Long Queues at Phil. Embassy in Singapore

I have never visited the Philippine Embassy in Singapore on a Sunday because I know that there are a lot of people in the embassy during this day. But I had to today since I had to apply for the Machine Readable passports(MRP) for Nygel and Niles whose passports are expiring in July.



So far nobody has openly criticized or commented on the slow service in the Embassy.Probably I will be one of the very first "few" who will.

First of all, the Embassy has been operating in Singapore for a long time and they know the number of people going to the embassy on Sundays. I dont really know if they have any plan on improving their services to lessen the waiting time and queue for services.

Our experience is that we started queueing up (at Window 5)for verification of our application at exactly 2:45 pm. We were served at around 3:55. At 4 pm we queued up at window 1(we were given a number which will be called) for encoding of our application.

After another hour we were called into a holding area(I was thinking it was like a ride in a theme park were you will wait to board your ride except that we waited in a library). Every 15 minutes 10 numbers were called. The waiting time was long because there were only 2 encoders in a small room keying in our passport information.

Finally at 5:30 we were called into the encoding room. We still have to wait for our number to be called.After that we had to pay the processing fee of $85 at another window. Good that there was no more queue at window 7 (payment window) otherwise we would probably finish at 7 pm.

A procedure that would take less than an hour was completed in 3 hours. My God thats a lot of waiting time....we consumed 3 canned drinks ,two packets of shrimp crackers and we had to queue up even for photocopying service.

My suggestions:

1) The process could be shortened for passport processing by issuing numbers everytime an applicant comes in.

2) The minute the number is issued, the applicant for new passport can just give all her documents to a counter(should be manned by at least 4 people on Sundays).

3) Once everything is verified and encoded, then when the queue number is called the payment should already be accepted. This will save the time on queueing up in 3 windows.

If they need more encoders and cant afford to pay additional manpower why not offer university attachment programs or training programs for students who will do encoding for an allowance. They can utilize these students during week ends when the embassy is packed with people.

Just a suggestion dear Ambassador Mindy Cruz.