Our Passport Renewal Experience At DFA Central (Robinsons Galleria)

We were a few minutes late when we arrived at DFA Central in Robinsons Galleria, so we immediately submitted our application forms. It was a good thing that the DFA officers were still processing passport applications ahead of us, which gave us time to relax and freshen up before our turn.

In less than 30 minutes, our names were called. We were assigned to a nice lady who was patient enough to inform us of our “lacking” requirements; mostly documents that I was not able to photocopy correctly as well as fields that we were not able to sign. She also kept Rafa entertained by letting him borrow a pen and paper. She asked Rafa to write the letter “a”, which Rafa did. She said very good and Rafa smiled happily.

After completing our document submission, we went to the picture-taking section. I thought this was going to be the most challenging part. However, I was able to convince Rafa to imitate my face with just a slight smile and the DFA officer was able to take a decent photo of Rafa. The next was Miguel but, again, it was thankfully just a quick photo session.

After all of that, we were done. We finished our passport application in a little over 30 minutes. We were just amazed at how fast and efficient DFA has evolved. The horror stories of having to fall in line before the break of dawn in the DFA main office are now just a thing of the past. DFA is now modern and friendly. Kudos to the reforms of this government institution in the last several years.

By the way, if you are thinking of what documents or requirements to bring during your passport application, here are the things to keep in mind:

If it’s your first time to apply:

If it’s passport renewal:

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