DUBAI: Tired of making calls to the Philippine Consulate in Dubai that go unanswered?
Take heart. Thousands of Filipinos applying for a new passport can now track their application by logging on to http://passport.pcgdubai.net/
While this does not eliminate the need to wait for several weeks to get the passport renewed, e-tracking has offered relief to around 400,000 Filipinos in Dubai and the northern emirates.
"This is much better than wasting time calling a number that never gets answered or is constantly busy," said Milo Torres, a Filipino community leader and IT professional in Dubai. "If data are updated daily, then it would be of great help to us."
Serpentine pre-dawn queues used to be seen outside the Philippine Consulate in Dubai. The practice has since been eliminated. Applicants must key in their name and the date of application for a query. However, only passports applied for on and after February 1, 2011, are available for e-tracking.
Consul General Benito Valeriano said the new portal will improve customer service: "We're serving a huge community here. We advise our citizens to use this facility instead of calling us to know their passport application status."
Valeriano said he can't do anything to shorten the time — from six to eight weeks — before a new passport is produced. "Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos are renewing and applying for passports all over the world. Our law states that passports must be produced in one place [security printing plant in Manila]." Once personal details and biometrics are captured and if no major changes are made from the previous passport, it goes through a queue, he said.