Philippine Consulate in Columbia, SC
There is no Philippine consulate in Columbia, and the consulate that covers it, the Embassy of the Philippines. Consular Section in Washington, D.C., is not a casual trip: 484 miles away, about 9 h 1 min by road. That makes the order of this page deliberate: first what you can do from Columbia without travelling, then what genuinely requires the counter.
Philippine consulate for Columbia: which consulate covers it
Jurisdiction runs by state, and South Carolina, 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 South Carolina page for the rest of the state's cities and distances.
From Columbia the consulate is 484 miles and 9 h 1 min away by road, far enough that most residents wait for an outreach mission instead, and are right to.
For distances like this, the consular outreach programme is the answer that actually gets used: consulates periodically set up temporary consular offices in cities without one, taking passports and dual citizenship oaths. Appointments are free, passport slots open at passport.gov.ph about a month before each mission, and they fill. The appointment guide explains how the schedule works.
What you can settle from Columbia without travelling
Three of the most searched Philippine procedures in the United States are not consular procedures at all:
- PSA certificates: the Philippine Statistics Authority prints them, not the consulate. You order them on the web and they arrive by courier.
- Apostilles on American documents come from the issuing state’s competent authority. Since 15 May 2019 the consulate cannot authenticate them.
- The NBI clearance is issued in the Philippines. The consulate’s only part is notarising your fingerprint card.
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.