THE Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Monday announced the opening of five temporary off-site passport service locations to address the complaints of passport applicants who are having a hard time getting appointments.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Civilian Security and Consular Affairs Brigido Dulay said starting yesterday, the DFA opened 500 slots for each of the five temporary off-site passport service locations in SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City; SM North Edsa, Quezon City; SM Aura, Taguig; Robinsons Las Pinas and Robinsons Magnolia, Quezon City.

The temporary off-site consular services will run until September to be able to accommodate more passport applicants who were affected by the reduction of consular services while following the health protocols as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dulay also announced aside from Metro Manila, they are also opening more off-site passport service locations outside the NCR Plus areas.

He explained with the first five off-site passport locations, they are providing a total of 177,500 passport appointment slots from this month until September.

Since the pandemic, the consular office in Aseana and 37 other passport offices are only able to accommodate 6,167 applicants to be able to observe social distancing.

Dulay reiterated that consular services can only be made through the Department’s official appointment systems www.passport.gov.ph/appointment for passport applications and https://co.dfaapostiIle.ph for apostille applications.

Senior citizens, persons with disabilities, OFWs and other qualified individuals may set their appointment using the courtesy lane facility by sending an email to [email protected] or to the email address of the nearest Consular Office (CO).

The DFA is working hard to open additional appointment slots but without compromising the health and safety of the transacting public and its personnel, he said.

He cautioned the public against transacting with individuals offering their services through Facebook or any other social media network to get passport application appointment.

Those who engage the services of these unauthorized private entities or individuals using social media accounts and networks run the risk of not getting an authentic appointment or encountering issues with their passport application, aside from incurring additional expenses, he said.

The public is strongly advised to ignore offers from these companies or individuals and to use only the official passport appointment system maintained by the DFA.

Further, those who intend to seek assistance for consular services may do so through the following official DFA accounts:

http://dfa.gov.ph, https://consular.dfa.gov.ph/, and http://ofwhelp.dfa.gov.ph

Official DFA FB Accounts:

https://www.facebook.com/dfaphl and https://www.facebook.com/OFWHelpPH

Official DFA Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/dfaphl

Official DFA IG Account : http://instagram.com/dfaphl