“Extra Challenge: Passport Renewal at the DFA, Part 1″

My passport was one month before its expiry date when I went abroad last August . Since we are now on our planning stage to visit Bangkok this July which would include a route taking the train from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, I have to renew my passport.  In the past renewals, I simply availed of the services of Teleserve Inc. of Aboitiz 2GO passport delivery without any hassle. The 1,500 pesos I paid for the renewal was very reasonable considering that our old passports were picked up from my office and the new ones were also delivered to my office after a few days.

A few months ago, the Department of Foreign Affairs started to upgrade the Philippine passport to a machine readable one, meaning that upon entry of a Filipino passport holder in other countries his passport would just simply be swiped into the machine by the Immigration Officer for him to access the information of the passport holder. Under this system, all passport applicants  are required to personally appear at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

I was tempted to accept an offer of help from a friend working at the DFA so that I would no longer have to go through the long queue and to avoid the hassle through the Courtesy Lane. However, when I browsed the website of the DFA, it said that if I would set an appointment for the passport renewal using their website at the internet, I will not go through the long line. I was impressed and was convinced and so I decided not to use my “powers” at all. I told myself, this way, I could be proud that in my country “walang palakasan” and that we are already high tech that we can go through the passport renewal process with so much ease just like in the first world countries.

After I applied for the renewal my passport on the DFA website, I immediately received a confirmation on  my e-mail address and I was advised to wait for the appointment date and time for my personal appearance at the DFA. After a day, I again got another e-mail that I was scheduled to have my personal appearance last 05 March 2008, 11:00 a.m  to 12 noon. I was advised to be at gate 2 of DFA on the appointment date. I was so impressed! Wow! I told myself, my country is at par with the first world countries!

On my appointment date, I was very excited! I was full of enthusiasm to go through the experience of the renewal process without any assistance from DFA insider, on my own and paying only P500.00 for the new passport!

I arrived at the DFA building along Roxas Boulevard at about 10:00 a.m. and I told myself I was too early for the 11:00 a.m. appointment. I asked the guard at the front gate of the DFA where gate 2 is. The lady guard told me it is at the Libertad Street side. So I walked  to where that gate 2 is.

(to be continued)