
In case you’ve been living in a cave (pun intended), the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) recently announced that a former contractor had stolen all the data of Philippine passport holders—pretty unbelievable, if you ask us. Now because of this, anyone who’s due for a passport renewal anytime soon will supposedly have to bring an original copy of their birth certificate again (because the DFA has to rebuild their database), but we asked a couple of nomads who have recently renewed their passports and we got mixed responses: some had to submit their birth certificate as a requirement and a couple of bros got through the renewal in 30 minutes without being asked for a copy of their birth certificate.

We understand that some of you are probably confused right now, so we took the liberty to do a quick research to help you with the important requirements you need to gather for your passport application or renewal:
- Your appointment confirmation. You can schedule your application here.
- Your duly-accomplished application form that you can download and fill up before heading to your appointment.
- Original copy of your birth certificate issued by the PSA (formerly National Statistics Office or NSO).
- A valid ID and a photocopy of said valid ID.
- Passport fee. It will cost you PHP 950 for a 12-business-day processing. But if you want to rush your passport, you can pay PHP 1,200 to get it within six business days!
If you’re wondering what passes as a valid ID, the DFA has released an infographic on this that you can see below:

Make sure you have all these documents and the right valid IDs so that you won’t have a hassle time getting that passport for your next adventure! What are your DFA experiences? Share it with us below!
Article cover courtesy of pageone.ph
Header courtesy of vinepair.com