Greetings from the Consul General

I arrived in Manila August 7, coming from three years in India. There is a tremendous amount to see and do in the Philippines, and I am trying to travel as widely as I can. I look forward to visiting Davao and discussing with you the accomplishments and needs of your region. In the meantime, I am using the virtual consulate as a way of introducing myself.

Manila is the largest consular section in the world, providing hundreds of thousands of services a year to Americans and Philippinos. We never seem to have enough space for our clients, and so we travel on visits and use the internet whenever we can to supplement our office space and hours. Indeed, we hope to build new offices in 2007-8 to deal with the growing demand we expect in the future.

There are close ties between the Philippines and the United States so that there are hundreds of thousands of Americans who live here and Filipinos who live in the U.S. Our services to these communities include passports, notarial actions, information on security issues and reports of birth and death. Thousands of Filipinos travel to the U.S. every year and we support that travel through the great number of visas we issue every year for temporary travelers and immigrants. We cooperate closely with business circles to support trade and with students to facilitate study.

I look forward to visiting Davao in person. In the meantime, I invite you to explore this website for information on how we can help you.