Starting next year, passport applicants will have to pay the processing fee in advance through banks when they make online appointments for application or renewal.
Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano has announced that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) would issue in the next few weeks guidelines for the bank 鈥渆-payment鈥� that would require applicants to pay at least half of the passport fee.
He said the advance payment should discourage the high percentage of no-shows, since the wait to get an online appointment now takes months.
鈥淛ust like anything in the Philippines, when there鈥檚 a backlog, some take advantage. Like now, 40 percent of those who make appointments do not show up,鈥� Cayetano said.
According to Cayetano, the DFA plans to ask passport applicants to pay the processing fee in half or in full upon making an appointment.