The update of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam will have huge implications for those that are left off the final list. However, the bureaucratic process itself has been marginalising and its ongoing effects must be scrutinised. In our survey of 64 individuals across Lower and Upper Assam we found that clarity about the application process has been, since 2015, almost absent at the ground level. This is a government failure that has allowed misinformation and anxiety to flourish and has resulted in draft list (and potential citizenship) exclusions on the basis of technicalities.