Sallie Mae

A couple of years ago, my dear husband was caught in a meeting at work. He sent me an sms asking if I could update his fantasy baseball team and check a certain email as well. Updating his fantasy team was easy as I just have to tick the circle next to the name of a baseball player. Yes, he is part of a fantasy league together with his brother, brother's law school friends and some cousins. He is addicted to it as much as I'm addicted to Mafia Wars. :)

Next was this email that he wanted me to see. When I opened his inbox, I noticed there were a couple of mail from a certain Sallie Mae. I didn't open them. I waited for him to get home and asked him who Sallie Mae wass. To those who are familiar with Sallie Mae, you may laughing now but I didn't really know anything about this "girl" who email a lot of guys. ;) Well, it turned out that Sallie Mae is an agency that deals with student loans! It was funny but my husband was really serious explaining everything to me. Haha! So I met Sallie Mae as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Philippine Passport Renewal

Last Monday, I was at the Department of Foreign Affairs to renew my Philippine passport. I still had the green one which expires in October and will be replaced by a maroon machine readable passport (MRP). A week before, I requested online for an appointment for my passport renewal application and the following day I received an email stating February 1st, 9am as my schedule.

It was a bit chaotic at the DFA on an early Monday morning. There were long lines everywhere and there were more fixers offering "help" with your application. I was able to get inside the building, through gate 3, just by showing the email print-out they sent me.

First step was document verification. Requirements were checked at this window: since mine was just renewal application, I just needed to submit my marriage certificate (to change my last name), photocopy of the first 3 pages of my passport as well as the inside back cover, photos, and photocopy of my CFO Guidance and Counseling Certificate of Attendance (this is required if you have a foreign spouse).

Next step was at the Cashier for payment. Passport applications cost P500 (14 working days) and P750 if it's expedited processing (7 working days). I paid P750. I checked my receipt, and it says release will be on the 11th of February. It is a bit delayed because of the volume of requests. Now I wonder where all those people would go. It seemed like everyone wants to leave the country. Heehee.

Then I proceeded to the Auditorium for the encoding. There was no line for those who have an appointment. It was a breeze. I checked the spelling and data that was encoded in the computer and marched to the last step of the process. A DFA officer will ask you to put your thumbmark on the paper that was printed out by the encoder in the previous step. And voila! I was done! Everything was completed in less than 20 minutes.

I wasn't planning on going back to pick up my passport, the DFA is too stressful for me, well almost all government agencies are not my kind of place because they are too crowded. So I opted to have a local courier, TO GO, pickup my passport on the 11th and send it to our home the following day, for only P99.

I will post photos once I get my new Philippine passport. :D

How it All Started

Hello there! I am starting this blog to share my life as a Filipina living here in the Philippines with my American husband.

I am Patria, 30 years old, born and raised here Manila, capital of the Philippines. I am a true-blue city girl who attended Catholic schools until high school and earned a college degree from the University of the Philippines. My husband, J, is in his late 20s (yes, I AM older than him :) ) and works in an American company in Makati.

I met J seven years ago when I was also an employee of the same company. We dated for 2 years and guess what, we never had a fight. Even from the start we knew we were perfect for each other.

We got married 3 months after his sweet marriage proposal. Since then we continue sharing our lives while living here in Manila.

You're going to read more about me being an expat's wife in my future posts. Feel free to add this blog to your blog roll. :)