Philippines Passport Process

Question

Hi. I have a 23 year old Filipino friend that lives in Mabalacat. She is trying to get her passport. Her sister previously applied for a passport using my friends name (the sister did not want to use her married name for some reason). Because of this, my friend and her sister were required to have an interview with the passport offfice in Manila.

All requirements, including the inteview, have been satisfied. However, my friend tells me that it will be five weeks before the passport office will release the passport. Sounds like they are behind in their work.

Does this time frame seem reasonable, or is it possible my friend is lying to me? What can I do to find out?

Answer 1

looks like a lot of time to process ... but that is really the regular lead time now for passport processing in the philippines ...

it is because they are changing to a new Machine Readable Passport, which now conforms to the international standard ...

your friend may also apply for a rush processing of the passport, but she has to be personally present at DFA Manila ... this could take one week and two weeks at most ... of course, for an additional fee ...

no, she is not lying about the length of processing time ...

relax ... you will see her soon ...

Answer 2

Well, please be patient for from what I have heard over the radio, the Passport Division has a nice kind of passport... an electronic one.  I am sure that's the reason why the processing of the passport is longer.  As I have said, please be patient.

Take care and GOD BLESS!!!!!!

Answer 3

   I renewed my passport at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Manila office early this year.  Since I opted for regular processing, the turn-around time from date of application to date of release is 21 working days.  Considering that the government only works for 5 days in a week, then 21 working days means 5 weeks. You should also consider holidays ( non-working days ).

   The 21 working day turn-around time is the standard since the DFA started issuing machine readable passport.  One can apply for the expidited process - 14 working days, but you have pay extra - 250 pesos.

    Have a nice day !

Answer 4

I live in Manila and I got my passport only after 15 days because I let the agency handles with it. Getting it after 5 weeks is way to long. Why don't you just suggest them to use a travel agency and have them fixed it for them? It doesn't cost a fortune anyway but it will be a little more expensive than usual. In the Philippines.. If you wanna speed things up there is a price to pay.  

Answer 5

Hmm, my cousin who is a first time passport applicant applied at DFA and he was instructed to claim it after 14 working days because he paid  for the regular processing. Additional PhP 250 for faster processing.

Answer 6

5 weeks is a long time, but quite common if they filed for the passport at the provincial/local office of the dept of foreign affairs.

if they wanted their passport sooner they had several options:

1. since they were at manila anyway, they should have refiled at the manila office and told them they were picking it up in manila.

2. file for rush processing, for an additional fee.

3. told the office they will have the passport delivered to their home via officially recognized courier like lbc. delivery is next day. when they deliver passports to their local office it takes a week more since they do it by batches