You have to wonder why they would increase the maximum time a tourist can stay from 2 to 3 years and why they would start a 6 month long stay tourist visa program if they don't want us to stay. Maybe they wanted the old timers to stay but once they did this they got a new crop of cheap @ss foreigners and the powers that be don't really want them here and maybe they regret the changes? What do you think?
I have no idea. It's only my opinion and I will only be here another year or two anyway at most. I made the remark because there are a very few that control the economy here and they keep the economy isolated and the people poor in order to exploit them. Any large influx of foreign money, business ownership, (illegal), land ownership, (also illegal), disturbs their hold on the poor population, hence my deduction that we are not necessarily wanted here long term. Maybe it's ok if we are just tourists, I don't know. I have seen this type exploitation in the rural south in the US many years ago and it is a phenomenon that is not uncommon in the world. It disturbs me to see people work as hard as some do here and live in abject poverty and then die if they can't afford medical care. All this for the benefit of a few. Even Duterte has acknowledged this as the case if I understood his comments correctly in a few articles. (I mean about the exploitation of the many for the few)
The BOI site has 2 fees, the cheapest is 4,900 + $US50 for ACR card. This fee is for non-visa required passport holders. The other is for visa required passport holders and Korean nationals. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The "BI" site is outdated and still includes express fees that are not being charged at this writing. The situation at BI Dumaguete changes from day to day at the whim of the "In Charge"
That's funny. When I left there on Dec 6, my wife asked me if they had set fees or if they just make them up. I told her they had set fees just to keep her from going back in and causing a scene as she thought the charge was ridiculous. I have suspected that they just pick a figure when you pay but I never check any fee list or ask them to itemize. They didn't give me a receipt as you don't get that until you return for your passport. I paid for a 2 month tourist extension and an ACR I card renewal. Total was 5750P, which was really less than I expected, and this time they told me two weeks to get my passport back.
Maybe we have been charged P6500 each because this is our 1st 2 month extension after the initial 59 days and it will be our first acr cards.
Evidently they do have different fees if you paid 4480 and I paid 5750. I was not late so that would not have made mine higher. I was in Dumaguete. Maybe you were early so they gave you a discount or maybe they charged me more because they are holding my passport for two weeks instead of the usual five days. LOL Actually for some reason the different fees for different people for the exact same service has been known to happen before I believe, if my memory serves me correctly. I don't get excited about it, as it happens commonly for many things here and in many instances.