On 29 October, Jaipur deported ten foreign women, nine from Thailand and one from Laos, who had stayed on after their visas ran out. Police found them at spas, massage parlours and hotels across the city. Foreigners Registration Officer Dharmendra Sagar said they had no valid documents, and that 69 foreign nationals have been deported from Jaipur so far this year (Amar Ujala, 29 October 2026).
The part that matters for hosts came next. Hotel operators and landlords were warned to follow the rules for housing foreign nationals strictly, and told that anyone who shelters an overstayer or hides a foreign guest's stay from the police could face legal action.
Ten days earlier in Udaipur, police and the CID found three Thai women staying at a hotel whose visitor register had no entries for them. Police started legal action against the hotel operator under the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, and the Udaipur administration told every hotel, villa and resort owner to comply before housing foreign guests (ETV Bharat, 21 October 2026).
This is not only a hotel problem. If you rent a flat, a room or a homestay to a foreign traveller in Jaipur, the same law applies to you, and the rules changed last year.
The Law Changed: Form C Is Now Form III
Many hosts still talk about "Form C" and the Foreigners Act, 1946. Both are out of date. The Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025 came into force on 1 September 2025 and replaced four older laws, including the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939 (Business Today).
Under Section 8 of the Act and Rule 17 of the Immigration and Foreigners Rules, 2025, every "keeper of accommodation" must report each foreign guest. The guest report is now called Form III (it was Form C). Here is what the rules ask for:
- Report arrival within 24 hours of the guest checking in.
- Report departure within 24 hours of the guest checking out, with the date, time and their next destination.
- Include every foreigner, including OCI cardholders. The Hyderabad FRRO has said this also covers citizens of Nepal and Bhutan (The Hans India).
- Keep the records electronically for at least one year, ready for inspection (Hotelogix guide to Rule 17).
The rules name the types of stay they cover. The list includes hotels, lodges, paying guest houses, rented accommodation, homestays, and bed and breakfasts (Nicobar Times, on the Form III guidelines). A paid Airbnb in Jaipur fits that list. The Hyderabad FRRO put it plainly: "the nature of the accommodation, commercial or otherwise, does not exempt the provider" (The Hans India, 25 September 2026).
What It Costs to Get It Wrong
The penalty is now a fixed sum, and it is charged per guest. A Ministry of Home Affairs notification dated 1 September 2025 lets the authorities settle a case for ₹50,000 per case when an accommodation provider fails to submit Form III within 24 hours of arrival or departure (Nicobar Times; India Visa Experts). Each unreported guest is a separate case.
Do the maths for one weekend. A family of four from the UK stays two nights and you forget to file. That is four guests and a possible ₹2,00,000, more than most Jaipur listings earn in two months. AirDNA puts the average Jaipur short-term rental at about ₹3,300 a night with 37% occupancy (updated 20 October 2026).
Under the new national notifications, district Superintendents of Police now act as Foreigners Registration Officers, so checks can come from your local police station, not just from a distant office (Nicobar Times, on MHA Gazette notifications 3883 and 3884).
Why This Matters More in Jaipur Than Anywhere Else in Rajasthan
Jaipur is the state's front door for foreign travellers. In January to June 2026, Jaipur received 2,56,293 foreign tourist visits, the most of any district in Rajasthan, ahead of Udaipur (1,84,045) and Jodhpur (82,846) (Outlook Traveller, 27 August 2026).
And the busiest foreign months are only starting:
- November to March is peak season for foreign tourists in Rajasthan.
- The Pushkar Fair runs in late November, ending on Kartik Purnima, 24 November. Many foreign visitors stop in Jaipur on the way.
- The Jaipur Literature Festival returns for its 20th edition, 14 to 18 January 2027 (NewsBytes), and brings authors and readers from around the world.
More foreign guests means more Form III filings, and more chances for a busy host to miss one.
Your 7-Step Foreign Guest Checklist
- Register once on the portal. Go to indianfrro.gov.in/frro/FormC and sign up as an accommodation provider. You will need your property address, room capacity, owner details and a mobile number and email for OTP. Do it before your next foreign booking, because approval can take time.
- Tell guests up front. Add a line to your listing and your booking message: "As required by Indian law, we need a copy of your passport and visa at check-in." Most foreign travellers expect this.
- Collect documents at check-in. Take a clear photo of the passport photo page, the visa or e-visa, a recent photo of the guest, and the OCI card if they have one. Check that the visa dates cover the whole stay.
- File Form III the same day. Do not wait for the 24-hour limit. Make filing part of the check-in routine, like handing over the keys.
- File the departure. Within 24 hours of check-out, report the departure date, time and next destination. This is the step most hosts forget.
- Keep a register. Keep every submission and a guest register, on paper and digitally, for at least one year.
- Brief whoever does check-in. If a caretaker, cleaner or family member lets guests in, they must know the rule, collect documents and pass them on straight away. Most missed filings happen when the owner is not on site.
If a guest's visa has expired, or they refuse to share documents, do not hand over the keys. Contact the platform and your local police station.
Make Compliance Part of Every Turnover
The hosts who get caught out are rarely trying to hide anything. They are busy. A late-night check-in, a same-day turnover, a caretaker who did not know: that is how a ₹50,000 problem starts.
The fix is a routine. When every check-in follows the same steps (keys, documents, Form III) and every check-out follows the same steps (departure filing, inspection, cleaning), nothing gets missed.
At Swabha, we help Jaipur hosts run spotless, guest-ready homes with turnover cleaning, linen management and restocking. Our team works to a fixed checklist at every changeover and shares photo records after each visit, so you know exactly when a guest left and the home was reset. That leaves you free to focus on your guests, and your paperwork.
Hosting foreign guests this season? Let Swabha handle every turnover while you stay on top of compliance. Message us on WhatsApp at +91-96490-96964 or email info@swabha.in.
Also read: Jaipur Airport's winter schedule and what it means for hosts.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Penalty amounts are the compounding sums in the MHA notification of 1 September 2025 as reported; the authorities can also prosecute. Rules and portals change, so check with your local Foreigners Registration Officer or the Bureau of Immigration before you rely on them. Rupee figures for AirDNA data are approximate at about ₹88 to the US dollar.
Sources: Amar Ujala, Jaipur deportations, 29 Oct 2026; ETV Bharat, Udaipur hotel case, 21 Oct 2026; The Hans India, "Accommodation providers face fines for not reporting foreign guests", 25 Sep 2026; Nicobar Times, Form III guidelines and MHA compounding notification; Business Today, Act in force 1 Sep 2025; India Visa Experts, Form III guide; Hotelogix, Form III process and Rule 17; Outlook Traveller, Rajasthan H1 2026 tourist visits, 27 Aug 2026; NewsBytes, JLF 2027 dates; AirDNA Jaipur market overview, updated 20 Oct 2026.