The Philippine Overseas Labour Office (POLO) in Qatar has confirmed it will implement an online appointment system exclusively for verification of individual employment contracts starting July 30, reported The Peninsula.

Online appointments for verification can be done through the POLO website — www.polodoha.com.ph starting July 23.

This is a first-of-its-kind service among POLO offices in the Middle East and is aimed at de-congesting POLO processing centres, which has been seeing a huge influx of people in recent years.

"The verification of employment contract is one of the prerequisites for applying for the Overseas Employment Certificate, which is used by OFWs for various purposes such as applying for loan in the Philippines. While we usually get about 30 clients a day for this service, we noticed an unusual surge since early last month.”

“We received around 200 clients a day in June. So there was overcrowding and long queues. The new appointment system is expected to be convenient for both the applicants and the POLO staff, and OFWs can save their time by booking appointment with us,” Philippine Labour Attache David Des T Dicang told Qatar Tribune.

The official also urged all OFWs including household services workers to create an email address since confirmation of the appointment will be sent via email.

The new online system is simple and easy to use. According to guidelines issued by POLO, applicants need to visit the POLO website and click on ‘Services’ option, then ‘Appointment Booking.’ Once you fill up the electronic application form, you can select date and time for appointment with POLO

 Applicants should take a print out of the email confirmation of appointment and bring it on the assigned date and time, with other specified documents, to POLO office located on the 20th floor of Al Jazeera Tower in West Bay.

The fee for verification of contract is QR40.