in China?”No, you don’t need to pay any “export tax” when importing from China. However, you will need to pay for transportation to the port of loading in China and the cost for export clearance papers. Both of these are included in every incoterm from FOB (Free on Board) and above so you don’t need to even bother with this unless you select EXW as your incoterm.“ What about insurance?”Insurance is included when you select CIF, that’s why it’s called “Cost Insurance Freight”. However, the definition of the insurance may vary between different shipping companies. When you let your supplier manage the shipping you are not in control of which shipping they select, which is probably the cheapest. I suggest that you contact a local shipping agent if you want to know what the insurance actually covers.Delivery timeThe transit time from China to most locations in Europe and the United States is roughly 29 – 35 days. However, keep in mind that it can take a few days – sometimes up to a whole week – before your cargo is loaded in the port of loading in China. The same thing is true in the Port of Destination, it usually takes 2 – 3 days before your cargo is cleared and ready for pick up.Sea freight is indeed quite slow and this means that importing from China certainly requires a lot more long-term planning compared to domestic product purchases. This has also been a major cause for the recent surge in reshoring in Europe and the US. In general I recommend businesses to place an order at a minimum 3 months before they need the products in their warehouse.“What happens when the cargo arrives at the Port of Destination?”When the container vessel arrives the containers are first unloaded. Some may be inspected by the local customs authorities, but most are not. Regardless of whether you or the supplier managed the freight, the port authorities will begin customs clearing which basically means that you are invoiced any duties, VAT, port fees and service fees (Yes, there are a lot of fees).“How do I get my stuff from the port?”You got two options; either you pick it up yourself or you ask your shipping agent to load it on a truck and deliver it to a specific location. It’s not harder than that. When the cargo arrives at the Port of Destination you will likely be notified by the port agent. In most cases you can book the transportation directly through the port agent.If you are ordering a full container load this is certain to recommend. Upon delivery you can expect to have somewhere between 30 minutes to an hour to unload the cargo. Be well prepared because you don’t want to waste your time.“What will happen if the cargo is damaged?”This actually happens a lot more often than most importers would believe. This is also the time when that insurance turns out to be a pretty good investment. If your cargo is damaged then I advise you to follow this process:1.) Take photos and videos of the damages2.) Estimate the total number of damaged cartons and products3.) Make a calculation of the total value loss. Keep in mind that this should be supported by the value stated on the invoice. (Insurance companies are not stupid and fraud was still a criminal offense last time I checked)4.) Send the material to your insurance companyThe last point is not always that easy if you let your supplier manage the sea freight and have no clue of which insurance company they selected. Therefore I suggest that you ask your supplier for a copy of the sea freight insurance policy before the cargo is shipped. Then you’ll know who to contact in case your cargo would be damaged during the transportation.If you have a valid claim it’s usually a rather quick and painless process to go through in order to get your money back. However, keep in mind that most sea freight insurance only covers the value of your products – not the shipping costs.ContainersIn case you decide to import full container loads you have three different options:1. FCL 20’’ (Volume: 33.2 cbm)2. FCL 40’’ (Volume: 67.7 cbm)3. FCL 40’’ HQ (Volume: 76.3 cbm)4. FCL 45’’ HQ (Volume: 85.9 cbm)The container volume may differ slightly between different shipping companies. The volumes above are valid for Maersk containers. However, the difference is so small (+/- 0.1 cbm) that you don’t need to bother. There is still one way to save quite a lot of money based on the sea freight cost that’s related to the container volume. That is to place orders based on the units that fit in a specific container size rather than a pre-determined quantity.This way you can avoid situations where you pay for empty space or have to order one FCL container and one LCL container. The latter situation can become rather costly since LCL comes with higher port fees than FCL shipping.Export packingThe best insurance is high quality export packing. It would be natural to assume that the Chinese suppliers would have this figured out. However, I’ve seen countless of times when Chinese suppliers use cheap and low quality export packing to wrap up cargo worth tens of thousands of dollars. NEVER make this assumption or you might end up bankrupt.Prior to your order you shall clearly specify to your supplier which export packing you require. At a minimum I recommend the following specifications:1. Outer cartons: 5 layer cartons2. Inner cartons: 3 layer cartons3. Pallets: Wooden freight pallets (dimensional standards vary between different countries)4. Protective plastic: Yes (wrapped around the outer export cartons)5. Plastic straps: Yes (shall fix the cartons to the pallet)Once upon a time I made the terrible mistake of only telling the supplier that the cargo should be stacked on pallets. They were indeed stacking the cargo (1000 pcs x 25 kg PVC tarpaulins) on pallets, but not on the kind of pallet that you use when you ship 25 tons of cargo from China to Europe. No, they used plastic pallets. The kind of pallet Chikita stacks their banana cartons on.The result was almost a complete disaster. The pallets were crushed and the plastic turned into sharp edges that penetrated the cartons. However, in the end we got lucky since the cargo was not damaged.Shipping documentsAs you would’ve probably expected shipping comes with a fair share of paperwork, below I explain the basic documents:Bill of LadingThe main freight document issued by the transportation company that specifies the shipping company, exporting company (seller), consignee (buyer), products, volume and incoterm. The Bill of Lading is mandatory when shipping from China and shall be delivered (along with C/I & P/L) to the buyer within 2 weeks (counting from date of balance payment)Mandatory for all types of products: YesCommercial InvoiceA document specifying the order value, types of products and consignee. This document is used by the Port Agent for customs clearance and calculation of VAT and custom fees. The Commercial Invoice is mandatory and shall be delivered (along with B/L & P/L) to the buyer within 2 weeks (counting from date of balance payment)Mandatory for all types of shipments: YesPacking listA document specifying the volume, different types of products and quantity per type of product. The Packing List is mandatory and should be delivered (along with B/L & C/I) to the buyer within 2 weeks (counting from date of balance payment)Mandatory for all types of shipments: YesCertificate of Origin / Form AA document specifying the origin of the raw material and / or the products. May be used to determine the custom rate but also for statistics and enforcement of embargoes. Different countries got different custom rates that are applied when importing products to the EU or USA. (I.e. the EU offers a reduced tariff for textile import from India. The importer is required to prove that the true origin in order to be granted the reduced tariff)Mandatory for all types of shipments: No (Required in certain countries and markets for food, chemicals, raw materials and if the buyer is requesting a reduced tariff)Licenses & certificationCertain products require additional documentation. In most countries this includes agricultural products, food and vehicles. There’s no global standard for this and it would take me the whole weekend to write about all the different licenses in Europe, USA and Australia. However, that doesn’t prevent more from writing about something really scary that happened a few months ago.I was just about to leave office when I received a phone call from an importer in my native Sweden. He had purchased two Jet skis from a Chinese suppliers. Everything went fine until the cargo arrived in Gothenburg, the Port of Destination. Upon arrival the local customs requested the customer to show them the proper certification for usage within the European Union. Like many importers before him that made this mistake, he didn’t have any documents apart from the ordinary shipping papers.The customs refused to let him clear the cargo and he called his supplier in China. I was not very surprised when he told me that his Chinese supplier had no clue about EU vehicle certification. In a situation like this there’s nothing you can do. The only way to at least prevent further expenses was to request the local customs to destroy the Jet Skis… a tough choice considering they cost more than USD 50,000 in total.Sea freight related costsShipping from China involves a multitude of different fees. The cost is closely related to the selected incoterm. As I said in the beginning of the article, we’ve already covered that topic and since Google doesn’t like duplicate content I won’t copy paste it. However, below I list a number of costs that you should keep in mind when shipping from China:· Transportation to Port of Loading (included in FOB)· Export clearance (Included in FOB)· Sea freight charge (included in CIF)· Insurance (Included in CIF)· Port fees (Included in DAT)· Customs clearance fees· Custom duties· VAT (not really a cost though)· Transportation from the Port of DestinationShipping fraudYou’ve probably heard stories about importers receiving containers filled with brick stones. While I think that the real risk lies in Payment fraud and suppliers cutting corners on the product quality, these things actually happen. The only way to be certain that your supplier is not shipping a container filled with cow dung instead of high end furniture is to hire an agent that performs a container loading inspection.A container loading inspection consists of two phases and begins with a stocktaking on cargo that’s about to be loaded. When that’s done the next step is to witness the cargo being loaded and the container being sealed.Sea freight process summary1. Transportation to the Port of Loading2. Export clearance3. Cargo loading on container vessel4.i) Shipping to the Port of Destination4.ii) The supplier (or the freight agent) sends the Bill of Lading, Packing List and Commercial Invoice to the importer4.iii.) The importer receives the shipping documents and forwards them to the agent in the Port of Destination (this company is specified in the Bill of Lading)5. Arrival in the Port of Destination & cargo unloading6. The port agent notifies the importer about the cargo arrival. The importer may now choose additional services such as customs clearing and transportation to a specific address in the importer’s country. In most cases it’s also possible to pay the customs and VAT directly to an agent instead of dealing directly with the government for the customs duty and VAT declaration.7. The cargo is ready for pick up at the Port of Destination or transported to a designated location within the country.Got more questions about Sea Freight and Shipping from China? Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us, we’re always happy to answer your questions

I am mentioning below the steps, I had to undertake:(1) I went to the RTO office 2 months after coming to Bangalore to enquire about the process to get the car transferred. I was informed that I would need following documents:a. Original RCb. Insurancec. Pollution certificated. Original Invoicee. NOC from the RTO, Delhi(2) I had all the documents with me except for the NOC which was a news for me. This NOC is basically a document by Delhi RTO stating that they don’t have any issue if the vehicle is transferred to another state. I contacted my relatives in Delhi and requested them to visit RTO get the NOC.(3) They approached the RTO but as happens in any Govt office, it was very difficult to get the information. Eventually, they approached an agent who promised to get the NOC for a cost of Rs 3500. The actual fee for the NOC is around 50-100 Rs.(4) We continued to follow up with the agent for NOC for two months. He gave various reasons for NOC not being available ranging from there were rains and all files got drenched in water, there was a fire in the office, some files got burned, RTO officers are working on identifying what is damaged and getting the NOC will take some time.(5) After 1 month, my relative went directly to the RTO and with the grace of God, we was able to push for the work getting done and I got the NOC 15 days after that.(6) Once I had the NOC which was around 5-6 months after arriving in Bangalore, I went back to the RTO office to apply for transfer.(7) I was informed by the officers in RTO Bangalore that I will first have to get the address changed for my car and also pay the road tax. Applying for the new Karnataka number will be done only after that. There were some 8-10 different forms to be filled (Form 6, Form 10, Form 27, Form 28, Form 30 etc – these were all Central motor vehicles act forms. There were some Karnataka State motor vehicles act forms also which I had to fill.)(8) The clerk in the RTO only gave me 2 forms, she did not have other forms and suggested that I get it from the photocopy shop below.(9) I went to the shop, got all the forms, filled all of them.(10)When I submitted the forms at the counter, the superintendent only picked up 3-4 forms and rest all were returned back to me. (You can judge the level of mis-communication in the RTO office).(11)She took all the documents from me, calculated the road tax which is around 13-14% of the invoice value. Since my car was 1.5 years old, I was given a discount of 7% of the calculated tax. For an invoice of 2.87 Lakh, tax after discount came to around Rs 38200.(12)You can only deposit tax upto 3000 in cash. Beyond that, they need a Demand Draft. So I had to come back home. I applied for the DD over netbanking. Got the draft in 4-5 days and I again went back to RTO office.(13)I deposited the draft and got the receipt for the road tax. In addition to that they also put penalty of around 1500 on me as I should have got my address changed in 30 days of coming to Bangalore. Since I was approaching them after around 6 months, they put the penalty on me. I deposited even that as well.(14)However, this time, I was informed that I will have to obtain two additional documents:a. SCRB Report (State Crime Records Bureau) need Vidhan Saudha in Bangalore. This report will indicate that my vehicle is not stolen. They gave me a letter which would help me in getting the SCRB report.b. I will have to obtain the vehicle inspection certificate from the RTO inspector. This will indicate that vehicle is physically present in the state and a Govt officer has seen it with his eyes and the vehicle is in driving condition.(15)I had to come back home again and plan for going to the SCRB on a working day. I took a half day leave, went to SCRB office and to my surprise, I got the letter in just 15 mins (there was no other customer there).(16)I again went to the RTO for getting the vehicle inspection done. I went around 10:30 AM which is the opening time of the office. I had thought I would get the inspection certificate and then complete the remaining formalities. When I checked with the people there, I was informed that inspector sits on the main road near the RTO as he has to inspect the private and commercial vehicles and they suggested me to come in the afternoon around 1 PM. Since I could not wait for that long, I came back home.(17)I went again around 1 PM after a couple of days, only to be told that inspector already did one round of inspection and he has headed back to his chamber for lunch. The next round of inspection would happen around 3 PM. I again came back home.(18)Again after 2-3 days, I went around 12.15 PM. There was a person (definitely not the inspector) who was sitting on the Govt table and chair and was filling forms for a lot of commercial vehicles. I checked with him when will the inspector come, he told me that he would come around 1-1.30 PM. I was sceptical from my previous experience. I waited for some time but since there was no sign of the inspector, I thought he would have cancelled his pre-lunch inspection cycle. At 12.45 PM, I was about to leave for home when inspector came over. He asked me to take the imprint of the engine number and chassis number on the car into the form. I ran around, bought a pencil, somehow took the imprint.(19)Inspector signed on the form but also wrote something on the back side of the form. I was assuming that it would be some code for the clerk to take fixed amount from me. He then asked me to go back to the RTO office for further processing.(20)I went back to the office. I had to take signatures of the main officer in RTO on my inspection certificate. There was a big line (mostly of people wanting a driving license), the peon somehow put me in front of the queue. I went in, got the signatures and I was done. To my surprise, no asked for any money. Probably, it was a lucky day for me.(21)I then went back to the Superintendent who had calculated the road tax for me. He checked all the documents and asked me to submit it to the front office clerk. The front office clerk took all the documents and gave me a date 3 weeks later to come and collect the new registration documents.(22)I went to the RTO on the designated date at 4 PM (The delivery time is 4 PM to 5 PM). For 45 minutes, no one took pains to search for my file and complete the process even though there were not many people there.(23)When I again requested them, they said my Delhi RC is a smart card and they cannot change address on that. They need a booklet form of RC for changing the address. So they asked me to deposit another Rs 105 to get the paper booklet.(24)The cash counter was closed for public dealing even though there was a person sitting there. To my surprise, a lady officer took money from me, went to the cash counter from inside the office and got it done. She then also went and got the paper RC prepared.(25)What I got now was a RC (registration certificate) which was a Karnataka booklet but the registration number still remained the Delhi number. They just changed the address in that to my Bangalore address and mentioned that I have paid Karnataka road tax. They also took my original Delhi RC (never to be returned back).(26)This completed first part of the process. After so much ordeal, I converted my smart card RC into a paper RC with just the address changed and Road tax paid mention in the booklet.(27)I asked the superintendent about the next steps and how I will get a Karnataka registration number. She told me that NOC that I had submitted in duplicate (the one which I got from Delhi, you would get 2 copies of the NOC and you need to submit both in Bangalore RTO) will be sent back to Delhi for confirmation that it is not fudged and Delhi office actually issued that NOC.(28)She told me to come back after 3 months and enquire with them if they received any response from Delhi. If they would have, I will get the Karnataka number only then.(29)I went to the RTO office after 3 months to check if they received any response from Delhi. The lady there told me that I have to apply again for Karnataka number and submit the following documents:a. My original paper RC that I got from Bangalore RTOb. Insurancec. Pollution certificated. An application on plain paper requesting RTO for a Karnataka number(30)The lady told me that only when I submit this application, they will check if they got any response from Delhi. If they did not receive anything, process will continue.(31)I came back home from the RTO.Application requesting for NOC for interstate transfer.Certificate of registration, insurance, tax, Pollution under control (emission test certificate)Original Chassis Imprint of the vehicle.3-4 Copies of CMV Form 28.Also see:How to transfer vehicle from one state to another state in IndiaHow to re-register your vehicle in Bangalore |Inter State RC Transfer and Vehicle Re Registration Process in Indiahttp://www.servicesutra.com/blog/interstate-vehicle-registration-transfer-india/