Tips On How To Make Your DFA Appointment Easier

For some people, scheduling an appointment with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to apply and renew their passports can bring a lot of stress especially if they are not familiar how the process works. Surprisingly, DFA has made it easier for Filipinos to book a passport appointment with their redesigned online appointment system.

Here are life-saving hacks that can save you loads of time and effort when booking an appointment with the DFA. Getting a new or renewing your passport should not be a hassle if you follow these tips.

BOOK ONLINE APPOINTMENT

Take advantage of the Courtesy Lane or OFW Lane at DFA Aseana or at any DFA Consular Office to apply or renew passport. The DFA encourages passport applicants who fall under the category below to utilize the Courtesy Lane for faster process.

1. Senior Citizen and one (1) travel companion.

2. Person With Disability (PWDs) and one (1) travel companion.

3. Solo Parent with his/her minor children.

4. Pregnant Women.

5. Minors seven (7) years old and below and his/her parents and minor siblings.

6. Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) (land-based or seafarers).

For more information on Courtesy Lane Facility Availment, visit this link.

For those people who doesn’t fall in the category listed above, you can book a passport appointment on your preferred date online. There are thousands of appointment slots that the DFA releases to the public on a regular basis.

Passport applicants can see all the available dates, marked in green, for an appointment on the DFA website “real-time”. The dates marked in red are fully booked.

CHOOSE NEAREST LOCATION

The DFA has a number of satellite offices in Metro Manila, as listed below.

DFA Aseana in Parañaque

DFA NCR - North in Robinsons Novaliches, Novaliches

DFA NCR - North East in Ali Mall, Araneta Center, Cubao

DFA NCR - East in SM Megamall, Mandaluyong

DFA NCR - Central in Robinsons Galleria, Ortigas

DFA NCR - South West in Alabang Town Center, Muntinlupa

DFA NCR - West in SM Manila, City of Manila

The DFA also has regional consular offices in select provinces in the country for passport applicants living in the provinces. There is no need to drive or commute to the city for an appointment. See the list below.

Luzon

• Angeles, Pampanga

• Baguio

• Calasiao, Pangasinan

• La Union

• Legazpi City, Albay

• Lipa City, Batangas

• Lucena, Quezon

• San Fernando, Pampanga

• Tuguegarao

• Puerto Princesa, Palawan

Visayas

• Bacolod

• Cebu

• Dumaguete

• Iloilo

• Tacloban

Mindanao

• Butuan

• Cagayan de Oro

• Cotabato

• Davao

• General Santos

• Zamboanga

READY YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION AND OLD PASSPORT FOR RENEWAL

If you are booking an appointment online, make sure that you have a valid or working email address because it is where the information and details about your schedule will be sent. Fill out and provide the information needed.

You will be required to input old passport number. After completing the online appointment system, you must pay the necessary amount for you passport application to be validated. Failure to do so will void your application.

BRING ALL THE REQUIREMENTS

The following are the requirements for passport application.

Primary Requirements

Confirmed Online Appointment

Personal Appearance

Accomplished Application Form

Original Copy of Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Authenticated Birth Certificate on Security Paper

Married Females (who are using their spouse’s last name) must also submit Original copy of PSA Authenticated Marriage Certificate on Security Paper or Report of Marriage.

Local Civil Registrar Copy may be required if PSA Birth Certificate is not clear or cannot be read.

Any of Valid IDs accepted for passport processing.

For passport renewals, check out these additional requirements.

Electronic passport (E-passport) issued in the year 2016 
• Original passport and photocopy of page 2 (data page) 

Machine readable passport issued in the year 2007 
• Original passport and photocopy of data page and last page 
• 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) 

Green passport/s issued after May 1, 1995 
• Original passport and photocopy of the data page and last page 

Brown passport/s issued prior to May 1, 1995 
• Original passport and photocopy of pages 1, 2, 3, and 4 and the last page 
• 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. 

PREPARE PHP 950.00 UP TO PHP 1200.00

Regular processing will take 15 working days and costs PHP 950.00. Meanwhile, express processing is only seven (7) working days and costs PHP 1,200.00. According to the DFA, if you will renew your passport on a Saturday, it is immediately considered as express processing.

OPT FOR COURIER SERVICE TO DELIVER YOUR PASSPORT

If you have extra cash, pay for a courier to deliver your passport to your home. Doing so would mean you don’t need to go back to the satellite or consular office to pick it up. The delivery fee is only Php 150.00 only. The courier will give you a 4-day delivery window to receive the passport. Make sure that you leave a note and inform the courier service of the person who can receive the package in case you are not available at the time of delivery.

DRESS CODE

As per DFA, “To ensure entry to countries with strict dress codes, all applicants are required to wear decent clothing for passport photo capture. Plunging necklines, sleeveless clothing, spaghetti strapped tops, see-through tops, sando, tube tops, halters and the like are prohibited.”

Bonus Tips:

You have to anticipate that there will be long queues or lines and it will take hours for you to complete your passport application, new or renewal. Here’s a lifehack, you have to have patience to spare.

Pick the earliest slot of appointment schedule. There are slots as early as 7:00 a.m. It is a no-brainer, of course. The earliest appointment schedule to select, the earliest time you will be able to complete the process.

DFA prioritizes Senior Citizens, PWDs, and Infants so no appointment is really necessary. However, if you want to speed the process, you can also book an appointment online even if you fall in the aforementioned categories so that you can input the information online and save a bit of time when you get to the satellite or consular office. Simply head on the Courtesy Lane and inform the person in charge. They will scan the bar code of the duly accomplished application form that you have printed, thus, saving time without having them to manually enter the information for your passport application.

The validity of passport for Adult is now 10 years. Minors, on the other hand, has a 5-year passport validity.

We hope that these tips and tricks can give you a hassle-free experience with your passport application. If you have questions or comments, please leave them below and we will try our best to answer. For more information, please visit the DFA’s official website.