Retirement Visa COURTESY SRRV FOR VETERANS (US VETS AND OTHERS)

With my bank they look at a wire transfer for almost a week. With a cheque it's more like six weeks.
The manager told me it's the banko centrals law. They didn't tell me the money is on the truck or the cash is on a ferry so I believed them. They said something about my mouth, don't remember exactly.

 

Possibly you looked like a gaffed fish? I know I was shocked to have deposited a check in my account and it had not cleared 6 weeks later. I was so shocked I closed my peso account immediately and closed my dollar account the day the cash came in. I expected it to take 4 weeks, I gave it a little over 5 weeks before I even checked. At six weeks when it still was not there...fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. It took just under 7 weeks. They said because there was a holiday in the 7 weeks. I replied when is there not a holiday in a 7 week period?

 

I opened an account with PNB at the Los Angeles Brick and Mortar branch in February, 2016. The Los Angeles branch opened a Dumaguete PNB account for me. In other words, LA opened a PNB account and was able to delegate the Dumaguete Branch as my PNB "home" banking location.

I figure that when I need to make the SRRV deposit to the other Philippine bank, then transferring money from the PNB bank account to the SRRV Philippine bank that holds the SRRV deposit MIGHT BE easier and faster as it will be a Philippine-to-Philippine inter-bank deal.

"Might be" are the operative words here as this set-up may or may not have any impact on shortening the time in securing the SRRV. Just hoping it might....

V/R,
nwlivewire

 

Also want to mention that I already had an established Wells Fargo account for six months prior to opening up the PNB account at the LA branch. Like I wrote before, Wells Fargo does talk to PNB due to the banking set-up they both have with each other that deals with all the Philippine workers in the US that send remittances to the Philippines. I assume there must be some kind of beneficial deal in this between these two banks or they wouldn't have this as an option for us little people to make use of.

 

I posted on Aug 27, and to add info. I just got back today from a couple days in Cebu (nice ferry ride). I worked with Jackie at PRA in the Crown Regency and got everything submitted. I had to get my dd-214 and pension 1099-R "notarized" by the US Consulate at the Waterfront Hotel. I was so stupid not to get them "authenticated" (red ribbon) in SF at the PH Consulate. Would have taken 4 hrs as my friend did. Now i had to hire (for $15) a "approved service provider" (fixer), recommended by Jackie at PRA, to have the docs authenticated by the PH Dept of Foreign Affairs in Manila, they can't to it at DFA Cebu and certainly not at DFA Duma at Robinson's. But the fixer guy is taking care of it well, and i don't have to go to manila...

 

Thank-you for this update!

Hmmm.... So if a person is NOT going to SRRV in-process in Manila, then it looks like it might be better to go ahead and have a layover in SF so as to get everything "red ribboned" at the Philippine Embassy in SF before departing.

When I went to the SF location this past February, here's what I discovered:

The Philippine Embassy is within four blocks from SF's famous China Town district. There are plenty of hotels in this area and plenty of reasonably priced places to eat. You can walk to the Embassy and not need a taxi. If you do have walking issues, be sure to bring and use your walking stick for balance - it could be a hilly walk in some places depending on your distance/location from your hotel to Embassy.

Figure on spending about 30 bucks for an airport shuttle service to get you from your hotel to the international airport (SFO). This airport (SFO) seems to have flights leaving to the Philippines every day, so this is a great departure airport to the Philippines.

Make sure the documents you need to have apostilled (notarized) at the Philippine Embassy have already been notarized by the US Department of State and are ready to be "red-ribboned" by the Philippine Embassy. If I remember correctly, each document cost 25 bucks each for this process. I was told at that time that they will only apostille (red ribbon) documents that are already notarized by US Department of State.

Make sure the Embassy is open on the day you show up! The Embassy was closed the first day I went there to see what this apostille process was like - the Embassy apparently honors BOTH Philippine and US National holiday office closures.

This SF Embassy location was very busy when I showed up the following day - a scene with all seats filled and a packed, standing room only room - hot/crowded. Philippine citizens working in the US were over 95% of the folks in the room. I would highly suggest you arrive as close to opening hours as possible. With any luck, you will have all your documents approved, apostilled and ready for pick-up by lunchtime.

V/R,

nwlivewire

ps... I'm in Texas right now, doing my recon for establishing state residency prior to my departure. I will start another thread especially for US Veterans as to WHY I'm about to do this when I get back to the Pacific Northwest early next month....

The intel I'm gathering now may be of use to a few US Vets out there, or at least a card they can tuck away in their hand for a later play....
nwlivewire

 

thanks for your post, appreciate the info. The only thing i'd add is that the docs we had "authenticated" by the PH consulate in SF were SFPD police reports which had been signed by a clerk. I would check with SF about whether Dept of State has to be involved. My docs, which i didn't do in the States, had to be "notarized" by the US Consulate in Cebu. The other thing to remember is that a country only has ONE EMBASSY in other countries. The PH EMBASSY is in Wash DC. All other offices, like SF, are CONSULATES. The US EMBASSY to the Philippines is in Manila, all the other offices like Cebu, are Consulates. And you are right that it does take most of a day in SF, so you'll have to come back. For my National Bureau of Investigation form, it did not need to be "authenticated," i got the final from the Dumaguete office in a couple weeks.

 

Yep. You're absolutely correct about the Embassy/Consulate thing.

My bad - thanks for the correct wording and correction.

Yes. As I understand the rules, if you are doing all the notarizing in advance of arrival to the Philippines, then your documents that are needing to be apostilled in San Francisco need to be notarized by the US Dept. of State back in D.C, prior to having those specific documents apostilled at the Philippine CONSULATE Office in San Francisco.

That way, the Consulate knows with a reasonable certainty that that document is not a false document or that if it is, it has at least been verified by a US Gov't agency as being a true copy.

US Embassy and Consulates fall under and are part of the US State Department. That may be why some of your documents had to go to the Consulate in Cebu for US notarization.

Just curious, how much did the US Cebu Consulate charge you for their notarial/authentication services? I'm figuring about 125-150 bucks here in the States to get my US papers notarized - about 25 bucks per each separate document....

nwlivewire

 

Just a quick question for NYC, as I'll be hopefully doing this through the NYC consulate as you did. My wife was actually there yesterday re-acquiring her Filipino citizenship, so I'd actually be 13A visa-eligible, but I'm leaning towards the SRRV for the reduced veteran's rate as it appears to be less hassle in the long run. If I understood your description of the process correctly, you did NOT have to get any documents authenticated by the US Dept. of State? Regarding DD-214, you just showed your original (and copies)? Mine's pretty old and folded, but still readable. Thanks!

 

Sorry redhorse, not sure who you are querying. I only got a SFPD Police Report (which i never used) "authenticated" at PH consulate in SF. I CANNOT comment on Dept of State requirements, as i'm getting dd214 and 1099R done in the PH (dumb, shoulda done back in the US). For here, i got "notarized" at US Consulate Cebu, and "authenticated" at DFA Manila (a fixer is doing that for me).