My cellphone alarm went off with an irritating high-pitch sound at five this morning. I scrambled to pick it up and solved the simple math question I set the night before to dismiss it and put me out of my misery -- an effective way to kick-start my brain. Never underestimate the difficulty of simple math problems when your brain barely functions with a motor skill comparable to a zombie.
My girlfriend and I planned to get our NBI clearance today and took the whole day off from work. Wanting to make sure we don't miss anything, I tweeted my friend Ryan who recently got his clearance, I panicked when he told me how crazy the new system is. Apparently, NBI's contract with its former IT provider expired followed by controversies involving all data in the system. This means, they have to encode everything again, treating all renewals as new application. The scene in NBI main office in Taft starts at 1AM.. yes you read that right, because that's the time the guard gives out sequence numbers, maybe falling in line no longer works with the huge volume of applicants. A range of number is then posted on the gate, if you're number is not included, don't even bother going there. I think the main branch can accommodate 2,000 applicants in a day. That's a lot, but with local clearance having only six months validity and one year for abroad, lots of people are bound to end up renewing if they hop jobs every year or travel abroad for that matter.
What I learned wasn't very encouraging, I didn't want to waste Kim's PTO only to find out we cannot be accommodated. I want her to save as much leaves as she when she visits me in New Zealand this year. I don't really need the clearance soon and could just renew it in Philippine embassy but that can take a while because they still send it to NBI here for processing, we might as well get it now. I saw a glimpse of hope when I read this blog by chocoholiccynic, who got her clearance in less than an hour! One satellite branch in Robinson's Otis (didn't know the mall existed until now) seems to be still outside of the radar and not a lot of people go there. The blog was posted last year so I figured a lot of netizens already found out about it and flocked there, I expected it to be busier than before.
We left the house at around 6:10am, little late than originally planned, and traffic was starting to build up. Made it in Robinson's Otis around 6:45am with dozens of people already in line. We were 47th and 48th which wasn't so bad because the branch accommodates 500 applicants per day. We slumped on the floor while waiting in line for a good 20 to 30 minutes when the security guard opened the mall gate and instructed us to go inside.
Everybody was calm and orderly, no unnecessary nudging or pushing to get ahead, as we walked inside the mall and up to the second floor where another holding area was waiting.
They distributed info sheets which we filled out in five minutes. After 20 minutes, we were herded to form another line which brought us to first step of the application process.
Step 1 - Payment. NBI clearance for local and international purposes are the same at PhP115 (including postage stamp), after paying we went to another line.
Step 2 - Data Encoding. Our names were then called in the adjacent counter, stood up in front of a monitor to verify data being encoded is accurate and correct.
Step 3 - Data Capture/Fingerprinting. Stood behind a white background while in an awkward squat position, it won't take long so don't worry.
Step 4 - Releasing. I wasn't as lucky as Kim who got her clearance 5 minutes later. I, on the other hand, have to return on March 14 to get my clearance because I have a HIT in the database. This means, my name matches another person with record in their system.
I wasn't really surprised because in the past three times I needed a clearance, I always came back. I just never understood the idea of renewing if they can't verify my identity in their database. I'm sure they use some sort of identification number for each person so even if my name matches another, they can quickly determine we're not the same person, that definitely won't take more than an hour to do! The effort people give like staying out in the sun, falling in line for hours, starvation, sweating just for a piece of paper is just not worth it. Give it to them already and be done it it!
The entire process took about 3 hours which is nothing compared to the horror other faced to get clearance in other branches. I thank chocoholiccynic and other bloggers who shared their experience with Rob Otis, because of them we saved a good amount of time and effort to get clearance. It's time to share it to others, hence this entry, knowing that helping others through this also means people discovering this branch and eventually making it like the other branches.
Here are some useful links by:
What I learned wasn't very encouraging, I didn't want to waste Kim's PTO only to find out we cannot be accommodated. I want her to save as much leaves as she when she visits me in New Zealand this year. I don't really need the clearance soon and could just renew it in Philippine embassy but that can take a while because they still send it to NBI here for processing, we might as well get it now. I saw a glimpse of hope when I read this blog by chocoholiccynic, who got her clearance in less than an hour! One satellite branch in Robinson's Otis (didn't know the mall existed until now) seems to be still outside of the radar and not a lot of people go there. The blog was posted last year so I figured a lot of netizens already found out about it and flocked there, I expected it to be busier than before.
We left the house at around 6:10am, little late than originally planned, and traffic was starting to build up. Made it in Robinson's Otis around 6:45am with dozens of people already in line. We were 47th and 48th which wasn't so bad because the branch accommodates 500 applicants per day. We slumped on the floor while waiting in line for a good 20 to 30 minutes when the security guard opened the mall gate and instructed us to go inside.Everybody was calm and orderly, no unnecessary nudging or pushing to get ahead, as we walked inside the mall and up to the second floor where another holding area was waiting.
They distributed info sheets which we filled out in five minutes. After 20 minutes, we were herded to form another line which brought us to first step of the application process.
Step 1 - Payment. NBI clearance for local and international purposes are the same at PhP115 (including postage stamp), after paying we went to another line.
Step 2 - Data Encoding. Our names were then called in the adjacent counter, stood up in front of a monitor to verify data being encoded is accurate and correct.
Step 3 - Data Capture/Fingerprinting. Stood behind a white background while in an awkward squat position, it won't take long so don't worry.
Step 4 - Releasing. I wasn't as lucky as Kim who got her clearance 5 minutes later. I, on the other hand, have to return on March 14 to get my clearance because I have a HIT in the database. This means, my name matches another person with record in their system.
I wasn't really surprised because in the past three times I needed a clearance, I always came back. I just never understood the idea of renewing if they can't verify my identity in their database. I'm sure they use some sort of identification number for each person so even if my name matches another, they can quickly determine we're not the same person, that definitely won't take more than an hour to do! The effort people give like staying out in the sun, falling in line for hours, starvation, sweating just for a piece of paper is just not worth it. Give it to them already and be done it it!
The entire process took about 3 hours which is nothing compared to the horror other faced to get clearance in other branches. I thank chocoholiccynic and other bloggers who shared their experience with Rob Otis, because of them we saved a good amount of time and effort to get clearance. It's time to share it to others, hence this entry, knowing that helping others through this also means people discovering this branch and eventually making it like the other branches.
Here are some useful links by:
- Sukey - http://www.sukeywashere.com/2011/08/nbi-clearance-challenge-at-robinson.html
- chocoholiccynic - http://chocoholiccynic.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-to-nbi-clearance-in-less-than-hour.html
- rubhee - http://rubhee.com/2010/07/04/nbi-clearance-application-and-renewal-procedure/
- daddy joey - http://daddyjoey.com/2011/07/nbi-clearance-application-and-renewal/
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