Passport Fiasco

Tuesday night, I had it all covered: NBI clearance, transcript of records (which my cousin tipped as great supporting document), GSIS ID (which my former colleague tipped me as a document that the Department of Foreign Affairs accepted), birth certificate, and even my TIN ID (which I will find out as a non-accepted supporting ID come Wednesday morning). Tuesday night, my mom also called, "Anak, pag tinanong yung passport mo dati, sabihin mo, wala. Ni-record lang dati sa passport ko, kayo ni kuya mo."

Of course, the complications of my story in this blog entry would revolve around that - me getting in to this country without proper documentation, a passport to be specific. All of us siblings have been born in the KSA. Of the three of us, my sister was the only one that had a passport when she traveled back to the Philippines. She applied last year for her new passport and now she got one. It's a different story for me. I just went to the DFA office this morning and I got denied, "imposibleng wala kang passport nang bata ka, hindi ka makakarating sa Pilipinas kung wala ka nun."

After the "teller" (I don't know how to call them) in Step 1 consulted someone in the same room regarding my case, she instructed me to go to the transaction officer in Window 1, Door 1. The same thing was told to me by the officer. I kept to my argument, "wala po talaga akong passport", to which he replied, "hindi pwede yun, travel documents wala ka?" After some minutes trying to explain my case, and seeing nothing can be done about it for the mean time, I left the building and went to the now vacated seats for waiting applicants.


I called up my mom, and in an angry and disappointed voice, "Mommy, wala ba talaga akong passport? Hindi daw posible yun eh...". She replied, "Anak, wala talaga. Ano daw ang sabi nila?...". After she hung up, I cried. Being denied still stirs some strong emotions in me. I was really disappointed. To be honest, I was a bit angry towards my mom during that time (sorry, Mom, I know I shouldn't, and I'm over it now). I know my mom tells the truth. And although I cried partly to the reason seeing the DFA guys as anatagonists, now I also understand the position of the DFA people having to doubt my case - any person, male or female, adult or child, needs a passport to travel between different countries.


So to be clear regarding the back story: I was born in Gizan, KSA - a province far from the capital Riyadh, or even the city of Jeddah. I was two or three months old when my mom brought me to the Philippines. I didn't have a passport, but they put a note in my mom's passport, "with 1 child". The same thing was practiced when my mom brought my older brother to this country a year before me. Immigration was not that strict back then. Such practices were allowed. No matter how bad as it sounds, I was technically "smuggled" into the country, since I didn't have a passport (even if I had some documentation of "with 1 child" in my mom's passport). I don't want to call it my mom's fault, or the 1985 immigration people's fault, but nonetheless, I'm paying the price for the leniency of laws during that era.
Upon arriving home, my mom called again, and said sorry to me. She also told me not to get depressed about it. I'm getting over it now, although of course, my efforts is now turned to looking for her passport in 1985. Just last year or 2 years ago, my mom already went to the legal office of DFA since my kuya also had problems processing his passport. Yes, my kuya don't have a passport yet. And he's even got a bigger problem than mine, since aside from the non-existence of his infant passport as in my case, he's also got a problem regarding the discrepancy of his (second) name, so that's another story.


So my story is not over yet. I hope to locate my mom's old passport soon, and the letter from the DFA legal office. Silly me, that despite the reminder of my mom on Tuesday night, I didn't look for those documents after her call. Well, wish me luck! Whatever happens regarding this event, I'll keep you posted.





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UPDATE
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Upon arrival of my kuya from work, I inquired about my mom's passport. And so, here in the following two pics is the page regarding my mom's entry to the Philippines with the translation in the second pic from the DFA legal office. The child stated as her dependent is my kuya.

And in this following pic, my mom's entry to the Philippines after me being born. So my hope for tomorrow is that they'd accept these documents and that they'd not try to make me produce my supposed to be lost passport, which really doesn't exist. Thanks to everyone who had been trying to help me sharing their experiences and their legal advice. 

There's hope, there's hope! Tomorrow is another day! :)