What countries are Filipinos allowed to travel to right now?

[AmericanNomad 16]

Hi, my girlfriend and I are planning to meet each other for the first time this coming December. Is there a list of countries I can check where Filipinos are currently allowed to travel to? Some are banned due to covid. And I know this list will most likely change by December, but just want to see what our options are currently. Thanks for any help.

[flicks1998 1,044]

15 minutes ago, AmericanNomad said:

Hi, my girlfriend and I are planning to meet each other for the first time this coming December. Is there a list of countries I can check where Filipinos are currently allowed to travel to? Some are banned due to covid. And I know this list will most likely change by December, but just want to see what our options are currently. Thanks for any help.

Like you said, its way to early to plan anything considering how fast everything changes.  You are going to have to consider a few things, #1 where can your gf go without a visa (since applying for any country visa now is taking a long time) then youll have to look at the Covid travel restrictions.  To start on the visa part, see the below link.  Covid restrictions are always changing and I wouldnt even look into that until Oct/Nov.  Your greatest challenge will be Philippine immigration.  One, she is only your gf, and the other is you have never met in the past.  She will have a higher than normal chance of being offloaded because of this.  It will take some precise planning.  It will help if she has previously traveled to other countries such as the US, Canada, the EU or Schengen area, or Australia, Japan.  If she has no travel history outside of the Philippines, this could present another obstacle.  

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_Philippine_citizens

 

Edited August 6, 2021 by flicks1998

[Adventine 3,196]

In my former life as a Global Mobility specialist, we used this site as (one of many) to plan our staff's international travel: https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/

 

This tool was especially useful:

https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/international-travel-document-news/1580226297.htm

 

[Joe Kano 327]

49 minutes ago, AmericanNomad said:

Hi, my girlfriend and I are planning to meet each other for the first time this coming December. Is there a list of countries I can check where Filipinos are currently allowed to travel to? Some are banned due to covid. And I know this list will most likely change by December, but just want to see what our options are currently. Thanks for any help.

Does she have a passport? I too am like you trying to rendezvous with my friend, she is trying to get a passport but that seem like a fixxer has to be involved and opening not until like October time frame with a fixer.

 

[AmericanNomad 16]

1 hour ago, flicks1998 said:

Like you said, its way to early to plan anything considering how fast everything changes.  You are going to have to consider a few things, #1 where can your gf go without a visa (since applying for any country visa now is taking a long time) then youll have to look at the Covid travel restrictions.  To start on the visa part, see the below link.  Covid restrictions are always changing and I wouldnt even look into that until Oct/Nov.  Your greatest challenge will be Philippine immigration.  One, she is only your gf, and the other is you have never met in the past.  She will have a higher than normal chance of being offloaded because of this.  It will take some precise planning.  It will help if she has previously traveled to other countries such as the US, Canada, the EU or Schengen area, or Australia, Japan.  If she has no travel history outside of the Philippines, this could present another obstacle.  

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_Philippine_citizens

 

She has a passport and has traveled outside the Philippines before. She's been to South Korea. She also has a good stable job. So I'm feeling good about her not getting offloaded in December. I was thinking either Thailand or Maldives for where to meet, assuming those places are open in December.

[flicks1998 1,044]

34 minutes ago, AmericanNomad said:

She has a passport and has traveled outside the Philippines before. She's been to South Korea. She also has a good stable job. So I'm feeling good about her not getting offloaded in December. I was thinking either Thailand or Maldives for where to meet, assuming those places are open in December.

Maldives may be a better option.  As of now, tourists do not need to quarantine.  Thailand is experimenting with its Phuket "sandbox" where tourists need to stay on the island of Phuket for 2 weeks and then can travel freely to other provinces.  You may also want to look at Turkey but a visa will need to be arranged.  Im not sure if Filipinos qualify for an e-visa.  Would have to double check.  However there are minimal Covid requirements.  From now until December is a Covid eternity so there could be changes to travel requirements over that period of time.  

[top_secret 2,421]

Maldives has been a good place for Filipinas to visit foreign partners during the pandemic.  I would stay clear of Thailand for now.  I 'think' the Philippines total travel ban against Thailand still stands, and Thailand hasn't been super accommodating towards Filipino either.  Right now and possibly for the foreseeable future I just don't see any really good options in most of Asia.  Some Filipinas have recently been meeting boyfriends in Armenia and Georgia (the country).  They need visas but they are attainable visas.  Georgia apparently has some ski resorts in the winter which may be a unique experience for a Filipina.  I got my wife and step daughter snow skiing pretty good in Japan and Korea and that was fun before the pandemic shut them down.  Morocco is another country some couples are meeting at.  Costa Rica and most of South America are great options except for the distance and expense getting there from the Philippines.  Since Mexico deported my wife with great contempt when she arrived with a valid visa and everything and they pretty much treated her as a criminal when she had done nothing wrong....  We cant personally recommend Mexico.  Brazil was awesome after the attempted Cancun trip turned very very ugly.

[Joe Kano 327]

14 hours ago, top_secret said:

 We cant personally recommend Mexico.  Brazil was awesome after the attempted Cancun trip turned very very ugly.

Cancun Airport was the place she had all the trouble?

[top_secret 2,421]

4 hours ago, Joe Kano said:

Cancun Airport was the place she had all the trouble?

Mexico City.  She was arriving from Frankfurt on Lufhansa and I was waiting for her in the airport there so we could fly to Cancun together.  She simply vanished without a trace.  Mexican Immigration wouldn't say anything.  Finally I got ahold of some Lufhansa employees who at least told me where she disappeared to.  Mexican Immigration went way over the top hostile against her and we still couldn't really say what set them off.  Nothing was out of order and no specific reason was given.  Visa was valid and not even questioned. They threatened her if she wouldn't sign some deportation order in Spanish which she couldn't read and has no copy of.  We assume if they threw her out with that level of hostility she must have a ban now or something but haven't investigated what she would need to do about it because I am quite certain she won't ever agree to visit Mexico again.  Ironic because she will be living in San Diego like 20 minutes from the border here in a few months.  Won't be trying Cancun again any time soon.  Belize might be nice.

[Joe Kano 327]

8 hours ago, top_secret said:

Mexico City.  She was arriving from Frankfurt on Lufhansa and I was waiting for her in the airport there so we could fly to Cancun together.  She simply vanished without a trace.  Mexican Immigration wouldn't say anything.  Finally I got ahold of some Lufhansa employees who at least told me where she disappeared to.  Mexican Immigration went way over the top hostile against her and we still couldn't really say what set them off.  Nothing was out of order and no specific reason was given.  Visa was valid and not even questioned. They threatened her if she wouldn't sign some deportation order in Spanish which she couldn't read and has no copy of.  We assume if they threw her out with that level of hostility she must have a ban now or something but haven't investigated what she would need to do about it because I am quite certain she won't ever agree to visit Mexico again.  Ironic because she will be living in San Diego like 20 minutes from the border here in a few months.  Won't be trying Cancun again any time soon.  Belize might be nice.

Wow

 

What a crazy story, Kinda like the Locked Up Abroad stories I have watched on TV.  I wonder if she was able to fly to Cancun as her POE in Mexico if it would of made a difference, I bet you they don't see many from PHilippines land at Mexico City Airport as a POE.   I would love to know what in the world set them off.

 

I am sure once she has the US Greencard they will welcome her with open arms in Mexico, but like you said I don't see her wanting to go there anytime soon. 

 

Good thing is we have Central and South America and so many cool places to visit. 

[RO_AH 1,659]

9 hours ago, top_secret said:

Mexico City.  She was arriving from Frankfurt on Lufhansa and I was waiting for her in the airport there so we could fly to Cancun together.  She simply vanished without a trace.  Mexican Immigration wouldn't say anything.  Finally I got ahold of some Lufhansa employees who at least told me where she disappeared to.  Mexican Immigration went way over the top hostile against her and we still couldn't really say what set them off.  Nothing was out of order and no specific reason was given.  Visa was valid and not even questioned. They threatened her if she wouldn't sign some deportation order in Spanish which she couldn't read and has no copy of.  We assume if they threw her out with that level of hostility she must have a ban now or something but haven't investigated what she would need to do about it because I am quite certain she won't ever agree to visit Mexico again.  Ironic because she will be living in San Diego like 20 minutes from the border here in a few months.  Won't be trying Cancun again any time soon.  Belize might be nice.

That also happened to someone from France on the show "Before the 90 Days". She had a K-1 and could not travel to US due to travel ban. They were planning to meet in Mexico for 2 weeks and then cross together into the US.

[Joe Kano 327]

17 hours ago, RO_AH said:

That also happened to someone from France on the show "Before the 90 Days". She had a K-1 and could not travel to US due to travel ban. They were planning to meet in Mexico for 2 weeks and then cross together into the US.

Sure did and now I remember it, she said or acted like they treated her very unkind.  I wonder what's up with them, I wonder if they were looking for bribe?

[top_secret 2,421]

I saw the 90 Day Fiancée incident about 6 months after that happened to us, but I figure it was probably filmed in about the same time frame.  Yea, pretty much exactly the same thing.  I think the 90-day girl posted on VJ at the time.  I bet our case would have made more gripping TV drama though if we had producers and cameramen in tow. We were all over the planet straitening that debacle out.

 

Apparently, Mexico deports ALLOT of people who arrive with complete requirements.  Just mostly they are not from English speaking so you don't much hear about it in the US.  Reading some Mexican news articles through Google translate about how other Latin Americans are treated there, pretty much EXACTLY describes what we encountered.  Apparently, a big problem that we innocently stumbled into.

 

Mexican news article from March this year through google translate. This describes almost EXACTLY what happened to my wife.  Apparently still a problem.

 

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=https://elpais.com/mexico/2021-03-20/maltratos-discriminacion-y-deportaciones-bajo-sospecha-el-infame-cuartito-de-inmigracion-de-mexico.html

 

Mexican news article from 2018.  Apparently, a problem for quite some time.

 

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=https://www.animalpolitico.com/2018/07/gobierno-epn-extranjeros-mexico/

[andrewfromdenver 31]

anyone with an updated list on where we can meet our fiances? i know costa rica.....problem its flights are close to 30 hours from manila and that doesnt even cover mindanao to manila.......

 

thailand a bit pricey but i may go there

 

bali even more pricey.....kinda wonder what a muslim country (indonesia) thinks of half clad filipinas even in tourist spot

 

i hear a part of vietnam may open up....probably already has

 

qatar.....but they dont allow non-married couples to share room

 

my girl is poor so no way would she meet the requirements to visit canada.....and yeah i would have to buy her a whole new warm wardrobe upon landing

 

maldives?? very pricey

 

singapore looks interesting until i find out they wont let in filipinos

 

any more ideas? looking for ease.....as well as not crazy expensive

 

 

[RO_AH 1,659]

2 hours ago, andrewfromdenver said:

anyone with an updated list on where we can meet our fiances? i know costa rica.....problem its flights are close to 30 hours from manila and that doesnt even cover mindanao to manila.......

thailand a bit pricey but i may go there

bali even more pricey.....kinda wonder what a muslim country (indonesia) thinks of half clad filipinas even in tourist spot

i hear a part of vietnam may open up....probably already has

qatar.....but they dont allow non-married couples to share room

my girl is poor so no way would she meet the requirements to visit canada.....and yeah i would have to buy her a whole new warm wardrobe upon landing

maldives?? very pricey

singapore looks interesting until i find out they wont let in filipinos

any more ideas? looking for ease.....as well as not crazy expensive

The first thing you need to consider is if your fiance would even be able to leave the Philippines. It's not simple. I believe that they now require a CFO. If they are fairly young and never traveled before it will be very difficult if not impossible for them to even leave the Philippines.

"Half clad Filipinas"? Most are very conservative in the way they dress.