A confirmed appointment at the DFA means that particular date and time is reserved for you for your passport application or renewal. Last year, there was a clamor for the DFA to systematize their online appointment process because applicants could not seem to get any available date (at any of the most accessible DFA offices) no matter how long they wait online. Later on, DFA advised the public of the best times to get an appointment: 9AM and 12PM. Apparently, these are the hours when the system refreshes and the available dates are updated. Also, they required applicants to pay their passport fees first before their reserved slots are officially confirmed and blocked off. No payment within a specified number of hours after reservation means that the time and date you reserved will be freed up for others. Unlike before when applicants are only required to pay their passport fees after they have gone through the entire passport application or renewal process at the DFA.
But what if an applicant wishes to change his appointment date after he has confirmed (meaning, has already paid for his passport fees)? Is there a way to accommodate this or are all confirmed appointments considered final?
Read on:
The passport appointment website, www.passport.gov.ph has a Reschedule button that allows applicants with confirmed appointments to change their appointment date and time. So the answer to our questions is Yes. However, you need to take note of the following when requesting your appointment to be rescheduled:
- Rescheduling is dependent on the availability of the appointment slots. This means that if your desired new date and time is no longer available, you cannot be accommodated. You may have to keep checking the site to see if your preferred time has been freed up.
- You can only reschedule once.
- You can only reschedule a weekday appointment to another weekday – not on a weekend.
Are you thinking of rescheduling your confirmed appointment with the DFA? Well, we hope this article helped.
Visit us again tomorrow for more information and helpful tips when getting a new or renewing a Philippine passport.
References:
MasterCitizen's Blog 