Interesting today at Davao BI

[ducecoop]

Went to Davao BI today. Arguably one of the least busy (or most organized) BI in the Philippines. Or I just always have good timing .

 

anyway I turned in my passport and papers and set down. A few minutes later I was called to pay (I was first in the building).

They asked for 1930 which is exactly "express line fee" less then normal.

So I assumed they were going to keep my passport and tell me to come back another day, but to my surprise I was asked to sit down again after I played.

Again, only a few minutes later I was called up to sign my receipt and get my clearance and stamped passport.

No express line fee and I walked out the door at 8:17am extra p1000 in my pocket.

Your mileage may very

Edited June 14, 2017 by ducecoop
Forgot to mention, this BI visit was for a 2 month extension

[Dave Hounddriver]

This is indeed good news.  Makes me think, if I had back the 1,000 pesos express fees from every 2 month extension for 10 years (60K pesos) then it would be me driving a brand new motorcycle instead of the workers at BI 

[ducecoop]

I have a few "old person" difficulties and travel is hard but I would have been happy to make another trip to BI to claim my passport to save p1000.

So I wonder if keeping a passport a few days is a office choice or a officer choice or just a decision made based on how busy at that moment?

[Jollygoodfellow]

1 hour ago, ducecoop said:

So I wonder if keeping a passport a few days is a office choice or a officer choice or just a decision made based on how busy at that moment?

I would guess the offices that are least busy would do it there and then as I cant see any reason why they couldn't. My last receipt shows no express lane fee. 

[AlwaysRt]

2 hours ago, ducecoop said:

So I wonder if keeping a passport a few days is a office choice or a officer choice or just a decision made based on how busy at that moment?

Last time in Dumaguete it was 'come back tomorrow' as had been 'normal' there for me (sometimes if getting there early enough it was come back after 3pm).

Yesterday (Tuesday) in Duma it was 'come back Monday' so the delay seems to be catching on.

[Dave Hounddriver]

21 minutes ago, AlwaysRt said:

Last time in Dumaguete it was 'come back tomorrow'

There was a time, in the not too distant past, when Dumaguete would ask you to pick up your passport in 3 or 4 days because they were quite busy (with the ARP if I remember and YES they still charged express fee) so I would just leave the passport there for 6 weeks and come back in time to pick it up and do the next renewal.  I figured it was as safe there for 6 weeks as it was for a few days and if got lost I could blame them.    They never made any comment about it except to say they had difficulty finding it and I told them I could not get back in for a few weeks so it may be at the back of the box somewhere and then they did the "AHA" and found it easy.

Edited June 14, 2017 by Dave Hounddriver