A mobile consular team of the Philippine Embassy in Wellington successfully rendered a four-day consular services outreach mission in Invercargill in the South Island of New Zealand on 11-14 May 2017. Held at the Filipino Community Centre, the outreach processed a total of 802 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 total of 314 overseas voting (OV) registrants.

The Filipino community members in Invercargill, Winton, Lumsden, Te Anau, Queenstown, Gore, Balclutha, Dunedin, Oamaru, Timaru, Ashburton, Christchurch, and other areas in the South Island greatly appreciated this undertaking as it provided them access to the Philippine Embassy’s services without travelling further to Wellington up in the North Island.

The outreach mission conducted its services with ample facilities of the Filipino Community Centre at 122 Esk Street, provided by the Southland Filipino Society, Inc. (SFSI). Led by SFSI Coordinator Dorothea Hawkins and SFSI Chairman Socrates Mallari, Filipino community volunteers provided generous support and assistance to the mission.

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