The Bureau of Immigration (BI) Main Office announced that it will be closing on January 9 due to the Traslacion.
The Feast of the Black Nazarene is an annual religious celebration held in Manila, celebrating the Black Nazarene, an image of Jesus Christ.
In an advisory, BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said that in compliance with Presidential Proclamation No. 120 signed by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin declaring Monday a special non-working day in the city of Manila, operations at the BI Main Office will be suspended.
“We also advise foreign nationals who will be transacting with the BI to avoid the area due to the expected high volume of people following the feast of the Black Nazarene,” said Tansingco.
Also closed is BI’s offsite annual report venue at Robinsons Place Manila. Tansingco said that other immigration offices all over the metro are open to cater to those needing immigration services.
The list of other BI offices may be found in the BI’s website at https://immigration.gov.ph/
Operations of the BI Main Office will resume on Tuesday, January 10.
Departures increase post-new year glitch – BI
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) reported an increase in departures following the technical glitch experienced on New Year’s day.
According to BI Port Operations Divisions (POD) Chief Atty. Carlos Capulong, only a total of 19,010 travelers departed on January 1.
The number jumped to 41,757 the following day, and the BI continued to process around 34-37k travelers per day on the next few days.
BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said that they expect the numbers to increase as those travelers from cancelled flights are rebooked to new flights.
“Lines are observed at the immigration area during peak hours due to the increase in passengers following the holiday season and recovery of cancelled flights,” said Tansingco. “While lines are expected both here and in other countries of destination, we can assure that they are expeditiously processed as our officers are in full force, and additional personnel have been deployed to serve as backup as needed to process the higher number of passengers,”
In 2022, the BI processed a total of 6,132,332 passengers.
Topping the list of departures are Filipinos with 3,917,296, followed by Americans with 611,067 departing travelers. The number of South Koreans and Australians that departed were 424,193 and 128,859 respectively, while 119,807 Canadians departed in the same year.
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