Stockholm – Eight years after it closed the embassy in Sweden, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has reopened the Philippine Embassy in Stockholm and will initially start offering consular services to Filipinos in Sweden and Finland.
Philippine consular services were previously rendered through the Philippine Embassy in Oslo, Norway. With this reopening in Stockholm, consular applications, which include passport extensions, visa, and civil registry, among others, will be received and processed in the Swedish capital following a limited twice weekly schedule starting this May. Passport renewals, however, will initially still be done at the Philippine Embassy in Oslo.
Forthcoming 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.
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 availing of the consular services, especially those in Finland, are advised to first send queries and requests for appointments by email and phone and the Embassy will quickly attend to the appointments at the designated time slots.
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 previously 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.
Sweden ranks as the Philippines’ 43rd largest trading partner and is also home and the place of work to some 15,000 overseas Filipinos employed as health workers, engineers, mining professionals, administrative staff, and in the fashion, culinary, service, and related industries.
On the other hand, there are more than 4,000 Filipinos in Finland working in similar occupations.
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.
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For more news, updates, and information visit the Department of Foreign Affairs website at https://www.dfa.gov.ph.
