Advisory No. 2011/037

Date: 10 July 2011

PASSPORT PROCESSING OPERTIONS NORMALIZED

The Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah wishes to inform all Filipino nationals in Jeddah and the Western Region that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), in its press release dated 29 June 2011, has announced that the Office of Consular Affairs' (OCA) electronic passport (e-Passport) operations have normalized after previous operational concerns had been duly addressed.

In this regard, DFA Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Jaime Victor B. Ledda said, "This is a very welcome development as we continue to work hard to improve services in our Regional Consular Offices (RCOs) and Foreign Service Posts (FSPs)."

At this time, the DFA continues to endeavour to reduce the turnaround time for applications filed in RCOs and Philippine embassies and consulate generals with the ultimate aim of providing world-class consular services to Filipinos anywhere in the country and all over the world. This is consistent with Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert F. del Rosario’s recent pronouncement that streamlining the e-Passport System is a top priority of the Department, even as it renders “Consular Services with a Smile.”

In Jeddah, Because of the technical adjustments in the implementation of the Philippine ePasspsort, which led to the delay in the delivery and release of passports in the past few months, the Consulate General has adopted some temporary measures, particularly, the extension of validity of passports that are about to expire (6 months or less from date of application) or have expired (one year expired from date of application) for one year, free of charge.

In view of the reported normalization of passport processing operations in Manila, the release of passports shall henceforth, be made after 30 working days (or 45 calendar days) from the date of application, pursuant to existing Philippine Passport rules and regulations.