Dubai: Filipino residents in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain need not visit the Philippine embassy to manually request an appointment for passport renewal as they can now book it online.
Maria Roseny Fangco, Consul at the embassy, said the online appointment system is already operational, with the first appointment date available on September 1.
“Those who need to renew their passports don’t have to come to the embassy any more to manually log their appointment in the logbook system. They can do it online now. The reason why we haven’t publicised the appointment system yet is because we still have slots in the logbook until August,” Fangco told Gulf News.
To book an appointment online, applicants can visit http://abudhabipe.dfa.gov.ph/ and click on the “Book An Appointment With Us” button on the top right hand corner or go directly to http://auhpe.checkappointments.com/ and follow the instructions online.
The embassy takes 36 applicants every two hours on a first-come, first-served basis. This means an applicant who chose the 8am slot may be accommodated between 8am and 10am, those who choose the 10am slot may be accommodated between 10am and 11.59am.
The embassy handles between 140 and 160 applications per day and has two data capturing machines.
Fangco said the online appointment system will not preclude applicants coming from Dubai and the northern emirates as is the current practice.
Currently, major delays are being experienced in the printing of passports in Manila due to some operational and technical adjustments. This will not affect the online booking appointments as the first appointment date starts in September while the issue in Manila is expected to be resolved by mid-August.
