Philippine Consulate in Columbia, MD
Columbia does not have its own Philippine consulate. It is served by the Embassy of the Philippines. Consular Section in Washington, D.C., 25 miles away, about 48 min by road, and every appointment, passport and notarial act for Columbia residents happens there.
Which Philippine consulate serves Columbia
Jurisdiction runs by state, and Maryland, all of it, is assigned to Washington, D.C.. The same consulate covers Alabama, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, plus Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and most of the Caribbean. See the Maryland page for the rest of the state's cities and distances.
At 25 miles, Columbia is effectively in the consulate's own catchment: 48 min door to door. The binding constraint here is not distance, it is appointment availability.
Before you plan the trip from Columbia
The most common wasted journey in this system is for a document the consulate cannot produce. There are three of them:
- PSA certificates, birth, marriage, death and CENOMAR are issued in Manila and ordered online, delivered to any US address.
- An apostille is issued by the Secretary of State of whichever state produced the document. The consulate stopped authenticating on 15 May 2019.
- NBI clearance is applied for by mail to the Philippines; only the fingerprint card needs a consular officer.
What does require appearing in person is anything biometric or signed: a passport, the oath of allegiance and a special power of attorney signed before a consular officer.
philippineconsulates.us is an independent information guide to the Philippine consulates in the United States. We are not the Philippine Consulate General, the Philippine Embassy or any government agency. We do not book, sell or manage appointments: every consulate runs its own system. We check the details regularly, but they can change without notice, always confirm with the consulate before you travel.