Cost of 13A percent Resident Visa 2008 estimate

Hello, My name is Ron Steiner from Pennsylvania, USA, I have a Filipina fiance' living in Caygayan de Oro City. We plan to marry on my first visit to CDO in late April of 08'. Is there any advice I can get on obtaining my Visa 13a for permanent residence in Mindanao. I am on a fixed income here from the states so it limits my options to keep renewing the standard visa to live there. Thanks for your help, looking forward to my transition.

Kindly, Ron---

Rob, I just went thru the process and it is pretty straight forward .I have a list of the requirements and documents you have to have . Be advised you may still have to file extensions til the 13A visa is processed . Also the cost for 1st year is about the same as extensions and the savings comes in after that at only 300 pesos per year. They offered to do it in Butuan for us at 45000 pesos and we declined as we had a cousin of my wife's in immigration in Cebu.You will pay around 1500 pesos to file and the remainder when it is complete and returned to Cebu from Manila.You will have other costs for the medical quarantine exam that must be done by an approved immigration doctor ( CDO immigration can tell you which one ) and you will have some costs for affidavits as well( 300 pesos per hour was what we paid for 3 affidavits ) Then of course we had to pay and "expedite" interview fee(bribe) to the officer who knew he had us in a bind. It was a Friday and he knew we would have to stay the weekend in a hotel if we had to wait so he told us how "lucky" we were to have his time in such a busy schedule .Oh well this is the Philippines. E mail me if you want the list of requirements .

Marty in Butuan

Hi Rob,

I agree it is pretty straight forward, just a little time consuming.The total cost should only be around Php10,000. These 'agents' who charge Php45-50k are only useful to Koreans etc who don't speak the language. As for saving only Php300 a year, don't get what you mean. The only cost per year on 13a is the ACR 'Annual report' at Php310. Unless you know something I don't?