The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is set to open up more appointment slots in the next few days, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Brigido Dulay said Saturday.
“We just opened slots for October 2021. We will continue to open more slots in the next few days,” he said in a tweet.
“Slots in our consular offices and TOPS (temporary offsite passport services) are very limited due to IATF rules on physical distancing and venue capacity in our offices. We hope for your patience & understanding,” he added.
As of 5:30 p.m., all slots from October 5 to 9 in its seven TOPS hubs have been taken. The DFA is loading the dates in a staggered manner to ensure that no “professional appointment setters” will take advantage of the additional slots.
Meanwhile, the agency asked for understanding from applicants who are also having issues with the release of their passports.
The DFA clarified that the temporary releasing site at DoubleDragon Plaza is for applicants who had incomplete or undeliverable addresses or are affected by the change of courier service.
“The clients were subsequently notified through email to come to DoubleDragon. All clients are asked to check their passport status on the DFA online tracker prior to coming to or contacting the DFA,” it said in a statement.
“The DoubleDragon group of clients already have their passports ready for release and we are constantly working out how to better accommodate them. We are working hard to address the more difficult situation of those with errors on their applications,” it added.
The DFA is addressing issues in some 17,000 applications that require manual correction after applicants made errors in filling up their birthdays or names in the online form.
It maintained that passport applications normally adhere to the turn-around time of 12 days from the date of biometrics capture. (PNA)