Dubai: Philippine ePassport Renewal Centre to close over weekend; will operate from Wafi Mall Monday onwards

Dubai: The Philippine ePassport Renewal Centre (PaRC) in Dubai will be closed for two days — March 26-27 — and will reopen at its new location in Wafi Mall on Monday (March 28), the Philippine Consulate General in Dubai announced on its official Facebook page on Thursday.

The PaRC is operated by VFS Global. PaRC’s new location will be on the third floor of Wafi Mall’s Falcon Phase 2.

The launch of VFS Global ePassport Renewal Centres in Dubai in November 2019 marked the first time the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) had outsourced its ePassport renewal service for its nationals living abroad. Following the success of the service, which is available for 12 hours daily, VFS Global successfully expanded its ePassport services to Abu Dhabi and three cities in Saudi Arabia in 2020.

According to VFS, some key benefits of the Philippine ePassport Renewal Centre include improved passport and consular services for Philippine nationals living overseas, strict verification to ensure accuracy of biometric data collection, and flexible ‘prime time’ services at select locations.