Getting a passport? 2

With those important documents, plus the other supporting papers (please consult the list on the application form), we were ready to step into line in DFA office.

Carlos’ application was endorsed by a friend who got us to be “short-listed”. That meant that after my assistant, Mary Anne Conde, submitted the papers of Carlos that morning, we would wait to be called at about 3 p.m. at the DFA compound.

A DFA personnel started calling out names at exactly 5 p.m. Suddenly, the bodies shifted from the white benches to form lines in front of cashiers’ windows with the word STEP ONE.

Steps One and Two are for checking if you have the correct documents required. Step Three is for another check and a look at the person applying for the passport.

Step Four is where someone writes the official receipt (P500 for the passport, plus P150 if you want an “express two-day” release).

Step Five is where you pay the P500; and Step six is where you pay the P150 if you want your passport released in two days.

If you are not endorsed by anybody (I suppose travel agencies have a way to getting endorsed because I met some people who were escorted by agency people), you will do what Jacklyn did. First of all, she woke up at 3:45 a.m., was on the road by 4:20 a.m., and was in line outside the DFA compound gate (at the back of the building), by 5 a.m.

(Be there that early because the DFA processes only 2,000 applications a day.)

By six, they were allowed to enter the hall with the white benches. At ten, she had completed Step Six and was on her way home. Although she opted for an “express” release, she came back only after four days and she stood in line for about an hour, barely making it to the last bunch that would be accommodated in the releasing section that day.

With their passports, we now worked on their visa applications. Again, I am led to make another call to 737-111! A requirement for a visa to a country we planned to visit required a birth certificate issued on NSO security paper!

If you say you’ll just order your birth certificate form in dozens, so you go through the process only once – DON’T! That document is only valid for six months after it is released.

So, I calculate that for those who travel twice in a year, they’ll probably be calling the NSO Helpline Plus operator by her first name!