The Road to 40 Day 283/365: Passport Updating

It’s the first day of Vino’s school holiday that will last for the week, so there wasn’t much to do at home except for me picking up his new passport.

The first time I flew out of the country was back in 2009, and I think I got my passport a few months before the trip. I never really thought about traveling much back then, but since my sister was in Singapore, I thought maybe it could be useful for visiting her.

Eventually, Che moved, and my passport got used more often. I’m saying this because I didn’t really care much about the passport processes – applying, renewing, and the validity of it.

Then came Vino. It will be Vino’s third passport in his lifetime. He got his first when he was about three months old, as we were set to fly back to Singapore after he was born. He changed his passport when he was four years old, because his facial features were significantly different from his infant photos.

Now, he needs to change it again for the same reason. While adult passports are now valid for 10 years, kids still apparently need to renew theirs every five years.

The process to renew it in the Philippine Embassy in Singapore was seamless. It took us about 30 minutes to finish the whole thing. The collection slip said we should check for the availability in four to six weeks, but after two weeks, I got a message that it was available.

I went to the embassy on this day to pick it up, and the travel time going to and from the place took longer than the time I was there. When you get a new passport, the old one is cancelled by being punched through. Che specifically instructed me to ask the person not to punch it all the way because we had visas on that passport. The lady in the counter obliged, saying they usually punch just the first page (which includes the photo page) and the last page. Now I’m wondering why the previous person decided to punch my passport all the way through.

I’m amazed at the efficiency of the whole process, especially the fact that it’s a Philippine agency with courteous and friendly staff. It makes me wonder if it’s because we’re in Singapore that they need to also be efficient, or if it’s a matter of choice for our people to just be rude in government offices.

To be fair, the TIEZA people at the airport are friendlier and more accommodating now. Still, I’m not so sure about the other government offices.

I went to the supermarket before heading home, as they would be closed for the next couple of days to celebrate the Lunar New Year. As expected, there were a lot of people looking to stock up for the closure.

We had a quiet dinner and not much fanfare. We later realized that the Lunar New Year is still a new year celebration, but we didn’t really prepare for it, and we weren’t going to adjust our routines at 9pm.

We watched Beast Games and Can This Love Be Translated until we fell asleep, not sure how that affects the rest of our year, but this is us and has always been us.

Looking forward to more nights like these, watching things that we like and falling asleep while cuddling with the family.