Dubai: Filipinos with fake passport appointments in Dubai risk being sent home and will not be served on the same day, officials said.

Philippine Consul-General Paul Raymund Cortes has appealed to Filipinos in Dubai and the northern emirates to only use the official passport appointment system on the consulate’s website ( http://dubaipcg.checkappointments.com/) and not resort to fixers.

“We found out about this fake document because there were people who came to the consulate purportedly on an appointment but their names were not included in the system,” Cortes told Gulf News.

“We suspected that there may have been people trying to sell an appointment schedule and, clearly, we do not sell that, nor do we sell application forms,” he added.

This is not the first fake document related to passports this year. In February, the consulate busted the fake passport extensions done by unscrupulous individuals outside the consulate.

Based on their investigation, Consul Ferdinand Flores said a number of applicants obtained fake passport appointments outside the consulate for a fee but the applicants declined to give further details.

“The appointment paper had no name, no mobile number, so we became suspicious. Eventually, the applicant admitted to buying it from fixers outside,” Flores told Gulf News.

Flores said more fake appointments will surface in the coming days as the whole month of November is already fully booked. The appointment schedule for December will open soon.

Those who resort to fixers, however, will not be honoured unless in emergency cases since the consulate has to give priority to those with real appointments.

“We’ll have to send the applicants home if we’re able to prove that their appointment slots are fake. We’ll have to ask them to book their appointments via the official appointment system,” Flores said.

There are 350 appointment slots in a day at the consulate. But only around 80 per cent of the applicants appear on their appointment date with the rest of the applicants a no-show.

Cortes said a new global passport appointment system is in the pipeline, which will lessen, if not eliminate, chances of faking appointments.

Officials also urged Filipinos to renew their passports early, even eight months in advance.