The Quezon City council will formally ask the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to establish another satellite office in the city for the benefit of residents in need of DFA services and to shorten queues at the agency’s main consular office.
The councilors on Monday approved on third and final reading a resolution requesting the DFA to establish an office within the City Hall compound.
They offered the second floor of the new Civil Registry Building as a possible site of the satellite office.
Noting that the DFA issues at least 3,000 passports daily at its main office in Pasay City, the resolution said “it is appropriate to establish a satellite office in Quezon City to ensure that passport applications are processed and released on time, considering the numerous applicants who go to the Office of Consular Affairs.”
The DFA regularly conducts its “passport outreach activity” for one day in a selected city or municipality. According to the QC civil registry, at least 600 passport applications are processed in the DFA’s quarterly mobile passport processing service at City Hall.
The department already maintains one field office within the city, at Ali Mall in Cubao. Located on the mall’s second floor, the office accepts new passport applications and also processes the renewal and replacement of lost and expired passports Monday to Saturday. Jeannette I. Andrade