DFA reopens Philippine Embassy in Stockholm

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has reopened the Philippine Embassy in Stockholm eight years after the office was closed and will start offering consular services to Filipinos in Sweden and Finland.

In the past, Philippine consular services were conducted through the Philippine Embassy in Oslo, Norway.

With this reopening in Stockholm, consular applications that include passport extensions, visa, and civil registry, among others, will be received and processed following a limited twice weekly schedule starting this May.

For passport renewals, processing will still be done at the Philippine Embassy in Oslo.

Consular services in Stockholm will be rendered on 19 and 21 May 2020, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., with no lunch break.

Emergency requests for consular services outside of these dates will be accommodated as necessary.

The DFA underscored that because of the requirements for social distancing and safety, appointments for slots can be requested via e-mail through stockholm.pe@dfa.gov.ph; or by phone via +46-7253-5407.

Clients who want to avail of the consular services, especially those in Finland, are advised to first send queries and requests for appointments by email and phone calls.

The Embassy assures speedy processing of the appointments at the designated time slots.

There are about 15,000 overseas Filipinos employed in Sweden as health workers, engineers, mining professionals, administrative staff, and in the fashion, culinary, service, and related industries.

In Finland, there are more than 4,000 Filipinos working in similar occupations.

The reopening of the Embassy, which also has jurisdiction over Finland, is the result of the efforts of the landing team which arrived in Sweden in late 2019.

The team is led by Consul General and Chargé d’Affaires (ad interim) Raul H. Dado, who was the former Consul General of the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait.

Philippine-Swedish relations were established in 1947, and is one of the earliest bilateral diplomatic ties entered into by the Philippines after the Second World War. Sweden has since long been a development partner of the Philippines.

In 2016, Sweden reopened its embassy in Manila after it had previously closed in 2008. On the other hand, the Philippines was represented by Honorary Consul General to Stockholm Erik Belfrage, who recently passed away due to COVID-19, after it closed its embassy due to economic constraints, in 2012.

With the present increasing economic opportunities between the Philippines and the Nordic countries, which include Sweden, the reestablishment of the Philippine Embassy allows greater exploration of trade and investment opportunities in both Sweden and Finland.

The Philippine Embassy in Stockholm is located at the 4th Floor of Regus Building, 29 Olof Palmesgata 111 22 Stockholm, Sweden, with contact numbers +46 702 735 407, +63 9054039435 (Viber) and e-mail address stockholm.pe@dfa.gov.ph. -- BAP, GMA News