⌛ Filipina Passport-Married to Foreigner

Following are the steps we took to get my wife a Philippine Passport. I will include the trip, Pension House, and process.
Firstly, no agency necessary and beware of misinformation or extra steps if you go that option. Note: at the end of the day, the process is easy and straight fwd, but as JackP will remind us, it takes patience and perseverance.
You have to go to Cebu City.

We took the Dumaguete-Cebu bus from Dgte Ceres terminal to Cebu via Maayo ferry. Aircon bus left at 10:10am. 5 hours end to end.

We stayed at the Casa Rosario Pension House. They had a promo whereby you get a family room, double and single bed, for price of standard double be room. P1020. Room is spacious for a pension roon, hot water all the time, tv, aircon, towels, soap, shampoo. Not sure about wifi, I used their desktop in the lobby, 15p for 15 min, 30 for an hour. This is the first time I spend 2 consecutive nights in a pension do didn't know you have to tell them to clean the room, change towels, add tp etc so when we came back to shower before dinner we had to make calls, they quickly sorted that out. Breakfast was very good and reasonably prices, filipino or western. The best part for me is the pension house is adjacent to a strip mall which has a great expresso coffee shop, open at 7am, a Mr. Donut, opens earlier, and a very good Thai restaurant opens at 6pm. The location is central and about 10 min to DFA, Ayala Mall, Seminar location. I am fairly picky but would stay there again, even though there is some noise behind the place.

Next, for filipinas married to a foreigner wanting a first time passport, the wife must attend the Counseling Seminar located at St. Mary's Euphasia Center for Overseas Workers http://mzaragosa.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/my-cfo-seminar-expeience-in-cebu-city-in-pdf.pdf. This is a requirment prior to applying for her passport. It starts at 8am (note: they only allow 12-15 attendees) Mon-Fri. They have to fill out all the forms, get all the requisite passport paperwork verified, then listen to a seminar from 9:30-noon. After a lunch break to 1pm, they require a one-on-one with the nun who thoroughly analyses and advises the girl. In my case, my wife is under 22 so her parents had to attend and the nun interviewed them without my wife. That processes took us to 2:30. (Note: we purposesly arrived early at 7am to sign in with the guard to be first on the list.

The next step is to to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to get the passport request form. The DFA only processes passports in the morning so be prepared to spend another night in Cebu City.

We arrived the next morning at DFA at 6:30am. There was already a waiting line extending around the building. The doors open at 7am and you enter in line to get a processing number; ours was number 80. The DFA workers start at 8am, and they can process up to 300 applicants in their morning-only session. About 9:15 my wife's number was called to present her documents. Pls make sure you check the website and bring ALL the required docs. If you are divorced from your country, bring those docs. After turning in her papers, they later call her name to go to the cashier. You pay p900 or 1200 depending if you want your passport in 22 working days or 13 working days respectively. They you get in line to get your picture taken, she needs to wear a shirt/blouse with a collar, they have an ugly collar sweater you can use if you forget. She finished about 10:15 with her picture, so about 2 hours from the time they open if you get there early and have a number 80. The last step is an option they have where there is an LBC shipper located near the exit where you can pay p120 and have your passport shipped to your home or a local LBS site, we chose that.

To summarze, we left the Casa Rosario Pension House at 615am and arrived back about 10:40. They were still serving breakfast so we went for it with her parents, p430 for 4 people. I also brought in a double cafe latte from the adjacent coffee shop. We took a taxi to the Ceres South Terminal at 1145 to get on early for the 1pm return to Dgte so we and he parents could get front row seats. This time to my surprise they turned the aircon on at noon and the bus had a tv and they played a cool dvd movie and had an Eagles dvd playing later. 5 hours back to Dgte. Successful trip, she will get her passport in 3 weeks and we will then talk to Larry about the the ardous US visa requirement. If not US visa, honeymoon will be with friends in Singapore where neither one of us requires a visa.

If anyone wished more details, just let me know. We will go to Casablanca Friday night to celebrate my wife's success. Thank you for those of you who offered good advice in getting my wife's id's etc.

 

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

:D Well Done that Man & His Bride. Pat, being English, I can offer you no help or advice on the US Visa, all I can do is wish you well! I am Sure Larry will be of immense help!


Jack P.

 

patO, thanks that was great info, and really helpful! jay

 

Thank you very much for a most informative posting. It made my blood boil anew just to read it.

This is clearly a case of process and bureaucracy run amok. For some unknown reason, the Government of the Philippines Republic assumes that its female citizens, if in receipt of a passport and married to a foreigner, will desert their homeland and be carried off to some unknown foreign location - where unimaginable horrors will befall them. The counselling session is similar (identical?) to that required of prospective OFWs.

The good nuns are providing a service on a contracting out basis. Look at the list of requirements in the linked pdf! How much of this and how often will you have already provided this before to some other government agency?

There is a blatant disregard for the violation of what would be considered in almost any western country as third party privacy data.

My wonderful and extremely patient wife went through all of this, despite my absolute insistence that NONE of my personal data would be provided. Wedding pictures? YGBSM!! I have no idea of whatever fear of God she instilled in them, but she got her certification and my personal information remained PRIVATE.

The Philippines Government is likely to remain in the dark ages, so there is little point in trying to change process.

BOTTOM LINE? Save yourself a lot of grief and get a passport in your maiden name.

 

Great Info, thanks for the effort and congrats