Dubai: The move to combine the Philippine Consulate and the Philippine Overseas Labour Office under one roof in Al Ghusais received mixed reactions from Filipino expatriates as well as of other nationalities on its opening day yesterday.
Those who flocked to the consular offices lauded the effort, but said there is still more to be done.
The serpentine queues, which used to be a common sight outside the consulate, were no longer there. People were made to queue inside the building.
Web designer Ahmad Robledo said: "It's understandable that people are being made to wait because they have just started operations today." He said that the offices are now easier to locate because of the Philippine flag outside the consulate.
"Although the place is more spacious, there are no designated areas for us to fill out our application forms. We end up doing it outside," said Mary Grace, a manicurist.
More efficient in India
Cary, 48, an Indian who is marrying a Filipina, said the services of the Philippine Consulate in India is more efficient than in Dubai.
"The Philippine Consulate in India is faster than here because when I applied for a visa there, it only took four days. Here, it took 15 days," he said.
Visas requested from the Philippine Consulate in Dubai regularly take three to five working days to be processed.
Consul General Benito Valeriano said: "We are doing everything to make the services efficient but it can't be done overnight. The number of people we served today is three times the regular crowd."
Both halls were full of people earlier in the day. Each hall can accommodate 300 people at one time.
Some Filipinos also complained about the lack of computerised system for data processing.
"Filling out information sheets takes time, encoding it also takes time. Since our passports are now machine readable, they can just have it scanned and have our data ready right away," said J.B., an engineer who has been working in Dubai for the past five years.
Labour Attache Amilbahar Amilasan said application forms are available online and can be downloaded from their website to save on time.
Budget constraints
As for the computerised system, he said: "How we wish we can have a computerised system here in Dubai. We are already looking into that to save us time and paper, but we are operating on a limited budget here."
In the consulate, there are three working computers designated for data encoding for passports.
Valeriano has requested for additional budget and manpower from the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.
Those who flocked to the consular offices lauded the effort, but said there is still more to be done.
The serpentine queues, which used to be a common sight outside the consulate, were no longer there. People were made to queue inside the building.
Web designer Ahmad Robledo said: "It's understandable that people are being made to wait because they have just started operations today." He said that the offices are now easier to locate because of the Philippine flag outside the consulate.
"Although the place is more spacious, there are no designated areas for us to fill out our application forms. We end up doing it outside," said Mary Grace, a manicurist.
More efficient in India
Cary, 48, an Indian who is marrying a Filipina, said the services of the Philippine Consulate in India is more efficient than in Dubai.
"The Philippine Consulate in India is faster than here because when I applied for a visa there, it only took four days. Here, it took 15 days," he said.
Visas requested from the Philippine Consulate in Dubai regularly take three to five working days to be processed.
Consul General Benito Valeriano said: "We are doing everything to make the services efficient but it can't be done overnight. The number of people we served today is three times the regular crowd."
Both halls were full of people earlier in the day. Each hall can accommodate 300 people at one time.
Some Filipinos also complained about the lack of computerised system for data processing.
"Filling out information sheets takes time, encoding it also takes time. Since our passports are now machine readable, they can just have it scanned and have our data ready right away," said J.B., an engineer who has been working in Dubai for the past five years.
Labour Attache Amilbahar Amilasan said application forms are available online and can be downloaded from their website to save on time.
Budget constraints
As for the computerised system, he said: "How we wish we can have a computerised system here in Dubai. We are already looking into that to save us time and paper, but we are operating on a limited budget here."
In the consulate, there are three working computers designated for data encoding for passports.
Valeriano has requested for additional budget and manpower from the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.
The consulate currently has 27 staff while the labour office has 15.
Source: Gulf News
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