Friday, October 05, 2007

Passport Renewal

My Philippine passport expired last May and I got so busy these past few months that I forgot to renew it. I have plans of going-out of the country at the end of this year so I have to renew my passport.
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I proceeded last week to my favorite travel agency for them to process my renewal for a fee of one thousand five hundred. I feel that the fee is fair enough considering that I got to avoid waiting time as well as gasoline and travel expenses. However, to my surprise, according to new DFA rules and regulations, effective October 1, 2007 all passport applicants, either new or renewal, should appear personally to the DFA. So, I have to go to DFA-Manila to personally appear before the processors of DFA.
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My travel agency scheduled my appearance last Tuesday but since it coincides with a previous appointment, they re-scheduled my appearance on Wednesday. So I filed a "Government Transaction Leave" in my office and scheduled my self to Manila on Wednesday.
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I left Cabanatuan at 8 in the morning and because of the heavy traffic in Bulacan and Manila, I arrived in DFA at around 12 noon. I had my lunch there and proceeded to the Passport Section at around 1 pm where a representative from an affiliate of my Travel Agency is waiting for me.
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There are lots of applicants that day that I have to endure a waiting time of almost two hours before my application is processed. Actually, it only took about 5 minutes for the whole appearance thing that includes signing and thumbmarking. The rest of the time is really just for waiting.
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I also appreciate the fact I have an agent because some applicants took almost forever to have their applications processed. Further, there are lots of fixers in the area that victimizes unknowing clients, so you just have to beware.
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Processing of passport normally takes about 12 days, so I have to wait for 12 more days to have my new machine-readable passport. My Travel Agent shall personally deliver that to me in Cabanatuan City.
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I left Manila at around 5 pm and arrived home at about 9 pm.

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For those who have to apply for a new passport, you can do any of the following:

1. Do it yourself. Go to DFA-Manila and endure the long lines of applicants. Prepare to pay P750 (express-5 days) or P500 (regular).

2. Get assistance from Travel Agencies. They will do all the works for you for a one-time fee of P1,500.00.

3. Apply online in Pilipinas Teleserv. Just go to the link and follow instructions there.

In any case, personal appearance is required.

2 comments:

  1. It would have been easier if you passed by the Courtesy Lane reserved for government employees. :-)

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  2. @ panyero, i did that last time in clark pero this time kasi wala ganyan sa dfa-manila because of their supposed "new system". anyways, ok naman medyo mainit lang talaga.

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