JUNE PHILIPPINE TRAVEL UPDATES: NAIA, IMMIGRATION, AND CUSTOMS

Jennifer Terri

ARRIVAL Travel Guide to the Philippines ✨ For Filipinos (Filipino):    • UPDATED TRAVEL GU...   ✨ For Balikbayans (Former Filipinos and their Families):    • UPDATED TRAVEL GU...   ✨ For Foreign Nationals:    • Latest Travel Gui...   📍ARRIVAL All passengers entering the Philippines are required to register with E-TRAVEL Tutorial Guide for E-TRAVEL (ENGLISH):    • E-TRAVEL UPDATE: ...   Tutorial Guide for E-TRAVEL (FILIPINO):    • GAWIN MO TO BAGO ...   📍DEPARTURE Only Filipinos are required to register to e-travel prior to departure. https://etravel.gov.ph/ Tutorial Guide for E-TRAVEL (FILIPINO):    • GAWIN MO TO BAGO ...   ✨For Foreign Nationals, Balikbayans, Dual Citizens, and Filipino Permanent Residents Abroad:    • THINGS THAT IMMIG...   ✨For Filipinos:    • DEPARTURE REQUIRE...   Register to E-TRAVEL when you depart the Philippines: https://etravel.gov.ph/ 👉🏽Filipino Tourists departing the Philippines may be required by Philippine Immigration to secure travel medical insurance. For this, you may check out Safetywing: https://www.safetywing.com/a/24818256 👉🏽Foreign Tourists, except those covered by Balikbayan Privilege, may be required by airlines and immigration to show an exit ticket. You may rent a ticket here to satisfy this requirement for just $14: https://onwardticket.com/jennifer ( FYI - The links above are affiliate codes/links. This means I may get a reward at no additional cost to you when you use them. Thanks in advance because it helps support the channel :) Want to stay longer than 30 days? It’s easy!:    • IMMIGRATION RULES...   First extension Quick Process:    • GOOD NEWS! NEW SY...   💰SENDING MONEY TO THE PHILIPPINES? This is what I personally use for quick transfers: https://www.worldremit.com/en/r/JENNI... The first transfer is FREE plus you get a $10 voucher! 👋Hello, my name is Jennifer Terri, and I am a 26-year-old gal from Tagum City, Philippines. I make Philippine Travel News & Updates to keep you informed and up-to-date on the latest travel news, ensuring that your trip runs smoothly and without any issues.

Filipinos in America

10,000 Filipinos face deportation as US changes immigration policy

By Patricia Lourdes Viray (philstar.com) | Updated September 6, 2017 - 6:05pm

 37  943 googleplus1  0 

Standing on the step to the County Administration building, several groups address the crowd during a rally to show support for DACA in San Diego on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2017. Almost 800,000 young immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children or overstayed their visas could see their lives upended after the Trump administration announced Tuesday it is ending the Obama-era program that protected them from deportation. Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune via AP

MANILA, Philippines — An estimated 10,000 Filipinos may be deported as the United States rescinds a program allowing undocumented immigrant children to stay legally in their country.

US President Donald Trump announced the formal dismantling of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which has given nearly 800,000 young immigrants a reprieve from deportation.

Trump gave the US Congress six months to come up with a law that would prevent the deportations of many as the people covered by the program.

Congress, get ready to do your job - DACA!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2017

I look forward to working w/ D's + R's in Congress to address immigration reform in a way that puts hardworking citizens of our country 1st.

Headlines ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2017

Congress now has 6 months to legalize DACA (something the Obama Administration was unable to do). If they can't, I will revisit this issue!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 6, 2017

READ: Trump expected to end program for young immigrants

DFA on standby to assist Filipinos facing deportation

The Philippine government will assist Filipinos who will be affected by the revocation of the DACA program, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.

"We will authorize, with certain limitations, the use of the Assistance to Nationals Fund and the Legal Assistance Fund to assist immigration-related cases such as those arising from the decision of President Trump to revoke the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals or DACA," Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said.

The Philippines' top diplomat urged members of the Filipino community in the US to remain hopeful and to actively support the passage of new laws that would assist those who will be affected by the policy change.

"In any event, we are ready to welcome and assist our kababayans in whatever way we can if they are returned to the Philippines," Cayetano said.

According to Chargé d'Affaires Patrick Chuasoto of the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C., the DACA program provides temporary legal status, allowing qualified immigrant children from the Philippines and other countries to stay, study and work in the US.

The DACA program was part of an executive order that former US President Barack Obama issued in 2012 to protect undocumented immigrant children from deportation.

About 310,000 out of the 3.4 million Filipinos in the US are undocumented, Chuasoto said.

Immigraton Issues New Guidelines on Visa Re-stamping

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) will enforce its new rules on re-stamping  of visas for foreigners with permanent residents status in the Philippines.

Under Immigration Administrative Circular No. SBM-2015-001, the BI requires all foreign nationals covered by Republic Act (R.A.), otherwise known as the Alien Social Integration Act of 1995, to have the new security visa stamp implemented in their passports as a requirement for reneal of their Alien Certificate of Registration (ACR) - I-Card.

According to BI Spokesperson Elaine Tan, the new rules were part of the effort to upgrade the bureau's database on visa holders.

"The new guidelines intend to update the bureau's database on holders of the visa," she said in a statement.

With this, the B.I. official said that for the re-stamping of passport, visa holders are required to submit the following documents:

1. Duly accomplished RA 7919 re-stamping form;

2. Photocopy of passport pages showing: a) Bio-data page, b) Latest admission as 7919 visa holder; c) New/amended name of the applicant, if any; and

3.) Photocopy of ACR I-Card (front and back).

Tan also said that the new guidelines will be effected next month - so to say March 2015! The new rules will take effect around the second week of March, or 15 days after publication in two newspapers of general circulation.

RA 7919 granted permanent residency to illegal aliens upon compliance with certain conditions provided in the law.

(C) PNA

Philippine Immigration Eyes Advance Info on Philippine Visitors

By Evelyn Macairan, The Philippine Star

 

 To better screen high-risk passengers coming to the country, the Bureau of Immigration is hoping to get advance information about the passengers even before they step on Philippine soil.

 

Immigration commissioner Siegfred Mison said they are pushing for the implementation of the Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) to allow immigration officers to receive data about the passengers bound for the Philippines even before they arrive at international airports and seaports.

He said the government needs an APIS “so that we could channel all our resources to those passengers who are considered as high-risk and low risk. We would be able to immediately let the ‘good guys’ in and keep the ‘bad guys’ out.”

Mison said they are still in the process of getting President Aquino to sign an executive order to implement APIS.

The yearly subscription to the provider of the advance passenger database alone could amount to P16 million. Aside from the BI, the Bureau of Customs and the Department of Tourism might be asked to help shoulder the subscription cost since they would also benefit from the system.

The service also covers the training of personnel for the APIS.

There are three top APIS providers that would still have to bid for the project once the President signs the executive order.

Mison is hoping the project pushes through before the end of the year.

Two international events are scheduled next year where the APIS would prove to be useful – the five-day apostolic visit of Pope Francis from Jan. 15 to 19 next year and the 2015 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meet.

The first batch of delegates for APEC is expected to arrive this December.

Immigration Resumes Employment Generation Program

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Thursday resumed the implementation of an employment generation program that grants foreign businessmen employing at least 10 Filipino workers the privilege to stay indefinitely in the country.

Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. made the announcement after Justice Secretary Leila de Lima approved memorandum circular No. RADJR-11-007, dated December 14, 2011, prescribing the revised rules for implementing the Special Visa for Employment Generation (SVEG), which was first introduced in 2009 pursuant to Executive Order No. 758.

However, the visa is still subject to restrictions imposed by the Constitution and existing laws on foreign investments, according to Associate Commissioner Siegfred Mison.

"The applicant must prove that his investment are substantial and that the business employs at least 10 Filipinos occupying managerial, executive, professional, technical, skilled or unskilled positions," Mison said in a statement.

He further said that the SVEG holders are considered special non-immigrants with multiply entry privileges and conditional extended stay, without need of prior departure from the Philippines.

Visa Program Generates Jobs

The Bureau of Immigration reported some days ago that 530 foreign investors and their dependents have availed themselves of the agency's special visa for the employment generation (SVEG), which in turn gave at least 35,000 new full-time and regular jobs to Filipino workers.

A report submitted to Commissioner Marcelino Libanan showed that 141 Korean investors topped the list of the visa applicants since the scheme was implemented in April last year. 

Bureau of Immigration Spokesman Floro Balato Jr. said that aside from Koreans, the list of applicants includes 43 Chinese, 27 Americans, 19 Taiwanese, 16 Britons, 15 Indians, 11 Japanese, 11 Australians, 8 Malaysians, 6 Singaporeans, and 4 (!) Germans.

Other nationalities who availed themselves of the job visa are Austrian, Bangladeshi, Belgian, Danish, Dutch, Egyptian, Finnish, Greek, Hong-Kong, Indonesian and many more.

Balato said that as of May 2010 344 principal applicants and 186 of their dependents have availed themselves of the job visa and paid the Philippine government more than 6,7 million Pesos in immigration fees.

Philippinische Immigration erhoeht die Preise?Immigration Big Price Hike

Ja, es wird wieder teurer, auf den Philippinen zu verweilen - als Tourist! Andererseits: ist man "noch" Tourist, wenn man jahrelang alle zwei Monate sein Aufenthaltsvisum erneuert bzw. verlaengert?

Inzwischen werden fuer eine Visumsverlaengerung nach 59 Tagen fuer weitere 59 die Gebuehr von 5.970 Pesos erhoben. Die Expressgebuehr betraegt 1.500 Pesos. Ausserdem wird man zusaetzlich zur Kasse gebeten, weil man neuerdings eine ACR I-Card benoetigt, also eine Alien Certification Registration Identification Card - AUCH als Tourist, wenn man laenger als 59 Tage in diesem schoenen Land verweilen moechte.

===

And here we are; it's indeed another increase in the cost of staying in the Philippines. If you extend your visa for a further 59 days you'll be charged with 5,970 PHP. And there will be an additional charge for an ACR I-Card, means to say an Alien Certification Registration Identification Card - also for tourists, who p[lan to stay longer then 59 days in this beautiful country. And, the "fast lane charges" in the immigration will add another 1,500 PHP to your bill.