How to work abroad

          I started having an interest in going abroad after she left. It’s hard to let go of someone dear to you, especially if you’ve been together for years. To process papers by you is a difficult one, I remember all those days I assisted her in going to different agencies, waiting in line while the rain pours or under the blazing heat of the sun just to have the correct authentication and hop to another agency and do the same…

          A photocopy of Transcript of Records (TOR) and diploma needs to be authenticated from DFA through red-ribbon (literally they will place a red-ribbon on your documents). Before these documents will be authenticated by them, these should be authenticated by your school (it has to be the present year), then its either your school or you be the one to give it to CHED (it is regionalized and CHED Manila will not accept those TOR/diplomas that are not within their region). Then CHED will forward it to DFA, all you needed to do is to show the stub that was given to you by CHED to retrieve the documents. There is also another way if you don’t want to go to DFA to get your documents, let DHL do the walking for you (this option is listed on the stub). I heard complaints about this red-ribbon thing: since its literally a red-ribbon, why not just go to Recto and authenticate it from there, anyway they are good in forging documents, rather than going through the hassles of visiting one agency to another, (naah it’s not worth it).

          Another document that you need to have authenticated from DFA is your birth certificate from NSO(original), not from your local registrar. If you are employed, give your employment certificate as well. For single person, and wanted to get marry sooner, get your CENOMAR (Certificate of No-marriage) from NSO as well, original  then authenticated. You will be given a checklist of documents to be authenticated, all you need to do is to check the items listed, present your original copy, pay to cashier, then off you go with your ribboned documents. Additional: for employment certificates: it should have an affidavit, with dy seal and passed through RTC (cedula or passport # is nessessary for affidavit).

          If you don’t have a passport yet, sorry, you will not go out of the country. I’ll be updating this every now and then, I’m still in the process of authenticating documents in DFA. Lastly, I created an account in http://workabroad.com.ph. It helps me a lot in choosing the jobs for any countries that are listed there.

Note: Always be ready with your exact payments (in hundreds) and include your budget for food. There are people outside the agency that walks with you until you reach the gate asking different questions. On my case, I’d rather personally go through the process than letting someone take control of my important documents. On one of my visits, a man grabbed me by my biceps and wanted to talk to me or to assist me (of course with pay), I raised my eyebrow without saying anything and he let go. He shouldn’t be grabbing people (coz it irritated me). I know what I’m doing and I’m capable of asking questions and going to directions given to me without any help from them.