How to get a 13 (a)
Visa or How to get a 13A visa, same thing.
Permanent Resident Visa 13 (a)
I am an alien whose country has an immigration reciprocity
agreement with the Philippines. I am also married to a
Filipina. Am I qualified to apply for a permanent residence
visa?
Yes, under the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940, Section 13
(a) you are eligible for permanent residency in the
Philippines. This visa is issued to an alien on the basis of
his valid marriage to a Philippine citizen.
To qualify for this visa, the applicant must prove that:
* He contracted a valid marriage with a Philippine citizen.
* The marriage is recognized as valid under existing
Philippine laws.
* There is no record of any derogatory information against him
in any local or foreign law enforcement agency.
* He is not afflicted with any dangerous, contagious or
loathsome disease.
* He has sufficient financial capacity to support a family and
will not become a public burden.
* He was allowed entry into the Philippines and was authorized
by Immigration authorities to stay.
NOTE: This visa is only available to citizens of a
country which grants permanent residence and immigration
privileges to Philippine citizens.
How can I apply for 13 (a) visa?
Ask for an application form (Form number RBR 98-01) from the
Public Assistance Unit of the Office of the Commissioner
Window One (1) or from the Makati Extension Office and
accomplish the form properly. If you will be accompanied by
your unmarried minor children they must fill up a separate
form.
All documents to support your application must be properly
certified as true copy. Sworn statements or affidavits should
be notarized.
Foreign documents must be
duly authenticated by the Philippine Embassy or Consulate at
the place where they are issued.
You may submit the duly accomplished application form with the
supporting documents to window (1) located at the ground floor
of the main building of the Bureau of Immigration or to the
Makati Extension Office.
NOTE: Filing fee should first be paid before an
application is filed.
Filing Papers for Permanent Resident Visa, 13A , Procedures,
Ease, Time Involved
The paperwork involved in applying for the
13(a) visa here is not
particularly onerous. There is, however,
quite a lot of time involved
and visits to various departments to get NBI
clearance, Barangay Clearance and statement that you are really living as
man and wife, Health
clearance/ X-ray, as well as various
notarized
affidavits regarding your
financial capacity to support, etc.The
various notaries camped
outside the Bureau of Immigration will have
all the required affidavits down pat and will type them up
for you and notarize them. The costs involved in notarizing are around
P50 per sheet of paper, so
a few hundred pesos will cover that lot.
After you submit all the paperwork you have
to wait for several weeks until you receive
the
call to attend an interview with your wife.
She will be questioned mainly to determine whether she really wants
you to be a resident.
After that there will be a further wait of
several weeks until the visa is granted after your application is
sighted and approved by the
Board of Commissioners.
This first application process will grant
you a probationary 13(a) visa for one year. You
will then have to submit
another, simplified, application in one
year. The fees are not really
excessive, but the process can be a little
tiresome and you will need
patience.
A Balikbayan visa is only given if you
arrive here in the Philippines
together with your Philippine spouse. You
will have to ask for it so
you should approach the immigration counter
together. It will allow
you to stay for one year without requiring
extensions. After that
period you must leave the Philippines. You
can return the same day and
start the process again.
NOTE: That there is no such thing as a yearly
visa that you can apply
for abroad, similar to Balikbayan. You can
apply for a one year validity multiple entry tourist visa. This
will enable you to come and go for one year without applying for further
visas. You WILL need to extend your stay after 59 days on each visit
however, same as for every tourist visa. The three months, or one
year, refers to the validity of the visa not the length of stay
you will be granted. There are other visas which are outside the scope
of this thread and which
entail large financial outlays.
In my case I was here on a tourist visa, and
renewing every two months. The initial probationary 13(a) visa
process took about 3 months and I applied for the permanent 13(a)
visa about one month before the expiry of the probationary visa.
The processing of the final visa was slightly quicker. There is no
need to worry about extending visas once the Bureau of
Immigration has your application in hand.
Unless of
course they reject it for some reason. I
have not seen any posts on
the various forums about their 13(a)
application having been rejected.
Once you have all the paperwork together it
is checked anyway before
you can submit it and any shortcomings will
be pointed out to you so
that it is unlikely that you will submit an
incomplete application.
submitted Jan 25, 2006 by George
Visa Options
There are a number of visa options for retirees. One program
that should be changed, in my opinion, is offered by the
Philippine Retirement Authority. Very few foreigners choose
Philippine Retirement use it because it requires an investment
of $50,000 to $75,000 (U.S.) for a year. There are better ways
to retire here without any investment, just small fees. Most
retirees consider $50,000 too much to invest in a foreign
country with an unstable economy. I would not do it
on a bet. The program does have special benefits, but none
you can't do without. This plan is under study because the idea
of paying a country to spend your hard-earned retirement money
in it is not drawing retirees like flies to honey. People don't
want to deposit that much to Retire in the Philippines and it is
not necessary.
Sunset view at the Pier
Retirement Visa, Best in My Opinion
Some retire on a tourist visa. That sounds strange, but is
easily done. It costs $20 per month to stay on a tourist visa.
The other requirement is that you must leave the country for at
least one day, once a year. Though you are officially a tourist,
you retire in the Philippines. Most who are doing
this make an annual two-day trip to Hong Kong or Thailand and
buy a bunch of cheap electronic goods. A package deal
including hotel and transfers costs about $280.
That is probably the best way to retire here, at
least at first. Visas to retire in the Philippines, however, if you
are married to a Philippine citizen are not necessary. You can
become a permanent resident, retired, and not have to check in at
the immigration office every two months, but only once a year. You
will not be required to pay $40 every two months. And you will not
be required to leave the country once a year as on a tourist visa.
You are treated as though you have a retirement visa.
Initial Extensions of Visa in Manila
Since I now have been in the PI long enough
for the visa I had gotten before I arrived,
to nearly expire, I thought any new visitors
in my situation Single - not married to a
Pilipino) might be interested,
and maybe save them some headaches.
You have to get an extension from the Bureau
Of Immigration which is in Intramuros. Their
hours are listed as 0800 to 1700; except
they are closed on holidays.
I arrived there at 0750 and discovered they
were already open.
There is a main door to the building, but if
you go to the right of it will you find the entrance which you need
to go in to get a
visitors visa extension.
Tell the guy at the door why you are there
and he will give you a
form to fill out and you take it to the
window with Counter A above it. I did not
fill out the form very accurately (which no
one seem
to care about). At the top of the form it
says Indicate 'N/A" if not
applicable, to not leave any space blank,
an to print all
information. It also contains four more
instructions which I actually
ignored.
FYI: I have seen several posts that said to
use the 'Express' window. There was no
'Express' window. Anyone processing, like I
did, will find at the end of the first part
of the process that they have paid for
express processing.
The first half of the form is easy to fill
out. - The only line in
this part of the form that I didn't fill out
precisely was 'Period of
Extension Requested: ____ months/
_____days'. I just put down 2 months.
The following questions I put down 'N/A'.
They were 'Printed name
and Address of Guarantor'; since I said that
my 'Status Of Admission Upon Entry' as
Visitor. Two-thirds of the way down the form
it says for you to (Do Not fill blanks below
this lint).
Stapled to the form you are given are two
other forms. The smallest
tells you which windows to go to, in what
order. After you go to
Counter A window (and every window after
that) I would highly suggest that before you
leave any window you ask them where you
should go next, because in my case the rest
of the instructions were erroneous.
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