Monday, May 21, 2007

My new job requires me to have an NBI clearance for travel abroad (which is a good sign that I will travel abroad) hehe. So, I made a trip to Carriedo to renew my existing NBI clearance and update the purpose of the clearance.

Anyway, I spent only an hour and a half in the place (which is a pretty good time I think, considering the number of people there), and let me share some tips that can help you if you do decide to get/renew your NBI clearance.

  1. Prepare P20, this is for your "entrance" stub.
  2. Follow the steps (1-7).
  3. Step 1 - Payment : You can prepare 1 P100 bill and 3 P5 coins so that you can use the unmanned payment automated tellers. Advantage? No lines. But even if you do go to the manned counters, lines move fast so it's okay.
  4. Steps 2-4 - Since all of these are in 1 floor, and there are a lot of people here, make sure you're lining up for the right step. Check out lines and pick the shortest one, it will save you a lot of time, rather than sticking yourself in the very first line you see.
  5. Don't be afraid to ask people. Go and make friends with the person in front of you to make sure you're in the right line and in the right step.
  6. Steps 5-7 - For renewals, you can skip Step 5 (fingerprinting). I saw a lot of renewals lining up here but I heard some people say you can skip this step, so I just asked the nearest "watcher" and verified that I can go straight to step 6. BTW, steps 6-7 took about 5 minutes total, while step 5 (judging on the lines here) would take you about another hour, so take note what steps you can skip.
  7. Be alert. Listen and observe the people around you. Sometimes, new counters are opened so be on the lookout so you can change queues quickly.
  8. Bring a fan... it's hot, and it only gets hotter when there are tons of people around, so it's really usefeul to have a fan to keep you cool.
  9. Smile. People are more gracious when you're gracious.
  10. Stay in line. And politely inform people where the end of the line is.
  11. Stay away from fixers.
  12. Bring a black pen.

:-)

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