Have you ever tried to get an NBI certificate at your nearest Municipal Office ? I did once in Mandaluyong City , after waking up at 5 am and I arrive at the city hall I found myself at the third floor alleyway while the NBI office is at the Ground Floor. The waiting time and the very long queu made me finish one book , eat street food and skipped lunch before I get my claim stub at 1 pm . Only to find out that I can only claim my NBI clearance after 7 more working days because I have a criminal namesake. Although our fingerprints, middlename , parents and birthplace are different , I have to suffer the consequence of having the most common Surname in the Philippines- the land of Juan dela Cruz.
My recent experience was last 21-Sep-2015 renewing my NBI Clearance was the worst so far. After being asked to return to NBI Manila after 7 days as everybody who has the same first and last name of an offender and not necessarily a criminal . I together with hundreds of others who have similar names as offenders queued outside the Quality Control office of NBI Manila. Some of them came from satellite offices like Cavite, Alabang, Meycauyan. This is the first time this happened to me that we have to wait for almost 4 hours just to submit an oath to the lawyer to prove that I'm not the one who committed attempted murder in Plaridel, Bualacan in 1988. It doesn't help that you get your annual NBI every year , hopefully with the computerization of our database this will be the last time they will ask me of the same question.
If you live in Manila or nearby areas ,this is the easiest method I discovered without the need to fall in very long line and wait for several hours as many do. This procedure takes only 10-20 minutes to finish at 2nd flr NBI Manila office at UN Avenue. Take note that those who have similar names as offenders need to go back after 5-10 working days to claim their NBI Certificate. In case you can't claim it yourself , your representative needs a Special Power of Attorney or Authorization Letter and his own ID. Here are the steps:
- Get the code from NBI website at www.nbi.gov.ph/ clearance . Fill out the form with your personal information. Lastly ,select any bank where you intend to pay (paying in banks costs P25 - 50 more but save you from qeue at NBI office later, But you can skip this if you're tight on budget just make sure to go to your designated NBI office as early as possible) . Print the filled bank Form or write the code on a piece of paper or take a photo of the code using your smartphone.
- Go to your designated NBI office to pay for the Clearance P115.00 for Travel abroad or local employment (Only if you haven't paid in bank .Take note : No slippers and sandoz allowed)
- Go to 2rd Flr "NBI UN Registration Counter" for photo and fingerprint capture.
Note: Before, only NBI Taft- U.N. Avenue has an eClearance Lane . Pls. share with us any updated info that you may have. As a reminder, NBI Certificate is valid for one year whether its for local employment or abroad. Today , you may also go to any NBI satellite offices and present a printout of the Online Registration Form or copy or photo of the code to get your NBI Certificate faster.