Happier Abroad Forum Community

Great. But at what cost? What if you only need to extend only 2 or 3 months?

I guess the Philippines has been losing tourists.

The cost is P13,000. I guess if you want only w months, then you just pay for two months.

ladislav wrote:The cost is P13,000. I guess if you want only w months, then you just pay for two months.

Wow, that's expensive. Still, it's only twice as much as a 30 day China visa.

Visas are just cash cows for governments now. Kudos to Malaysia for making it so easy to visit their country!

The price of the new 6 month tourist visa is the same as 3, 2 month tourist visas. I guess it took them 30 yrs to figure out tourists don't like waiting in line at immigration on their holidays.

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Ghost wrote:It may be a tad pricey, but for 6 months that would be worth it. I'm taking note of this as I continue to research and plan for a long-term Philippines stay. Since there aren't a ot of ways to stay there a longer time, this is a pretty good option. Otherwise, get marred there, or find a job and get a work visa (which from what I've read does not automatically get taken care of by your employer like, say, China does.)

There's also a quota visa -- basically it makes you an immigrant. 50 per nationality per year are given. The cost with lawyers and all is some USD 6000. You need to have USD 40K to your name in a bank anywhere I guess. Don't quote me. Some guys allegedly got it without having 40K in the bank. Well connected lawyers do all kinds of things in the Philippines.

Then, there's a retiree visa. 20K in a Philippine bank if over 50.

Supposedly the two visas above make it possible for you to work without a work permit, but please check.

Salaries in the Philippines are low and taxes are high. You can make more money teaching English online and editing and stuff like that than working in a Filipino office somewhere.

You may get lucky and get a well paid job but those are rare.

If you get hired into a regular job, decent employers do apply for the work permit. No biggie.

There's also a balikbayan visa which you obtain by coming with your wife from abroad- one year automatic!

As far as tourist visas go, I know guys who have been in the country for 25 years living on those. They just go out once a year.

Seems like the Phils are the only place in the world making it easier for ordinary people (non-retired, non-investors) to live there.

ladislav wrote:
There's also a quota visa -- basically it makes you an immigrant. 50 per nationality per year are given. The cost with lawyers and all is some USD 6000. You need to have USD 40K to your name in a bank anywhere I guess. Don't quote me. Some guys allegedly got it without having 40K in the bank. Well connected lawyers do all kinds of things in the Philippines.

Can you naturalize with this? Is there any fast track to official naturalization for non-filipino Kano; maybe with extra money paid to certain parties, etc? How long does it take in best case?

Retirement visas and PRs are cheap alternatives with little value. If you have any problem, they can easily deport and ban you. Those visas are easy to get in so many parts of the world but really, you will always have second class status. Any trouble and they jail and deport you or just deport you.

The trick is, the 6 month extension for tourist visas is only available at the main Immigration office in Manila. But I heard that you can do it through a travel agency too, outside Manila. The agency will charge you more or less extra fees depending on how many extensions they bring to process in Manila.

However, I wonder how much it saves Ladislav. Some of my two month extensions in the Philippines cost 4000p and some cost 3000p. Either way I guess it's less hassle if you know you're going to stay a long time.