DHL Express has made arrangements with the Philippine Embassy to handle domestic transport of passports to and from the embassy for renewal.

“We are delighted at securing this deal to provide a safe and secure solution for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” said Faysal El Hajjami, Country General Manager. “Applicants can now rest assured their passports are in the safe hands of DHL Express and will be received, processed and delivered to them without delay.”

According to statistics given by the Philippine Embassy, there are more than 800,000 Filipinos currently living in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The embassy receives around 7,000 Philippine citizens’ requests for passport renewals every month.

For Philippine citizens living in distant areas of the kingdom, the passport renewal process could be very costly since they need to travel all the way to Riyadh or Jeddah to hand in their passports, travel back to their place of residence, wait for 30-40 days, and then travel back to Riyadh or Jeddah to collect their passports. While citizens in the Eastern Province have to wait for the “Embassy on wheels” program which the embassy provides according to scheduled visits.

With DHL providing this convenient solution for both the Philippine Embassy and the Overseas Filipino Workers in the kingdom, all that is required from the OFW is to visit the Riyadh Embassy one time only to register their biometric scans. Once the scan is completed Philippine residents will only have to hand in their passports to the closest DHL Express retail service point. DHL will then transport the passport from the service point to the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh and back to the service point.

By handling all of the passport renewal deliveries, DHL will be effectively saving a huge amount of time and money for all Philippine residents who choose to use the DHL Express service. — SG