Hello everyone! I'll share my PDOS experience to update this thread, and as my way of saying 'thanks' to this forum.
My kids and I are 'dependents' of my hubby who has a WTR visa. He is already there and kami pasunod pa lang. When I received our passports with visas (work visa for me, student visa for our son, visitor visa for our baby), I checked the accompanying 'letter/note' from NZ Immigration. It says that for partners of WTR visa holder, it is required to attend a PDOS under CFO. For my son's student visa, it states the same too -- PDOS under CFO. For our baby's visitor visa, walang ganung statement, but I also included her in the pre-registration at CFO website.
Because I want to be prepared before going to CFO, I back read this whole thread from page 1. And somewhere along page 4,5 or 6, which are posts from 2014/2015, majority of those with the same situation did not do PDOS anymore, because di sya needed, as stated by the CFO Officers. Ang gulo, di ba?
So anyway, because I'll be travelling with a baby, mas mabuti na yung over-prepared. I tried calling CFO hotline to check kung ano ba talaga, pero laging voice prompts lang, and I cannot get in touch with a real person. I decided to go there after pre-registration.
The things I brought with me:
Pre-registration bar codes/reference numbers for the 3 of us
Passports with visas
Letter/note from NZ immigration (the one inserted in our passports)
Hubby's WTR visa (which I printed from email)
Cash for payment
The processing was quite fast, which was all done in the 1st floor. I arrived there around 1pm. Guard checked my bar coded registration forms, then he allowed me to proceed to the 'ID' section. The ID guys asked me to leave a valid ID in exchange for a gray ID (color code for AU and NZ) and a queuing number, then I was allowed to enter the room.
Inside the room there are 5-7 windows and a queuing monitor, so I waited for my number to be flashed. I was called within 5-10 minutes to window 3 (encoder). I think it helps if your pre-registration has no errors, para wala ng i-e-edit yung encoder. She asked for the things I listed above, and she seems unsure if the 'WTR letter' I presented is the one she's looking for, so she asked her neighbor encoder who said 'yes, yan na yun'. She asked me to proceed to cashier who only accepts cash for payment. I asked why cash only, e ganun daw talaga, and I realized that majority of gov't offices only accept cash -- DFA, real property tax, etc. Di ako madalas makipag-transact with gov't kaya medyo nagulat ako because all other companies I deal with accepts either credit card or online payment. After payment, cashier collected our passports.
Anyway, queuing and encoding and payment took me 30-35 minutes. By 1:35pm, an announcement was made that all those bound for NZ and AU should proceed to the 2nd floor. We were assigned sa 'Canada' room. Orientation started at exactly 2pm. There was an 'orientation' booklet given away, 2016 edition daw, pero the info there IMO is not updated. It ended around 3:45pm, after which the speaker distributed our passports with CFO sticker on it.
Observations/Comments/Suggestions:
The info during the talk was not updated (He was still talking about 'Center of Gravity', e alam ko matagal ng wala na yun, di ba?)
He mentioned that if WTR ang visa, dapat sa POEA ang PDOS. (Though I didn't clarify anymore paano yung dependents of WTR)
Since it is a combo of AU and NZ, the speaker was jumping from one country to the other. So you have to be quick to listen para you can follow which country he is discussing.
The only new info I learned is how to be 'dual citizen'. All the rest can be read from the booklet or online.
