POLO Dubai to begin expanded online contract verification from August 1: Here’s all you should know

The Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Dubai will begin its mass rollout of the expanded online contract verification process starting August 1, merely a week after President Bongbong Marcos’ pronouncements to begin the automation of the said service across all posts worldwide.

POLO Dubai Labor Attache Atty. John Rio Bautista, in a town hall meeting, stated that there will be 500 slots available for the Online Submission System for Contract Verification every week through the link: https://www.polodubaiportal.org/form-page/

“Kapag sila po ay approved, bibigyan po sila ng tamang araw at oras (para pumunta sa POLO). At ang kanila lang pong gagawin doon ay mayroom po kaming dedicated seats at counter para sa mga na-approve ng online contract verification,” explained Bautista.

“At ang proseso po, base sa aming obserbasyon, ay hindi po tumatagal ng 30 minuto. As compared to 3 hours or more ng mga walk-in ay mas mabilis po ang proseso na ito. Hindi na po nila kailangang magdala ng dokumento sapagkat POLO na po ang nagp-print ng mga dokumento based on the documents they submitted online,” he added.

Streamlining services

The agency will begin accepting 500 applications starting August 1 and will close by August 3 or if the 500 slots are filled earlier – whichever comes first. The next batch of 500 slots will reopen every Monday moving forward.

The approval process involving the online evaluation and review will take approximately one week. OFWs who get approved for the online contract verification will get their notification two weeks later.

After that, the schedule for appearance for payments and the release of verified contracts, according to POLO Dubai’s timetable, takes place three weeks later. For instance, the first batch of 500 applications from August 1-3, will get schedules by August 23-25.

Here’s the schedule as follows:

FORM SCHEDULE

What’s new?

Unlike the pilot launch and transition phase conducted since June, OFWs will now be able to book their slots for contract verification with or without flights.

OFWs will also be allowed to send their authorized representative to pay and claim approved applications, for as long as they use the authorization and waiver form.

POLO Dubai has recorded an overall approval rate of 62% during its pilot and transition phase, totaling 1243 approved applications from OFWs, out of 2022 total applications received.

Atty. Bautista explained that the majority of the 38% of applications or 779 OFWs that got disapproved were those who submitted proper documentation, but didn’t fall under the flight schedule limitations during the test phase.

The Dubai Labor Attache expressed optimism that this disapproval rate will go lower, now that OFWs no longer need to have specified flight schedules in order to book their appointment online for contract verification.

“Ang inaasahan po natin ay tataas po ang approval rate sapagkat karamihan po doon sa 38% na-disapprove ay hindi po pasok doon sa flight para sa form na kanilang naisubmit. So kung wala na hong requirement for the flight schedule na ngayo’y ‘with or without flights’ ay nakikita po natin na mas tataas po ang percentage ng approval. Maliban ito doon sa is yung incomplete o hindi valid yung documents na inattach or inupload nila,” said Atty. Bautista.

Atty. Bautista further said that the new service is in addition to the ongoing process for contract verification that’s already in place: “Ito po ay dagdag sa mga nauna na natin na proseso ng pag-verify ng contract nila after getting an appointment. Nandoon pa rin po ang appointment system natin. At maliban po doon ay nandyan pa rin ang walk-in natin para doon sa mga may flight the following day, at ito pong online (contract verification) ay karagdagan.”

Online payment services to follow

Moving forward, POLO-Dubai and related agencies have already initiated talks with banks to include online payments as well to eliminate the need for personal appearances at the POLO grounds just to pay for the contract verification banks.

“Hindi pa po ito ang ‘full cycle’ ng automation sapagkat ang automated po dito ay ang submission po nila ng kanilang requirements. Ang proseso po ay hindi pa fully automated sapagkat kailangan pa po nila pumunta. Pero nag-u-umpisa na po kaming makipag ugnayan sa bangko kung papaano po gawing ‘full automation’ kasama na yung pagbabayad. Ito po ay work-in-progress – ang importante po ay nakapagumpisa tayo at tama po yung landas na pinatutunguhan po ng ating programa,” said Atty. Bautista.