A mobile consular team of the Philippine Embassy in Wellington successfully rendered a four-day consular services outreach mission in Invercargill, New Zealand on 15-18 March 2018. Held at the Filipino Community Centre, Invercargill, the outreach processed a total of 427 consular transactions comprising passport renewals/applications, civil registration (reports of births and marriages), notarial services, fingerprinting for National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) forms, and Philippine citizenship retention/re-acquisition application and oath-taking. The mission gathered a combined total of 306 overseas voting (OV) and application for change of address registrants.

The Filipino community members in Invercargill, Gore, Winton, Lumsden, Balclutha, Queenstown, Wanaka, Oamaru, Timaru, Dunedin, Ashburton, Christchurch, and other areas in the South Island expressed their appreciation of this undertaking as it provided them access to the Philippine Embassy’s services without travelling farther to Wellington up in the North Island. The outreach was also an opportunity for the Embassy to strengthen its network with the Filipino community in the region and respond to several consular inquiries presented by Filipino applicants.

His Excellency Jesus S. Domingo, Ambassador of the Philippines to New Zealand, through the Philippine Embassy mobile consular team, reiterated deep appreciation to the Southland Filipino Society Inc. (SFSI), led by SFSI Coordinator Dorothea Hawkins and SFSI Chairman Socrates Mallari, for its warm hospitality, generous support and exemplary cooperation that contributed to the very successful consular outreach mission in Invercargill.

Details of next mobile consular missions will be posted on the Philippine Embassy website (www.philembassy.org.nz) and on Facebook (Philippine Embassy - Wellington, New Zealand).