It’s supposed to be easy and should be a one day job. It should be a get-in-get-off-and-get-out kind of thing, right? You were half smiling when you approached the Releasing window when suddenly, the woman from the other side of the counter deliberately stamp a date on the back of the receipt and hand it back to you.
You looked at it and it says “HIT” then a Date of Release is written which is on the next eight (8) working days.
What the hell just happened?
Well… My precious little young one, you’ve just been HIT or also known NBI Clearance HIT!
What’s the deal with this NBI Clearance HIT?
“HIT” is the term used by NBI Clearance Outlets if the applicant has a namesake and requires the NBI Clearance to be verified further before released to its owner. There are 104 Million (and counting) breathing individuals in the Philippines. With that size of population, there’s a very small chance that you have a namesake who already applied for their NBI Clearance.
You may want to read: NBI Online Registration
Once an NBI Clearance HIT status appears, NBI Personnel needs to perform further verification on the applicant’s identity. Applicants are instructed to return after eight (8) to ten (10) working days to claim their NBI Clearance Online Application.
What to do when you were HIT?
So what should I do after receiving a HIT? Nothing! As long as you don’t have a criminal record, you don’t have to worry about it. All you need to do is just need to wait at the comforts of your home and go on with your life. Wait for the date of release of your NBI Clearance, come back to the branch where you applied and claim it or ask someone (authorized representative) to pick your NBI Clearance for you. You just need to be patient.
You might be aware of several horror stories about having a namesake with criminal records, right? This is the time when the NBI Personnel do a further investigation about you.
The time has come (After Several Days of Waiting!)
When the assigned date of release of your NBI Clearance arrives, come early as possible. Claiming your NBI Clearance should be a quick business for you since they already did what they want to do.
The thing that can make you stay much longer and delays you to get your NBI Clearance Online is due to:
- Long queue lines because of high volume of NBI Clearance applicants and the people who also want to claim their NBI Clearance scheduled on the same day as yours.
- NBI Clearance Quality Control Interview (to know more about this, refer to this separate article.)
We advise you to bring at least two (2) Government Issued Identification Cards and especially your NBI Clearance Receipt. The valid IDs will prove your identity whenever they require you to undergo an on the spot NBI Clearance Quality Control Interview.
Read: NBI Online Registration Process [NEW Step-by-Step Guide]
What is NBI Clearance Quality Control Interview?
In my own understanding, the NBI Clearance Quality Control Interview is a process by which an NBI Clearance Personnel reviews or verify the true identity of the NBI Clearance applicant. This happens everytime an applicant with a namesake have a pending case or arrest warrant.
This results from receiving an NBI Clearance HIT Status in Database verification process. The derogatory record can be his or her own criminal case or under his namesake. In short, your name has been tagged as critical and NBI wants to make sure that they’ll be giving out NBI Clearances to “clean” persons.
Why is this Happening?
The disappointment of not having my NBI Clearance really bugs me while sitting on the cab going to the NBI Main Office. Why did NBI Clearance Main office doing this Quality Control Interview? Then I realize few things that might be a good reason why applicants is suffering this.
Maybe:
- You have a pending or ongoing case.
- You are under for arrest and needs to be identified in relation to a crime by the Police Authorities
- Your Namesake has a pending or ongoing case or
- Your namesake are under for arrest and needs to be identified in relation to a crime by the Police Authorities
Another piece of advice, wear the appropriate attire when going to NBI Clearance Branch.
When you are applying for an NBI Clearance, wearing casual attire is usually appropriate. Please keep in mind that it is always important to be tidy and well-groomed during the application of your
Unfortunately, the clothes you wear everyday to the mall, or out with your friends, usually aren’t suitable inside the NBI Clearance outlets. There is certain (unwritten) policy.
Frankly, if there’s any, I haven’t seen the Official Policy Statement concerning the dress code inside the NBI Clearance centers. Any wise man can argue with me that since there is no written policy about this, you can deliberately wear anything. What we’re trying to follow here is the “general rule” when making any transactions with Government Establishments.
To show you what outfits that should be avoided when applying in NBI Clearance, here are examples of what not to wear on a job interview.
You know what, we’re getting alot of comments about the NBI Clearance HIT. It’s making every NBI Clearance applicant’s life harder. Anyway, if you’re interested on how to apply for Philippine Passport, you may choose to read the tutorial here.
But before we go, we would like to announce that we have written the updated guide on How To Apply NBI Clearance Online.
Best of luck with your NBI Clearance application! If you’ve got a great NBI Clearance HIT experience or valuable tips to add (or a question to ask), just leave a comment below.