The Philippines now belongs to the exclusive club of countries issuing ePassports, joining the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo yesterday said the Philippines has improved its standard one level above the machine readable passport with the issuance of the state-of-the-art electronic passports.
The ePassport has an embedded microchip containing data essential in verifying the passport holder’s identity, including personal data, biometrics and digital signature.
"This chip is interoperable, that is to say, it can be read by any standard passport machine reader in border controls worldwide," Romulo said.
The embedded microchip also contains a complex laminate that protects the datapage against tampering; customized invisible images on every page; and a hidden and coded technology that allows the encoding of the holder’s name and passport number on the passport photo.
"With the ePassport travel document, we join the exclusive club of countries issuing ePassports – among them Japan, South Korea, India, Hong Kong, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, the UK, Russia, the US, and other developed countries," he added.
Romulo said Filipinos were first given the world-class machine readable passport (MRP) when the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) issued 228,430 MRPs in 2007 and 2,097,383 MRPs in 2008.
From January to Aug. 9 this year, 1,500,402 MRPs had been issued and delivered. To date, the DFA has issued a total of 3,826,215 MRPs.
"The MRP has brought much benefit to our people. With a quick swipe of the MRP, immigration clearance is accomplished in less than 30 seconds," Romulo said.
The DFA said applications for the ePassport through the online appointment system will be accepted starting Wednesday.
The DFA’s Office of Consular Affairs advises interested applicants to set an appointment through the DFA website http://www.dfa.gov.ph.
Until the DFA’s ePassport system has achieved full capacity, only 100 ePassports will be issued daily on a first-come, first-served basis. From Aug. 26 to Sept. 30, only passport applications for renewal will be accepted.
Before submitting their online appointment application, applicants are requested to fill out the required fields on the online appointment page on the DFA website.
Otherwise, the online appointment process will not proceed. After internal verification, the DFA will inform the prospective applicant of his/her schedule via email.
Subsequently, the applicant will confirm his/her availability by sending a reply.
Personal appearance is required for prospective ePassport applicants. Until an announcement is made, all ePassport applications during this period shall be filed personally by the applicants.
An applicant may use the current MRP application form for this purpose, which is also available on the DFA website.
Current MRP holders are advised that their MRPs are compliant with global standards and remain valid.