Consulate General of the Philippines — Local services in Chicago

Called many times and emailed and they never answered... Trying to find out about 2019 Consular Outreach, nothing scheduled for Minnesota. So have to fly to Philippines to renew passport? But found out in July outreach was in August in MN, but they said they had reached their total for 200, they would not squeeze in one more, and I'd bet ya there wasn't 200 people who showed up for that outreach and for some dumb reason they do not post the outreach schedule on their web site but on Face book. So we ended up driving to Chicago from MN in Oct. to renew passport. We got to the Consulate around 8:45am on a Thursday and took a paper number right away, there were only 2 or 3 people a head of me in line but an older lady butted in line with a higher number and they let her go ahead I/we didn't say nothing. The workers there have a so-so attitude...but all went well, had all my paper work prepared, ready and in order along with my old passport & money to pay, I'd give them 3 stars for at the Consulate... We were in and out of the Consulate in about a half hour...the worst part was riding all the way up to the Consulate and then all the way back down in that old creaky elevator, yikes! It cost us $25.00 for parking for 40 minutes, Ouch! We left MN around at 11:00 pm to Chicago and was there the next day-downtown Chicago around 8:15 am, we stopped many times on the way there for gas, eating & bathroom breaks. After finishing at the consulate we headed back to MN right away and was back home around 5:30 pm so it was about an 18 hour or so around trip. We didn't want to go to the Consulate on a Friday encase there was a problem with paper work and had to stay the night to fix it, their not open on weekends. It would be nice if they had the Consulate or another one at-in Chicago airport or next door to it, one could just fly in the morning go right to the consulate at Chicago O'hare do there stuff at the consulate, then get something to eat and catch a flight back later that day...save a lot...

Call ahead of time, their voice messaging playback has holiday updated hours. Small Office at 16th floor of the building, follow signs. Building Lobby desk workers are helpful and see Filipinos walking in everyday. Bring copies of everything, as they DO NOT provide photocopying. Lines are long for the 90% ppl getting passport services, so to probably speed things up, they require ppl to bring their own copies. If needed, I heard 14th floor has a copy machine to use. Extra Application copies provided outside consulate entrance. Wife was at the passport renewal window (yes, only 1 window!) for maybe 15min with ePassport and USPS $6.70 stamped envelope, handed every other doc copies off, paid, and then waited another hour for name called for new mugshot photo. Another issue, their website and backpage application didn't specify spouse visa holders of American citizens needing to bring copy of Philippines Marriage certificate for a maroon ePassport, that should already have it on passport file. LUCKILY, I have 2 copies of every freaking thing in immigration documents and had a spare. 8:40 Arrived (GET A TICKET, PPL, a-holes try to cut line, get rejected), 9:30 call up after 10 numbers from start, 10:40 photos. Tip - doors opened very early, maybe 45min before 9am service, so come early to grab the required window number, go out for coffee/breakfast at Cosi next door, return before 9am to get a seat. Food not allowed, but we had babies, noticed it's not enforced. As other reviewer says, they don't speak English gooder in US, and their PA speaker is blown and gritty, too, when they give instructions about getting copies. Wife couldn't even understand most speaker announcement words he...

Whoever is in charge of receiving phone calls for dual citizenship in this location is really REALLY rude. First off, it takes at least 10 calls before someone finally answers the phone. And when somebody does, he forwards me to another number that is pretty much a DEAD-END. Yesterday, I called hoping to get clarity on the status of my application for dual citizenship. This dude answers and was extremely rude. I asked if he can just please let me know where my papers are and if they ever received it ok and if t was forwarded to the outreach in Baton Rouge, Louisina. He goes on to tell me if I wanted to be a part of the outreach. And then further tells me I'm not very clear. EXCUSE ME?!! How is inquiring for the status of my application vague???!!!! If he can just go through the system and look it up and tell me simply about where it is and when I'm supposed to get any confirmation about it, then the conversation would've proceeded without a hitch. By the way, this douche bag cut my call while I was still trying to get more info.

Anyway, I searched online and found several numbers for the Baton Rouge outreach. Only ONE number worked (meaning, an actual person was speaking to me). I found out it was the head of the outreach. An extremely kind and courteous person answered my questions and apologized in behalf of the rudeness of that moron at the Chicago office.

If I'm in the Philippines, I would've dragged some of my media friends to cover an office like this one. Let's see if this dork will act the way he did. It's an absolute shame that I would have to experience such rudeness from a fellow Filipino - from a consulate, of...