Facing a mounting passport backlog, the Department of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday reminded applicants for passport renewal to avail of the extension of passport validity, a service already made free of charge until the end of the year.
“The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) offers to applicants for passport renewals in the Philippines and abroad the extension of the validity of their passports (for 1 to 2 years, which is free of charge,” the DFA said in its advisory on Wednesday.
The DFA said extensions would be processed and released within the same day.
The offer for free extensions would be available only until the end of this year, the DFA said.
The DFA last week admitted getting complaints about the mounting backlog in passport processing, which as of last week had piled up to 42,230 passports.
Apart from the old system going obsolete, the DFA cited technical difficulties in view of the preparations for the transfer of the passport printing facilities from the current Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas site to its new location in Batangas. Nina Calleja, Philippine Daily Inquirer