My Passport Renewal

Photo credit: expatpinay.wordpress.com

I can't believe I have missed to renew my passport well ahead of time when I know I have so many travel  in the offing. I have been reminding myself since the first quarter of 2014 that I will renew my passport months in advance and I forgot! How can I forget something so important like this?

So now, I cannot go anywhere. I can't even travel back home to see my daughter enter college and be with her during her orientation day. It makes me deeply upset and sad for missing this important task I have repeatedly reminded myself. I guess I just got busy with many things.

I renewed my passport few days ago and according to our consulate here in Dubai, processing time will take 4 to 8 weeks tops. Are you kidding me? That is 2 months of my time wasted here in this place when I can travel back home and be with my daughter when she starts college. Arrgghh!!!

Note to self and moral of this story: ALWAYS RENEW YOUR PASSPORT SEVERAL MONTHS IN ADVANCE AND DON'T WAIT FOR LAST MINUTE. You may think you don't have plans to travel anywhere so you'll just wait few weeks before expiration to renew. Well, sorry to burst your bubbles Philippine Passport holders here in the UAE. You have to secure appointment first and what if the dates you are free is no longer available? You will have to keep checking the appointment calendar of the Philippine Consulate website here in the UAE for availability. And if you're lucky, well and good. If not, like me, I had to wait after Ramadan was over to actually get a date for appointment. Although the processing itself on the day of my appointment was rather fast. I am a bit pleasantly surprised. It took only half an hour to do all the procedure and I was done for the day. Unlike 5 years ago when it took half a day to complete the same process I have done recently. So, please, note your passport's expiry date and book your appointment in advance, as in, well in advance. I'm talking months! It doesn't matter whether you have plans to travel or not. You'll never know if you will have to though. But just in case you need to do a quick duty travel or a business trip suddenly comes up or whatever reason it is, you're well covered.

This is very uncharacteristic of me. I am always one who plans way in advance and this one I let slip. Oh man...