Philippines lifting some requirements

[VanHalen 3]

58 minutes ago, John & Rose said:

I doubt if the visa is ever going away.  I am waiting to see if they are processing them for non-spouses.  It was the wording.  The other announcements talked about the entry restrictions but this one only states "foreign nationals".  This is the Philippines though and they may just have forgotten to include that language.

The Visa will go away

[VanHalen 3]

7 hours ago, RO_AH said:

I have not seen anything so far that would indicate that they have lifted the requirement for a valid visa. While this may be a step in the right direction, I would not get my hopes up regarding tourists.

I am hoping by June of 2022, But I was hoping by June of 2021 back in March 2020.

[flicks1998 1,044]

9 hours ago, D&D&Dk1 said:

Before you get too excited these are the countries deemed worthy of being on the "green list" by the IATF.

 

 

Yeah you read that right...places like Congo, Sierra Leone, and Chad are on the green list but most of the EU and North America isn't. Somehow I doubt that the poorest parts of Africa are more well vaxed than developed nations.

The Philippines colored code system uses the logic I once heard of "if you dont do any testing, then there must be no pandemic because there are no cases."   Most green list countries hardly do any testing and have vaccination rates in the low single digits.  The lists are a joke

 

 

 

 

 

[John & Rose 7,239]

16 minutes ago, flicks1998 said:

The Philippines colored code system uses the logic I once heard of "if you dont do any testing, then there must be no pandemic because there are no cases."   Most green list countries hardly do any testing and have vaccination rates in the low single digits.  The lists are a joke

 

 

 

 

 

Sad but very true.  Also par for the course for people who are familiar with the Philippines.

[John & Rose 7,239]

39 minutes ago, VanHalen said:

The Visa will go away

I wouldn't bet on that.  Everything I hear from the consulate and from the Philippines indicate the 9a for tourists is here to stay.  I hope you are right though.

[Snorkel378 38]

On 10/13/2021 at 1:47 PM, Talako said:

Never give up:

 

https://pcoo.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/20211013-IATF-RESOLUTION-143-RRD.pdf

 

 

 

 

Foolish that children are not exempt. So even if my wife and I are vaccinated, we would still have to sit around in a hotel for a week with our 4 year old, who isn’t eligible and frankly doesn’t need a vaccine.

[flicks1998 1,044]

5 hours ago, John & Rose said:

I wouldn't bet on that.  Everything I hear from the consulate and from the Philippines indicate the 9a for tourists is here to stay.  I hope you are right though.

This was the rumor pre-Covid that the Philippines was considering bringing back the requirement of most foreigners having to apply for a visa.  I dont know how serious they were at that time, but this pandemic may be what it takes to keep it in place.  I guess it just remains to be seen what will happen. 

[John & Rose 7,239]

10 minutes ago, flicks1998 said:

This was the rumor pre-Covid that the Philippines was considering bringing back the requirement of most foreigners having to apply for a visa.  I dont know how serious they were at that time, but this pandemic may be what it takes to keep it in place.  I guess it just remains to be seen what will happen. 

That is what we have been hearing since 2016 or so. It was always rumored. Covid helped them pull the trigger. 

[D&D&Dk1 9]

10 hours ago, John & Rose said:

I wouldn't bet on that.  Everything I hear from the consulate and from the Philippines indicate the 9a for tourists is here to stay.  I hope you are right though.

If the Philippines keeps the 9a visa as a mandatory requirement for all tourists then it will be one of the strictest tourist visa applications in southeast asia. Right now the requirements are 5 copies of your financial documents, roundtrip tickets, as well as prebooked accommodation. The application time is 2+ weeks in some consulates.

 

Imagine being a casual tourist who just wants to go to the Philippines like before..you pretty much can't without a very specific prebooked schedule.

 

Also, allowing some shady Philippines official collect data on your financial records and accounts is also pretty alarming.

 

[John & Rose 7,239]

2 minutes ago, D&D&Dk1 said:

If the Philippines keeps the 9a visa as a mandatory requirement for all tourists then it will be one of the strictest tourist visa applications in southeast asia. Right now the requirements are 5 copies of your financial documents, roundtrip tickets, as well as prebooked accommodation. The application time is 2+ weeks in some consulates.

 

Imagine being a casual tourist who just wants to go to the Philippines like before..you pretty much can't without a very specific prebooked schedule.

 

Also, allowing some shady Philippines official collect data on your financial records and accounts is also pretty alarming.

 

Kind of like coming here. I didn’t realize they needed all that. When they first started asking for them I had a couple friends who got them in just a couple days. It may have been sandier then. 

[D&D&Dk1 9]

17 minutes ago, John & Rose said:

Kind of like coming here. I didn’t realize they needed all that. When they first started asking for them I had a couple friends who got them in just a couple days. It may have been sandier then. 

If they keep the current 9a requirements as permanent for all tourist applications then R.I.P. Philippines tourism.

 

There is literally no reason to ever come here for tourism when you have mostly visa exempt countries throughout southeast asia. It makes no sense. 

[Kby175 115]

On 10/14/2021 at 10:30 AM, VanHalen said:

The Visa will go away

The 9a visa has always been around it's just a 59 day stay visa for pleasure / tourist, right now they are only giving it to spouses and parents.  I used to get it when I I go if staying longer than 30 days so I don't have to extend my 30 day visa.  

[John & Rose 7,239]

12 minutes ago, Kby175 said:

The 9a visa has always been around it's just a 59 day stay visa for pleasure / tourist, right now they are only giving it to spouses and parents.  I used to get it when I I go if staying longer than 30 days so I don't have to extend my 30 day visa.  

Yep.  Word is that it is here to stay for all tourism once they reopen.

[top_secret 2,424]

I still can't quite envision visas for tourists being permanent and if they were I would imagine it being just a visa on arrival revenue collection scheme like Cambodia or like Indonesia used to be.  I think the previous talk about requiring visas for everyone or more specifically Americans in particular was mainly just DU30 bluster.

[VanHalen 3]

22 hours ago, top_secret said:

I still can't quite envision visas for tourists being permanent and if they were I would imagine it being just a visa on arrival revenue collection scheme like Cambodia or like Indonesia used to be.  I think the previous talk about requiring visas for everyone or more specifically Americans in particular was mainly just DU30 bluster.

They will go away, You can take that to the bank