DFA allows travel agencies to assist passport applicants but on limited basis

tags: Department of Foreign Affairs
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is allowing travel agencies once again to assist passport applicants, but this time it will be limited to the collation of required documents needed to secure a passport.

Following consultations with travel agency groups, the DFA has modified its earlier directive to discontinue the process of accrediting agencies to secure and apply for the passports of their clients.

“The department is cognizant of the concerns of travel agencies and decided to allow the continued accreditation of travel agencies with the office of consular affairs beyond June 20, 2013,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said Monday.

Travel agents could still help applicants but only with the facilitation of documents needed for the application of passport, he said.

“All applicants will have to go to the DFA in order to have their biometrics taken and other information that will have to be provided to our passport office so that’s why we have seen that the role of travel agencies will be curtailed because of those requirements,” Hernandez said.

Accreditation period for travel agencies will begin next month and will last until June 2014.

Under the new guidelines, Hernandez stressed that “there will be no special privileges for passport applicants who go through travel agencies.”

“The only difference between applicants who go through travel agencies and those who do not is that the former may pay the processing fee at any Landbank branch,” he said.

For a long time, travel agencies have benefited from special privileges for its clients, including guaranteed same-day processing and access to passport express lanes.

Before, travel agency-assisted passport applicants shell out anywhere from P1,800 to P7,000 for these special privileges, but the DFA only collects P950 from each applicant for ordinary processing and P1,200 each for expedited processing.

To bring equality among all passport applicants, the DFA last year announced that it is ending the practice of travel agencies transacting with the department.

The DFA reconsidered its decision amid strong opposition from travel agents. — Michaela del Callar/KBK, GMA News

Tags: Department of Foreign Affairs

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