3.5 months.
At least that was my experience. Thankfully, my friends let me borrow a sim card for all this time. The card was on the bad network (Aircel) and I was happy to switch to a much more reliable network (Airtel--yep, just one letter different).
The last time I traveled to India (2007) I managed in a couple of days. Back then, I was staying in a hotel, and after a few trips back and forth between the phone store and the hotel, I got all of the paperwork that I needed for my sim card.
This time, I've been living in a house, so I needed to get documentation from my landlord. All in all, it took more than three months to cancel the previous rental agreement and obtain a new one that includes my name on it (plus getting all of the requisite stamps to make it proper and official). I took all of this to the Airtel store along with a copy of my passport, visa and a passport-sized photo. They asked me for my proof of residence, which apparently is not my rental agreement or my visa. When I told them that I didn't have any, they told me that I could only buy a prepaid sim card (as opposed to a postpaid), which was fine with me.
During this time, I've been hesitant to give out my number since I knew it was temporary. Several people suggested that I just download some paperwork online or use Photoshop, but I declined, though if I went back and did it again, I'd almost certainly go for that shortcut. I also had to hold off on getting business cards, which made things awkward at a couple of meetings since business card exchanges are important here. Now I feel much freer and am very happy with the service so far.
Also, I bought a new phone. My old one cracked a couple of months ago when I dropped it on our hard floors. And then it cracked much worse earlier this month when I dropped it off the roof while hanging my laundry on the line. It's the right time to buy a phone though, since lots of stores are offering big Diwali sales. (So that's one thing that I like about Diwali.) My new phone is amazing and I'm really happy to have a good camera and lots of other upgrades.
At least that was my experience. Thankfully, my friends let me borrow a sim card for all this time. The card was on the bad network (Aircel) and I was happy to switch to a much more reliable network (Airtel--yep, just one letter different).
The last time I traveled to India (2007) I managed in a couple of days. Back then, I was staying in a hotel, and after a few trips back and forth between the phone store and the hotel, I got all of the paperwork that I needed for my sim card.
This time, I've been living in a house, so I needed to get documentation from my landlord. All in all, it took more than three months to cancel the previous rental agreement and obtain a new one that includes my name on it (plus getting all of the requisite stamps to make it proper and official). I took all of this to the Airtel store along with a copy of my passport, visa and a passport-sized photo. They asked me for my proof of residence, which apparently is not my rental agreement or my visa. When I told them that I didn't have any, they told me that I could only buy a prepaid sim card (as opposed to a postpaid), which was fine with me.
During this time, I've been hesitant to give out my number since I knew it was temporary. Several people suggested that I just download some paperwork online or use Photoshop, but I declined, though if I went back and did it again, I'd almost certainly go for that shortcut. I also had to hold off on getting business cards, which made things awkward at a couple of meetings since business card exchanges are important here. Now I feel much freer and am very happy with the service so far.
Also, I bought a new phone. My old one cracked a couple of months ago when I dropped it on our hard floors. And then it cracked much worse earlier this month when I dropped it off the roof while hanging my laundry on the line. It's the right time to buy a phone though, since lots of stores are offering big Diwali sales. (So that's one thing that I like about Diwali.) My new phone is amazing and I'm really happy to have a good camera and lots of other upgrades.
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