I went to DFA Davao to lodge my daughter’s passport application along with my sister and of course my daughter Vanessa, herself. DFA is an abbreviation for the Department of Foreign Affairs, located at Jacinto Street, Davao City. It is just few steps away from Ateneo De Davao University Motorpool and beside Minute Burger Station Booth.
We arrived in the office around 2pm and done the application for 30 minutes only. Why? Simply because I am with a minor and they do prioritize MINORS, SENIOR CITIZEN and DISABLED PERSON not just in this office but also in the government facilities and buildings in our city. Nice, isn’t it? Anyway, we went straight to the counter 1 on the left side part of the building upon entrance and got served quickly. I hand over the form I filled up with information to the lady and also the documents needed for the application. She reviewed and asked me what processing option I want to get. Their Express processing is P1200.00 for 13 working days and if you wish to avail the delivery from LBC then an extra P150.00 or P250.00 (within Davao) but we are not in a rush to I picked the 23 working days which is P950.00 with no courier delivery. She then instructed us to go to the encoding station for encoding of information and for the photo for your passport which is just opposite from the counter where we got our papers reviewed.
The man was very approachable and polite and took a photo of my daughter right away. He let me view and check the spellings, birth date and other information he encoded in the computer to make sure everything is correct. Then, he told us to go to the cashier for the payment. On the cashier (beside the counter 4) they have these two baskets where you will place your form. One is for minors, senior citizen and disabled persons where I put our form, the other one is just for the regular passport applicants. After, 5 minutes we then got called and paid for the fee, got the receipt, took the exit and went home. As fast as that!
Things to remember:
You wont be allowed inside the office if you’re wearing slippers, shorts or vests so wear shoes, trousers and t-shirt will do. The documents that I submitted are NSO Birth Certificate of the Applicant, photocopy of Baptismal Certificate of the Applicant, photocopy of my valid ID and photocopy of my daughter’s school ID to support my daughters application. You don’t need to book for an appointment like what they do in Manila. Just turn up there and process your application. They also pushing the campaign of not using any FIXER which I think is good for us to know how to do it ourselves and for experience.
Claiming the passport:
The receipt serves as your claim stub for your passport so PLEASE KEEP IT. They wont release any passport without the receipt so it is essential to secure the receipt and present it upon claiming the passport. Another thing is they only release passport in the afternoon. After receiving your passport, check the passport if its yours and check for the spelling. In case there is an error on spelling and other information you will pay again for your passports reprinting.
I will get my daughters passport in March and I am hoping that this post will help you in your passport application for your kids.
