(Eagle News) — The Department of Foreign Affairs has opened its first temporary off-site passport service unit in the Visayas.
The DFA said the TOPS site was located in SM Seaside Cebu on the third floor of the Mountain Wing.
According to the department, the opening of the site was part of the DFA’s plan to roll out regional TOPS operations to provide passport services to applicants living outside Metro Manila.
The DFA said TOPS SM Seaside is expected to serve 300 applicants daily.
The site is supervised by a DFA Consular Office.
All frontline operations, such as passport processing and encoding are done off-site.
“Any follow-ups and additional requests are carried out by the Supervising Consular Office. TOPS SM Seaside Cebu is under the supervision of CO Cebu,” the department said.
“The Department thanks the public for its understanding, as it continues to find ways to meet the increasing demand for passport services, while strictly adhering to the guidelines set by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to ensure the safety of its applicants and its personnel,” it added.
