Had to renew my daughters passport early this month. Grabe sobrang bulok ng system.

There is a 3000 person quota. So after they let in 3000 persons, sorry na lang sa iba. Come back next day sila. Some people wait as early as 4am! Quota is usually hit by noon time!

I got there at 8am. Since I was with my pregnant wife, we were given priority at some lines. Even then we finished after 1pm na. Most of the time was spent waiting in line.

Process is:
1. Wait in line for the guard to let you enter the 2nd line. This line extends all the way to Roxas Blvd! You can skip this line if you have a very young child, disabled or pregnant.
2. Wait at another line to enter the basketball court.
3. At the entrance of the basketball court they will stamp a number on your completed application form. This is where they count the 3000 quota.
4. Wait in line again for someone to stamp your picture.
5. Another line to get to window a where they do some encoding.
6. move to window b for more encoding.
7. cross the street to the DFA building for another round of verification. This is where you choose regular or expidited processing. This is where I got pissed. The clerk told us that the pic is not the right color. This should have been pointed out at earlier since the papers were already inspected 3 times.
8. Go to the auditorium for payment and final encoding.

After this you can choose to come back for your passport or pay one of the accredited courier to deliver your passport. I decided to just pay the courier.

If you can use the appointment system or Pilipinas Teleserve, do it!