Tourist Visa 3 year tourist limitation

I am afraid you are correct, and after this vaccine fiasco where they denied me then asked me back and then denied me again as to them my BP was too high (not to the local Heart Assoc) but nonetheless no vaccine for me even though I am certainly in the high risk category. I came here a different person than I am now .... Getting weary these days...

 

Totally agree,
Me too also.....

 

It was a good read up until the point where the president they mention maybe going to change some of the foreigner ownership restrictions was Gloria Arroyo so a bit out of date.

 

If my wife was to die they could take the torn up pieces and stick them where the sun never shines and i will be gone before they can flush.
She is the one and only reason i am here....

 

This what I had previously understood and it shows again how complex they make anything which could be simpler.

One possible way for a foreigner to protect his assets here, where the law if always going to favour the Filipino, is to take out a Life Insurance policy on the Filipino spouse (I have briefly looked into this and rates seem rather high compared with the UK - perhaps due to shorter life span in the Philippines). Not to be be too gruesome, but most of us would require only a relatively short-term 'Term Insurance'. In the UK the law would make the insurance policy the property of the person who obtained it and paid the premiums (the beneficiary), but I would not be surprised to find out that here they have some way of wresting that from the foreigner's hands. I would be interested to know of anyone's experience who has purchased within the Philippines 'Term Insurance' on another person's life.

A better way may be to purchase it in your own country - I did this (my intention was for the money to be sent to the Philippines for her child) and then cancelled it when we moved here (a big mistake as now they won't allow me to purchase it from abroad). Any such insurance policies would be part of the deceased's Estate within their own country and so could not (I hope!) be messed about by the Philippines' Courts. A point of interest is that in the UK the right of a spouse to give ALL the assets to his wife free of taxes is reduced if the spouse is foreign and was limited to £650,000 (including any gifts or other transferred assets previously made) when I last checked - this rule might apply to other countries and would probably have different limits.

This whole business of inheritance here and its complexity is why I keep my assets in my home country and hope my Will there will enable my wife to be the beneficiary - but I am not sure if it would then be taxed upon transfer to the Philippines (many countries have taxation agreements with other countries - to ensure they can squeeze as much blood out of the stone as they can). I deal with any assets transferred here in a way which I hope (a word I frequently use when dealing with taxation laws) would not involve any Wills or inheritance issues.

When I first read the laws on inheritance I saw the word 'Courts' so many times - thus when I eventually read "court proceedings for the settlement of estates in Philippines can run for a minimum period of six months to a maximum of several years" I was not at all surprised!

One worrying case, which I wrote about on this Forum before, that illustrates the need to protect oneself, is that of a foreigner who took his very ill Filipina wife to hospital in Cebu. Unfortunately she died there and when he returned to his home he found his wife's relatives occupying it. This very stressed man took the case to court but died two years into it - the relatives won.

 

Expanding on the above:
I meanwhile found out that even if married in another country, if you live in the Philippines you can register the marriage here in the Philippines (at the DFA) rather than the usual way through the Philippine embassy in the country where you got married. Unsurprisingly none of that is mentioned on any embassy website (more fun in the Philippines).
The way I found out was through the reply I got to my email to the Philippine embassy in The Netherlands, in which I asked if, for the purpose of getting our marriage registered in the Philippines) they could agree to a video conference call rather than an in person interview at the embassy (with me sending all the documentation by courier). The reply revealed that the registration can be done right here in Dumaguete at the DFA office (after jumping through some other hoops).
Obviously, while I was on the one hand pleased with the answer to my email, I was also much annoyed with the fact that they didn't tell me that when I went to the embassy in vain almost 3 years ago.
Anyway, the registration process has now started (may take until April though before we can finally get the PSA marriage certificate and start the 13a visa process).
By that time my 3 years tourist limit will have run out, so unless the pandemic dies down before then I'll most likely still need to pay the extortionate extension fine/fee.

 

you can avail of the "expedited" service at JRS or Dream something both in the hallway where immigration is located and they say it will take less than a month but total price is 55 to 62 k... anyone know of a connected person who will do it fast and cheaper ?

 

Yes sure, you can do a marriage in church to the same woman after a civil wedding, but the church wedding is then not eligible for formal registration, only the previous civil wedding can be registered.

 

I don't think the wording in the SRRV law/regulation refers to diplomatic relations. It's about military ties between the Philippines and the third country. So I very much doubt that my Dutch veteran status would help to qualify for the preferential treatment when applying for SRRV.

 

Also make sure you get your nbi clearance asap as you cannot apply for 13a until cleared and it can take up to a month... if you have one already from long ago you can renew online if you have your receipt with nbi id number...