DFA authentication (Red Ribbon) for verification of education (Nursing)

[Elle29 52]

1 hour ago, Chris Duffy said:

1.) No longer a product of Philippines once you come to the USA

 

2.) Don't Fall In Line

 

3.) Stop fearing authority figures (Security Guards, etc)

 

4.) Learn how to ask questions and demand an answer if not satisfied....

Both of them are still working in Qatar so they really needed to go through an agency and don’t want to be hassled by the paperworks. We know about the DIY application, I for one, will be doing the same soon. And of course, we know about ATT. Every nurse in the Philippines was made aware of that even before graduation)

At the end of the day, if the OP’s wife won’t be needing her transcripts to be red ribboned, that’s great news so they won’t be worrying about it.

To the OP, best of luck to your wife’s NCLEX  🙏

[j.b. 56]

On 12/29/2018 at 11:03 AM, Chris Duffy said:

Can you please explain to the class what is " att" in referring to NCLEX and PearsonVue...........

hi att is an email you receive that allows you to take the exam. it has an expiration date depending on which state you apply like within 6 mos or 1 year you need to take the exam

[Chris Duffy 1,257]

2 minutes ago, j.b. said:

hi att is an email you receive that allows you to take the exam. it has an expiration date depending on which state you apply like within 6 mos or 1 year you need to take the exam

Thank You

 

It is short for Authorization To Test

[j.b. 56]

On 12/27/2018 at 8:59 AM, JL818 said:

Hi All,

 

Curious to see if any of you have needed to get DFA authentication (red ribbon) to verify your education. My wife is trying to get eligible to sit for the NCLEX-RN and the California Board of Registered Nursing just came back and said that she needs to validate her diploma with the Department of Foreign Affairs before she is even allowed to take the exam. 

 

If any of you have been through this before, is there any way to do this without my wife having to fly back to the Philippines? It seems the DFA only takes these requests in person. In addition, my wife does not have any relatives or friends in Manila that will be able to help her do this. Is there some kind of service that can help with this and has anyone any good experiences or recommendations? We are really stuck on what to do next. 

hi. in my case I applied by myself to take the exam. i did not send my documents DFA for red ribbon. All my school documents was prepared by the school registrar. i printed a form from the state i choose to take the exam and let the registrars office filled it up. The registrars office placed it in their envelop and placed a seal on it and I am the one who mailed it to via LBC. I filled up an application form and mailed it  together with application fee. so i made two separate mails via LBC

[Qcayabyab 0]

JL818

Did you get your issues resolved on how to process diploma by the CBN. I have the same issue right now. Please advise on how to do the process?

[JL818 18]

7 hours ago, Qcayabyab said:

JL818

Did you get your issues resolved on how to process diploma by the CBN. I have the same issue right now. Please advise on how to do the process?

Yes, despite the rest of the messages here claiming that red ribbon is not required, we've confirmed directly multiple times from the California Board that we definitely do need to obtain the Red Ribbon for the California Board of Nursing.

It is a huge pain because you will either need to show up to the DFA personally to process your Red Ribbon or you will need to have your family, friend, or other agent do it for you. It was a royal pain for us because my wife's family is from a province 3 hours from Davao, so we had to drive and fly over her mother to Manila in order to perform the processing. In addition to that, in order to have someone do the processing for you, you will need to get a Special Power of Attorney (SPA) in order to authorize that person to do it on your behalf. 

 

Here's the process:

1. Request your school to send their transcripts and diploma to DFA for authentication. If you attended a public college, I believe that the school can send the certified true copy to DFA directly. If you attended a private college, the school will need to send the certified true copy to CHED for certification, authentication, verification (CAV). The CHED will then forward the documents to the DFA.

2. Your school/CHED will provide you with a claim stub to pick up your documents from the DFA. On the claim stub it will state the pick up date.

3. You will need to determine who will pick up your DFA on your behalf.

4. Draft a special power of attorney (SPA) to authorize your pickup person to continue the DFA processing on your behalf. Your embassy's website will have a template to help you get started.

5. Get the SPA consularized (i.e., notarized) at your nearest Philippines embassy/consulate. Go to the embassy website to determine what identification you will need to bring. You will definitely need to provide evidence for any differences in your identification (e.g., a marriage certificate to bridge the difference between your maiden name and married name). You will also need to bring two witnesses to observe you signing the SPA document (Do not sign the SPA in advance! You must sign it in front of the representative at the embassy and your two witnesses!)

6. Mail the original copy of the SPA back to your authorized person, including photocopies of valid state-issued identification (they will need all this at the DFA). I would do this through a reputable carrier like DHL, FedEx, UPS. Expect to spend anywhere from PHP 2,500 to PHP 6,500+. If you send it through the regular postal mail it will take much longer to arrive and may even end up lost in the mail due to PhilPost being terrible.

7. On the date noted in your claim stub, have your authorized person go to the DFA to "pick up" your red ribbon documentation. "Pick up" is in quotes because the California Board does not actually allow you to pick up and then mail the documentation yourself. The documentation MUST be mailed from the DFA to the California Board DIRECTLY or they will reject it. Make sure you bring money to the DFA for the processing (processing fee of PHP100 and mailing fee of at least PHP 2,000).

 

In total, this is how much we personally spent to process this one stupid requirement:

- Fee paid to school for processing: $70

- Driving and parking to SF embassy for SPA: $50

- Mailing SPA via DHL: $100

- Travel expense from Davao to Manila: $200

- Hotel for 2 nights in Manila: $80

- DFA processing fee + mailing back to CA BON: $40

Total: $540

 

Edited January 23, 2019 by JL818

[Ate 180]

OP, this might help.  Please note that I have not used this service and cannot vouch for its legitimacy.

 

http://www.authenticationexpress.com/

 

"We offer Nationwide and Worldwide Services.  Now, you can have your legal documents authenticated in a fast and easy way without going to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila."

[JL818 18]

Just now, Ate said:

OP, this might help.  Please note that I have not used this service and cannot vouch for its legitimacy.

 

http://www.authenticationexpress.com/

 

"We offer Nationwide and Worldwide Services.  Now, you can have your legal documents authenticated in a fast and easy way without going to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila."

We reached out to the service. You might have better luck, but my experience with speaking with their rep there was poor. In addition, we were under a time crunch. Therefore, we ended up doing it personally, rather than risking a third party to screw it up for us.

[JL818 18]

Quote

Hello thank you for your post. Very helpful. I have a question when you said “pick up” of document and mail. Does the DFA have a mailing service or does the person taking care of my documents do the mailing? Also the board sent a letter for verification of diploma does that get mailed along with the red ribbon document, sorry just very confused and frustrated. Also when obtaining the SPA does the person notarizing count as a witness? Thank you in advance

Yes, the DFA has a mailing service. The California Board of Nursing specifically told me that the red ribboned document must come directly from the DFA and not be mailed by some other person or third party.

Yes, the letter for verification should be sent along with the red ribbon document.

@Cameiram

[Cameiram 0]

On 2/28/2019 at 11:55 PM, JL818 said:

Yes, the DFA has a mailing service. The California Board of Nursing specifically told me that the red ribboned document must come directly from the DFA and not be mailed by some other person or third party.

Yes, the letter for verification should be sent along with the red ribbon document.

@Cameiram

Upon going to the embassy, do I need to bring 2 witnesses? Or can my spouse and the attorney doing the notarization at the embassy count as witnesses? 

[JL818 18]

14 minutes ago, Cameiram said:

Upon going to the embassy, do I need to bring 2 witnesses? Or can my spouse and the attorney doing the notarization at the embassy count as witnesses? 

I feel like this depends on how picky your representative is (and I feel like a lot of them are just trying to ruin your day). Because you're married, your spouse should also be signing the special power of attorney with you, and not as one of your witnesses. The representative at the embassy also does not count as a witness. To be safe, you should have 2 witnesses, in addition to you and your spouse. FYI, they made my spouse and I have two other witnesses.

Edited March 7, 2019 by JL818

[Jjay jay 1]

Thank you sir! Your story help me a lot and gave me hope when I was about to crash. Thanks sa help. 

 

To be honest I already wasted a lot of money for the Red ribbon of diploma. First they just said na diploma eh dapat may red ribbon ng dfa. So i went in the Ph this January to fix it and sent it to BON CA. Then after a week nung nakabalik na ako dito saka lang nila sinabi na dapat dfa mag ssend sakanila. Its just weird everytime they mail me they will waste paper for one sentence and they dont specify what they really want. Another thing is I think they need to improve their website. Kasi before I left Ph noon i check all the requirements they posted in their site for the application. I guess i double check it more than 10 times. Then when im already here they will mail you for another and another and another requirements whoch is not posted in their site. For all those people who keep on asking bakit need red ribbon diploma while yung inyo hindi. 

 

I guess those who are asked for the red ribbon of diploma are BSNs in Ph who didnt take the local board in Ph. 

[Drv 0]

On 12/27/2018 at 3:47 AM, JL818 said:

We called LBC Express and it doesn't seem like they offer such a service, at least not for the US.

Plssss email me, we have the same situition. darren_villanueva2008@yahoo.com 

[babylove0805 0]

On 1/23/2019 at 3:13 PM, JL818 said:

Yes, despite the rest of the messages here claiming that red ribbon is not required, we've confirmed directly multiple times from the California Board that we definitely do need to obtain the Red Ribbon for the California Board of Nursing.

It is a huge pain because you will either need to show up to the DFA personally to process your Red Ribbon or you will need to have your family, friend, or other agent do it for you. It was a royal pain for us because my wife's family is from a province 3 hours from Davao, so we had to drive and fly over her mother to Manila in order to perform the processing. In addition to that, in order to have someone do the processing for you, you will need to get a Special Power of Attorney (SPA) in order to authorize that person to do it on your behalf. 

 

Here's the process:

1. Request your school to send their transcripts and diploma to DFA for authentication. If you attended a public college, I believe that the school can send the certified true copy to DFA directly. If you attended a private college, the school will need to send the certified true copy to CHED for certification, authentication, verification (CAV). The CHED will then forward the documents to the DFA.

2. Your school/CHED will provide you with a claim stub to pick up your documents from the DFA. On the claim stub it will state the pick up date.

3. You will need to determine who will pick up your DFA on your behalf.

4. Draft a special power of attorney (SPA) to authorize your pickup person to continue the DFA processing on your behalf. Your embassy's website will have a template to help you get started.

5. Get the SPA consularized (i.e., notarized) at your nearest Philippines embassy/consulate. Go to the embassy website to determine what identification you will need to bring. You will definitely need to provide evidence for any differences in your identification (e.g., a marriage certificate to bridge the difference between your maiden name and married name). You will also need to bring two witnesses to observe you signing the SPA document (Do not sign the SPA in advance! You must sign it in front of the representative at the embassy and your two witnesses!)

6. Mail the original copy of the SPA back to your authorized person, including photocopies of valid state-issued identification (they will need all this at the DFA). I would do this through a reputable carrier like DHL, FedEx, UPS. Expect to spend anywhere from PHP 2,500 to PHP 6,500+. If you send it through the regular postal mail it will take much longer to arrive and may even end up lost in the mail due to PhilPost being terrible.

7. On the date noted in your claim stub, have your authorized person go to the DFA to "pick up" your red ribbon documentation. "Pick up" is in quotes because the California Board does not actually allow you to pick up and then mail the documentation yourself. The documentation MUST be mailed from the DFA to the California Board DIRECTLY or they will reject it. Make sure you bring money to the DFA for the processing (processing fee of PHP100 and mailing fee of at least PHP 2,000).

 

In total, this is how much we personally spent to process this one stupid requirement:

- Fee paid to school for processing: $70

- Driving and parking to SF embassy for SPA: $50

- Mailing SPA via DHL: $100

- Travel expense from Davao to Manila: $200

- Hotel for 2 nights in Manila: $80

- DFA processing fee + mailing back to CA BON: $40

Total: $540

 

Thank you for this information. I just got the mail from the BRN so they also require me to submit a DFA authentication.