Is your passport expired?

Renewing your Philippine passport is no longer a problem. Thanks to the Philippine Consulate General in Dubai.

This morning I went to the consulate to renew my passport which is going to expire this coming 19th of March. I thought this would take a lot of time to renew and employees of the consulate are very slow to work like typical government offices in Manila. But I was wrong. All of them are warm and exemplary. It only took me less than 30 minutes to process it.

Wondering how fast, right? Anyway, I admit I did a research before going to the consulate and I am pleased to share it with you.
These are the things you must consider:

• Know the office location. I don’t want you to ruin your day traveling to strange places. Keep in mind that the Philippine Consulate General in Dubai (also called as Philippine Embassy) is located in Al Quosais, Dubai, right-side of Dubai Police Station (Al Quosais). It is accessible by RTA Bus 32C and 33 (if you chose to go by Bus).
• Be on time. The consulate opens at 8:30. If you wanted to be served first you need to come earlier. Each day many people are queuing to renew their passport. According to the encoder he has an average of 200-300 clients a day (there are 3 encoders in the consulate).
• Bring a photo ID. If you don’t bring with you 4 copies of passport size photos with blue background, the consulate has a rush photo studio that you can pay 20 dirhams.
• Fill-in the form. The document examiner will provide you a form to fill-in your personal details. Remember to bring your own pen and photocopy of your first, last and visa page if you don't want to pay 15 dirhams.
• Pay in the cashier counter. After the document examiner validates your documents the next step is to pay 200 dirhams to the cashier.
• Submit documents for encoding. This is the final stage. You have to sit-in with the encoder for around 5 minutes for checking the accuracy of your details and fixing your signature and thumb marks on the form.

That's all guys. After one month you have can your new passport.