Are You Traveling With Expired Philippine Passport?

How busy can you become living a life overseas?

It’s Monday again and you haven’t done the laundry. Time for brunch.  Already? Wait, water first the orchid before its last leaf falls.

Keeping track of everything is just impossible. So stick to important task first. Like what? Tons of important details matter most in our life.

Well if you are a wanderlust or a season traveler or a budgeter or everything (traveling in off season to get the best deal to the city with weather opposite yours) then you need to be informed.

Is traveling with expired Philippine passport even possible?

Although you don’t want to ask yourself this question, knowing what to do in this scenario in case you’ve been riding in a “busyness” train and hit the “expired passport” roadblock, you can use the panic-free plan.

A little brush up about Philippine passport will help condition your thought.

Things to Do Before Traveling

I’ve been asked a lot of times about traveling and the Philippine passport so before we dive into the worst case scenario (expired passport) let me share some tips I gathered from my previous blog posts:

• Renew your Philippine passport at least one year before the expiration.
• Renew your Philippine passport in Canada or in the Philippines. Filipinos often choose to go to Vancouver or wait for the consular outreach program of the Philippine consulates in their province or whichever is closed.
• The Department of Foreign Affairs advises the OFWs to travel with valid passport for at least six months.
• Release of passport: ten to twelve weeks (Philippine Consulate General in Vancouver), eight to ten weeks (Philippine Consulate General in Toronto), and thirty days (Philippine Embassy in Ottawa).

Those are informative you may say.

But if you belonged to the crowd with expired passport move on to the next topic. You’ve got some decision to do.

Related Post: Penalty In Renewing Philippine Passport With Less Than 6-Month Validity?

Traveling with Expired Philippine Passport

You still have two options to travel in the Philippines which depends on reason of traveling and residency status in Canada.

1. Extend the validity of passport (discontinued)
2. Apply for Travel Document

Before we move on, get up. Think where you keep your Philippine passport.

Still thinking?

It’s definitely mixed up along with other documents inside an envelope tucked away somewhere else. You do have a special envelope for documents?

Or . . . maybe it’s time to get a filing box don’t you think.

Option 1: Extension of Passport Validity (Discontinued, Refer to Option 2)

Did you find your passport?

Let’s figure out what type of passport do you have before you learn if traveling with expired Philippine passport is not far-fetched.

The Philippine passports have three types (for now):

1. Machine Readable-Ready Passports (MRRP), green
2. Machine Readeable Passport (MRP), maroon
3. E-Passport, dark maroon

The Department of Foreign Affairs made an advisory that non-machine readable passports will be phased out by November 24, 2015 as compliance to the standard of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

Side note: do something good today.

Inform your friends or relatives who needs to renew their old Philippine passport with e-passport before October 2015. You can help them avoid trouble at the immigration in different ports of entry worldwide.

Let’s go back to your case.

What type of passport do you have?

Unfortunately, if you have the MRRP (green cover), you cannot apply for the extension of the validity in Philippine embassy and consulates in Canada and worldwide.

Do you have an MRP (maroon cover) instead? Then you can apply for extension of validity of passport  at Philippine Embassy in Ottawa.

So if you have the Machine Readable Passport there’s only one more thing to find out: do you have a valid reason to travel in the Philippines?

Rules for Applying an Extension of the Validity of Expiring or Expired Passport

If you or any members of your family have an expired passport or it is valid for less than six months, the passport can be extended once for the following reasons:

• Death in the family. Urgent traveling to the Philippines is necessary.
• Medical emergencies requiring medical treatment in the Philippines or other countries.
• OFWs returning to work overseas with valid employment contracts (processed by POEA).
• Going home on final exit visas (for Filipinos in the Middle East).

Requirements as Proof of Urgency:

• Copy of the death certificate
• Medical certificate
• Valid employment contracts processed by the POEA
• Any Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO)

Plane tickets with confirmed flight details should be presented with other requirements.

Call the Embassy of the Philippines (Consular Section) if you have more questions: (613) 233-1121 during office hours (Monday-Friday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm).

Here’s a reminder from the embassy you should be aware of before calling:

All applications for the extension of the validity of passports of persons who will be traveling for vacation and other non-emergency purposes shall not be given due course.

Have you tried calling the embassy? Did you get a positive reply?

If not there’s another way of traveling with expired Philippine passport. Don’t give up yet.

Option 2: Travel Document

So what is a Travel Document or TD?

With TD, Filipino nationals can have a one-way travel to the Philippines where they can renew their passport.

So even if you already bought a plane ticket it doesn’t guarantee a flight.

Let’s brighten up the mood a little. In connection with the application, let me share a story that happened a few months ago.

(It’s not my story so I asked and was given the permission to write about it. Time for ice cream!)

I’m grateful for a generous kababayan who applied for Travel Document for his son and shared the following information for us:

•  Travel document is necessary if the passport is expired or with less than six months of validity for non-immigrant.
• Filipinos who are permanent resident of Canada don’t need to apply for Travel Document if their passport is valid for less than six months.

The reader renewed the passport of his son in PCG at Vancouver but didn’t receive the new passport in time for the departure. He is going to pick up the passport at the DFA office in Manila upon arrival so that his son can use it to travel back in Canada.

 Note: The validity of Travel Document is only one month from the date of issue.

Two Ways on How to Apply for Travel Document:

1. Apply in person at the Philippine Consulate General in Toronto.
2. Submit the duly-accomplished form together with the requirements through mail to PCG in Toronto.

Requirements for the Application of TD:

1. Original passports
2. Photocopy of the passport’s data page
3. Photocopy of immigration documents (e.g. PR card, work permit, visa etc.)
4. Photocopy of travel itinerary
5. Three 2×2 colored photos
6. Self-addressed/stamped mailing envelope (for mail-in application)
7. Payment of $40.50 through certified cheque or money order payable to the PCG in Toronto) if applying through mail; otherwise, pay in cash.

Processing time: three business days upon the receipt of documents.

For your convenience here is the information you’ll need:

Mailing address of Philippine Consulate in Toronto: 7^th Floor, 160 Eglinton Ave. East Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 3B5.

Contact info: telephone (416) 922-7181, fax (416) 922-2638

So those are the two ways for you to travel with expired Philippine passport.

I tried to find out about these two options all because I’ve been getting questions from our kababayan. Thanks for the time and all the inquiring minds.

It’s a long flight going home.

But it’s an exciting feeling isn’t it? The food. The movie marathon. The view. The fluffy clouds. The sound of all sorts. (It’s all part of the journey . . . that you paid for.)

Nothing can spoil the joy.

But traveling with expired Philippine passport is a little bit scary. (Passports and airports reminds me of the interview I had and almost missing a flight in my first day in Canada.)

So no matter how busy we are, let’s keep plants alive and passport valid.

Do you have experience in dealing with expired Philippine passport? Share your traveling hacks to our kababayan.

Photo Credit: St. Paul Cathedral by Jsinglador (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons. The image is nominated as a finalist in Wiki Loves Monuments 2012.

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