Travel to Philippines with Visa & Entry Exemption.

[RO_AH 1,659]

The rules say that it is doable. But the word given down to the Consulate's is that foreigners are not allowed without an exemption AND the reason for the exemption must be urgent or essential. Here is the exact wording:

 

Pursuant to the Philippine Bureau of Immigration's latest Travel Advisory, all foreign nationals are still prohibited from entering the Philippines, except for those who are exempted pursuant to the latest directives of the Office of the President and/or resolution by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).

 

Foreign nationals who wish to be reunited with their Filipino families may seek an endorsement for the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) entry exemption (EE) if you feel that your situation warrants urgent and essential travel. 

 

I just filed for mine and it was 17 pages of documents that I had to send. If you want more information and the requirements for this elusive exemption you can PM me . I will update people once I get approved or denied. This is at the end of what they sent me.

 

Should we find your request valid, we will endorse your request to DFA. Please note that there is no guarantee on the approval of the issuance of an entry exemption.

 

First you need to satisfy the Consulate and then they will forward it along to the DFA who may still deny you.

[Skyman 310]

32 minutes ago, RO_AH said:

I will update people once I get approved or denied. This is at the end of what they sent me.

Please do. Do you have a visa already or are you trying to get both at the same time.

[RO_AH 1,659]

1 hour ago, Skyman said:

Please do. Do you have a visa already or are you trying to get both at the same time.

I am applying for visa and exemption together.

[seekingthetruth 1,246]

3 hours ago, RO_AH said:

First you need to satisfy the Consulate and then they will forward it along to the DFA who may still deny you.

Are you fully vaccinated?  I know that officially they don't have a policy for fully vaccinated, but I would certainly mention it, as it may carry some weight with the person looking at your file.  Good luck!

 

I have a friend who was fully vaccinated in the U.S. while on a solo trip without his wife.  He had to quarantine when he got back.  His wife is dual citizen and he is on 13A.  A few weeks ago they wanted to go to Morong to look at property, and Morong requires a test.  Rather then hope that checkpoints, etc., would recognize his vac card, he got tested so he could have the paperwork.  Along with his wife and cousin / maid who lives with them.  He and his wife were negative but the 62 yo cousin / maid was positive.  Asymptomatic.  No chance for retest in case it was false positive.  The next day after the test they came and picked her up at his house with ambulance, lights flashing and full PPE.  He paid for her to stay in a quarantine hotel.  P1000 a day including meals.  She was terrified and had never stayed in a hotel before.  They had to coach her over the phone how to call room service, etc.

 

So then he and his wife were placed on 14 day home quarantine, and other family who had visited were ordered tested.  Not sure what the outcome was.  Then, 5 days after the test,  "they" show up at his house to disinfect it.  Two guys walked around making a few token puff puffs in the house.  10 minutes.  I'll bet they are contractors.

 

So many gaps in that procedure.  No common sense.

[LU SEE FURR 14]

8 hours ago, RO_AH said:

The rules say that it is doable. But the word given down to the Consulate's is that foreigners are not allowed without an exemption AND the reason for the exemption must be urgent or essential. Here is the exact wording:

 

Pursuant to the Philippine Bureau of Immigration's latest Travel Advisory, all foreign nationals are still prohibited from entering the Philippines, except for those who are exempted pursuant to the latest directives of the Office of the President and/or resolution by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).

 

Foreign nationals who wish to be reunited with their Filipino families may seek an endorsement for the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) entry exemption (EE) if you feel that your situation warrants urgent and essential travel. 

 

I just filed for mine and it was 17 pages of documents that I had to send. If you want more information and the requirements for this elusive exemption you can PM me . I will update people once I get approved or denied. This is at the end of what they sent me.

 

Should we find your request valid, we will endorse your request to DFA. Please note that there is no guarantee on the approval of the issuance of an entry exemption.

 

First you need to satisfy the Consulate and then they will forward it along to the DFA who may still deny you.

Can't your wife just meet you somewhere and you get a visa and just fly into Philippines and do the Balikbayian Visa Stamp?

[RO_AH 1,659]

9 hours ago, seekingthetruth said:

Are you fully vaccinated?  I know that officially they don't have a policy for fully vaccinated, but I would certainly mention it, as it may carry some weight with the person looking at your file.  Good luck!

It is not something that I would do unless forced to. I would if it meant that was the only way to be with my wife and kids but that is the only reason I would even consider it. In reality there is a small chance of getting Covid and it has a 99.5% survival rate if you get it. The vaccine has not been fully approved so it is technically experimental. So yeah, no thanks on that. Aside from that, it's not something that would currently help my chances on getting the visa and EE at this point.

9 hours ago, seekingthetruth said:

The next day after the test they came and picked her up at his house with ambulance, lights flashing and full PPE.  He paid for her to stay in a quarantine hotel.  P1000 a day including meals.  She was terrified and had never stayed in a hotel before.  They had to coach her over the phone how to call room service, etc.

 

So then he and his wife were placed on 14 day home quarantine, and other family who had visited were ordered tested.  Not sure what the outcome was.  Then, 5 days after the test,  "they" show up at his house to disinfect it.  Two guys walked around making a few token puff puffs in the house.  10 minutes.  I'll bet they are contractors.

I have a very close friend in PH now who got Covid. She is young and healthy so pretty much a 100% survival rate. She self quarantined in her home away from others. After several days the worst was over and was still considering if she should go to a doctor and get tested. For the reasons of what you described above I told her NO WAY. She was already in recovery and at that point there was nothing a doctor could do anyway. No one in her house was affected. She recovered fully and she is very happy that she did not report it.

[RO_AH 1,659]

4 hours ago, LU SEE FURR said:

Can't your wife just meet you somewhere and you get a visa and just fly into Philippines and do the Balikbayian Visa Stamp?

That would be a possibility as well as many other options that we will be looking at if this fails. Also I am not planning my trip there as a visit, the main purpose is to bring her and our children back. Currently she will have to leave there by 8/7/21 because of the date stamped on her passport for her medical. We are still waiting on her visa because she got a 221g. We should know in 2 weeks. I should know about my visa at that time as well. Her leaving our children to go somewhere to meet me and fly back and then having to quarantine in Manila for 10 days is probably not something that she would want to do. I am also considering having her fly with our children to Guam and we fly from there to Hawaii together. She has never flown before in her life and with a 2 & 3 year old along with handling all of their luggage it would be extremely tough for her. So also not a great option.

[flicks1998 1,044]

Let us know how long it takes for DFA to respond. I have heard from others it’s take months but not sure how precise or accurate that is.  Also that approval will be needed to get the visa. The visa is actually the fast part. You can have that in less than a week if all documents are correct. 
 

 

Edited June 12, 2021 by flicks1998

[RO_AH 1,659]

6 minutes ago, flicks1998 said:

Also that approval will be needed to get the visa.

Actually when you apply for the EE you include the visa application along with it if you do not have a current visa.

[RO_AH 1,659]

UPDATE: My application was endorsed by the Consulate and has been forwarded to the DFA (Manila). They may request more documents from me and there is no guarantee of the issuance of the EED.

[Skyman 310]

4 hours ago, RO_AH said:

UPDATE: My application was endorsed by the Consulate and has been forwarded to the DFA (Manila). They may request more documents from me and there is no guarantee of the issuance of the EED.

So far so good anyway.

[Kby175 115]

On 6/14/2021 at 7:08 PM, RO_AH said:

UPDATE: My application was endorsed by the Consulate and has been forwarded to the DFA (Manila). They may request more documents from me and there is no guarantee of the issuance of the EED.

Hopefully you get it, I am still on the fence if I should apply or not I don't want to sit in quarantine for 7 to 14 days. I haven't seen my wife and daughter since January 2020 in person, thank God for video chat.  

[RO_AH 1,659]

4 hours ago, Kby175 said:

Hopefully you get it, I am still on the fence if I should apply or not I don't want to sit in quarantine for 7 to 14 days. I haven't seen my wife and daughter since January 2020 in person, thank God for video chat.  

I feel your pain. I have not been with my wife and 2 sons since 3/1/20. You need a valid reason to go as well. Missing them would most likely be a reason for them to allow. I am requesting based on my wife getting her visa (hopefully very soon) and needing me to help her and our sons travel to here. Don't know if that is enough to get exemption but we will see.

[Murph4865 597]

On 6/17/2021 at 1:57 PM, RO_AH said:

I feel your pain. I have not been with my wife and 2 sons since 3/1/20. You need a valid reason to go as well. Missing them would most likely be a reason for them to allow. I am requesting based on my wife getting her visa (hopefully very soon) and needing me to help her and our sons travel to here. Don't know if that is enough to get exemption but we will see.

Been over two yrs since i seen my wife physically, since 3/7/19 when i left to come back to USA after getting married