PH Consul to Pinoys: Report your NMI-born kids

Filipinos who have expiring Philippine Passports wait for their turn as personnel from the Philippine Consulate Office in Guam assists another applicant with the biometrics in yesterday’s Mobile Consular Services at the Pedro P. Tenorio Multipurpose Center. (Jon Perez)

Consulate General of the Philippines in Agana, Guam Consul Mark Francis C. Hamoy is reminding all Filipinos living in the CNMI to inform them if they have children born in the Commonwealth so they could be registered under their agency. Hamoy and some of their personnel are on Saipan for a four-day mobile consular services.

He said that children of both Filipino children who are born overseas must be registered so they could issue the needed documents for Filipino citizenship.

Some parents have ignored this or registered their children late causing problems if they return to the Philippines.

“If you’re kids are born overseas, you need to report it to the Consulate of the country where you are working. What a lot of our countrymen have been doing is they would register late their sons or daughters,” said Hamoy.

“You must report this two days after they are born for them to be registered. If not, chances are you might encounter problems if you visit or went back to the Philippines,” he added.

He used the CNMI as an example where some Filipinos who have children born here were either registered late or not at all at the Philippine Consulate.

“A lot of our countrymen think that if their children holds a U.S. passport that’s enough for you to stay in the Philippines. U.S. nationals visiting the Philippines are only allowed to stay for 30 days,” said Hamoy.

“That’s not the case with some of the Filipinos who have kids here. They think that with their kid holding a U.S. passport that would be enough for them to enter and stay in the Philippines for more than 30 days,” he added.

The children, even if their parents are both Filipinos, are still considered tourists if they used their U.S. passport to enter the Philippines.

“There are a lot of cases that they let their kids grow up in the Philippines but encounter problems if they are about to come back here because the child used a U.S. passport entering our country. The child had overstayed so that is a big problem on their part,” said Hamoy.

That’s why he advised Filipino parents, either both or one, to register their child to the Consulate so they could also get a Philippine Passport to make their child a dual citizen.

”It is just easy, even Philippine honorary consul to the CNMI Eli Arago can help in the application and processing. All applications will also be turned over to us so we could start the processing.”