Hey! Soooooo it’s been a long time since I posted here on my blog. I really wanted to post here often like I used to but I’m too busy with my job, got family issues, blah blah blah and I just don’t have the time to write a post which is very very sad. At least for me that is. Anyway, I don’t want to bore you with my out of topic rants so here’s what you need to know when renewing your Philippine passport.
ON MY OPINION you really don’t need to go to a travel agency to help you with renewing your passport. You can! But you don’t have to. I am telling you this as I just renewed mine yesterday and it only took me almost 2 hours. I don’t know if 2 hours is already too long for you but for me that’s really okay since it’s hassle free. First of all, the place is really nice, it’s my first time going to the new DFA office. They have good ventilation and it’s somewhat spacious enough to cater all the people who are there.
Honestly, I don’t know if this would be helpful to any of you or it would be like “I shouldn’t have blogged this” kind of post since it’s very very simple to renew your passport. But as a person who haven’t renewed my passport yet I was one of those who read a lot of blogs so I won’t look so stupid and won’t have to go back to MANDUG (around an hour travel from the site) and get the requirements that need to be checked yadah yadah yadah.
So here’s the requirements according to the DFA’s website:
General Requirements (For Renewal)
- Personal appearance
- Confirmed appointment
- Duly accomplished application form – may be downloaded from DFA Website
- Most recent expiring or expired passport
- Valid picture IDs and supporting documents to prove identity.(Please refer to List of Acceptable IDs and List of Supporting Documents)
Requirements for New Applicants
- Personal appearance
- Confirmed appointment
- Duly accomplished application form – may be downloaded from DFA Website
- Birth Certificate (BC) in Security Paper (SECPA) issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) or Certified True Copy (CTC) of BC issued by the Local Civil Registrar (LCR) and duly authenticated by PSA. Transcribed Birth Certificate from the LCR is required when entries in PSA Birth Certificate are blurred or unreadable. (REPORT OF BIRTH DULY AUTHENTICATED BY PSA IF BORN ABROAD)
- Valid picture IDs and supporting documents to prove identity. (Please refer to List of Acceptable IDs and List of Supporting Documents)
Here’s what I did:
- At first, I tried calling their office over and over again for an appointment but somehow nobody ever picks up the phone. I don’t know if it’s just the timing or nobody really answers it. And so I, of course, went to the second best choice which is searching the web if they have an online appointment system or not. They have obviously. And so I went to this website and scheduled an appointment there (this is in Davao setting by the way). You can either schedule an individual appointment or a group appointment which I picked since my sister and my boyfriend need to process their papers too.
- After you picked either individual or group appointment you will need to fill up the required details (fields with asterisk (*)) before proceeding to the next page. You don’t have to fill up the one’s I didn’t encircled as it will automatically be filled up depending on your location (office name, office address and contact number).
Here’s how it looks like now.
- And then you’ll just follow the menu from the left side. Choose a date and time, fill up your personal information, family information, application information and contact information. I want to screenshot everything for you but I guess you don’t have to since the steps are so simple. :p (unless you want me to? hehe)
- After filling out all the information it will automatically be saved on your computer so the next thing to do is to just print it together with all the requirements needed.
- For me as I am “single”, the requirements I photocopied and brought there were the following:
- Printed appointment with the application form with barcode. The one you filled up online.
- My passport. It will actually expire on May 2017 but I renewed it early as we are going hopefully to South Korea this year.
- 1 photocopy of any valid ID’s. For me I photocopied my PRC ID.
- 1 photocopy of my TOR and 1 copy of my baptismal certificate in case they need any supporting documents.
They didn’t ask for the original copies of it but I still brought it just in case.
- Our schedule was yesterday which is Febuary 9, 2017 at 1PM but they advise to be there 30 minutes before your scheduled time. When you arrive there, the guard will check your printed appointment before you can enter the office. And then you’ll go to the counter just in front of the entrance door and give them the application form. After that, you’ll go to the seats on the side. They categorized the seats there so the left side would be for the new passport applicants ( which honestly the line for the new applicants was so long so I advise you to schedule your appointment early in the morning though my boyfriend finished his application within almost 3 hours so that’s not too bad either. We arrived there at 12:30NN by the way.) and the right side were for renewal of passport applicants. We were just less than 10 applicants there so me and my sister got entertained within 10-15 minutes.
- After they checked your requirements you’ll have to wait on the side to be called for the payment. They’ll give you back the application form with the receipt and then you’ll go to counter 7 to pay for the processing fee. I paid 1,200php which is the express processing (10 business days). You can also choose the normal processing fee which is 950php (20 business days).
- They’ll then give you the receipt/claim stub and then you’ll proceed to counters 9-14. They have seats there so you just have to wait for your name to be called. They’ll take a photo of you and then you have to sign the digital gadget thingy and do the finger scan on both your thumbs and index fingers.
- And then you’re DONE! You can either get your passport there on door 4 after 10-20 business days or you can opt for the LBC delivery system which is just on the “courier” counter inside the office. I believe it’s only 50 php (correct me if I’m wrong! :p).
TIPS and REMINDERS:
- You don’t have to wear a formal attire. You can just wear your normal clothes as long as it’s not sleeveless or “pekpek shorts” maybe. xD
- Remove your earrings before picture taking.
- I was wearing a necklace yesterday but I removed it also. I am not sure though if it’s required or you can just wear it. :p
- They’ll ask you to show your ears and brows while picture taking.
- NO CONTACT LENSES.
- Remove your eye glasses when picture taking.
- You can smile during picture taking but you cannot show your teeth.
- I was wearing a V neck shirt. You can wear it as long as it’s not plunging or whatever. 😀
- They have a photocopy machine there so if ever you forgot one requirement then you can have it photocopied there.
- They don’t have a priority number there so the line will depend on where you sat just like in Sanggunian.
They have a separate counter for children below 7 years old and senior citizens so they will be prioritized. There were only 4 counters who entertained all of us so that was where we waited for the most part. I actually would like to have it categorized by application as well like when checking our requirements as it will be more organized and faster maybe? But then again the counters for the new applicants would be too busy then so nevermind that! lol. That’s just my thought. 🙂 They also have a TV on the waiting area where you’re picture will be taken which makes sense since you have to wait there for quite some time. But anyway, my point is you really don’t have to get a travel agency for your passports to be processed. Just do it yourself! (NIKE! Is it NIKE? haha.) You’ll save money and it’s not stressful anyway.
I hope you like this post! If you have any thoughts or something I forgot to mention just comment it down below. I am not discouraging you to get a travel agency or something. It’s really up to you and your budget maybe. haha. This is in Davao setting so I don’t know if it’s the same in other locations as well.
By the way for complete list of requirements you can just check their website here.
So yeah, thank you for reading!
xo,
Ela
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P.S
I wanted to take pictures there but I guess it’s not allowed so yeah. 🙂
And we also saw Juliana Palermo which is very out of topic. hihi
UPDATE: (As of March 1, 2017)
Before you go directly to the DFA Office door 4 (This is where you’ll claim your passport. This is just next to the room you passed all your requirements) to claim your passport, check your phones first if they’ve messaged you. Me and my boyfriend went there on Febuary 23, 2017 only to receive a message from them that our passports aren’t there yet. They texted us at around 11 AM and we were there at 10 AM.
If by any chance you can’t claim your passport by yourself, see the following:
- If to be claimed by immediate family member (parents, adult children, adult sibling): present an authorization letter and a valid ID of the authorized person.
- Distant Relatives: Special Power of attorney (SPA) and valid ID 0f authorized person.
- For minor applicants, passport will be claimed by their parents ONLY!
Important Notice:
Passport unclaimed after six (6) months from the date of payment will be cancelled per Department Order NO. 37-03.
Davao City DFA Office:
3rd floor SM City Davao, Quimpo Blvd, Talomo, Davao City, 8000 Davao del Sur
For any inquiries and concerns:
Please call the Department of Foreign affairs at:
09264874464 – TM
09393470619 – Smart
Website: https://www.dfa.gov.ph/
Schedule an appointment here: https://www.passport.gov.ph/appointment