Best Posts in Thread: Work

There are many people who are paid by foreign companies to "work" from home in the Philippines.

Be careful with the word "work". It is not clearly defined in the law. The legal term is employed or engaged in business in the Philippines.

With regards to the rules, when speaking with people, be clear you will not be employed by a Philippine organization. The law speaks to the issue of being gainfully employed by a Philippine legal entity. If you are working online for a foreign company you are insulated from the law here. When you are here, do not speak publicly about working from home. Many people do not understand the differences in the law when working for a foreign organization and they will think you are breaking the law.

I do not know your situation. I would not come here without remote work already lined up unless I had significant skills that could be marketed online.

I do not like laptops. In my experience they do not last long and I do not like the small screens. I prefer small PCs connected to multiple large monitors. Google "Intel NUC". These are small PCs made from laptop processors and components. Many work on 12 volt power supplies. Bring one or two with you in your luggage because (except for the China tariff) you can buy them for less in the US. Buy the big monitors (with 12 volt power supplies) and keyboards here in the Philippines. Connect everything including your Internet modem to a 12 volt deep cycle battery and a battery charger. This way you are insulated from the brownouts. (Brownout here = blackout in USA)

 

I assume that "work legally in PH" means being gainfully employed by a Filipino legal entity.

Actually the SRRV alone does not allow you to be gainfully employed by a Filipino legal entity. He may have some other permit that allows him to be employed by a Filipino legal entity. The SRRV alone does not allow this.

If he was gainfully employed by a foreign legal entity while "working" here (sitting on his butt behind a computer) then that is OK because he is not gainfully employed by a Filipino legal entity. He is not taking a job from a Filipino.

Otherwise he would have to get an Alien Employment Permit (AEP) from DOLE.

 

A slightly off-topic point (btw, I am the member here who strictly never goes off-topic ... along with many others): Be extremely (I cannot emphasize that enough) careful about investing in the Philippines - there is more chance you will lose ALL your money than increase it a little. I have read masses of information on various Forums to know this is a reality. Set up a business (through Filipino gf or wife) involving property and you may get scammed; give loans and you will probably not even recover your capital (they pay for few weeks and then stop); enroll in a Kapa scheme and it is goodbye cash.

Also, meet nice girl and buy a house - then you face the possibility that she dumps you and retains the house (the land has to be owned by her).

This is, of course, not the case for everyone - especially not wishing to label the nice women here who are happily living with expats - but if you do lose money, you face: Extremely slow Court process (years); whether the Filipino knows more people that you do (certain); if the family gets involved (possibly with a gun or knife).

Tread very carefully with your cash - it tends to swap hands very easily if you lack caution.

 

For a foreigner to be able to work legally in PH, he should travel with an employment contract pre-arranged with his would-be PH-based employer and then enter PH under a 9a visa to stay as a temporary visitor while working out 9a visa-to-9g visa conversion at the Bureau of Immigration (BI), using the pre-arranged employment contract. Usually, the would-be employer is a religious organization sponsoring a foreign missionary or a multinational corporation with 60%-100% foreign ownership, duly registered with the local SEC, sponsoring a new company officer or a new technical person.

Other than diplomats, the only instance I know of a foreigner working without 9g visa while living in PH is one who has become ordinarily a local resident and then obtained non-diplomatic gainful employment at his country's local embassy or consulate, the employer and workplace technically being on foreign soil. In similar manner, a foreigner's employment with any overseas entity, worked from home in PH, is also beyond BI regulation.

Without the 9g visa, a foreigner's employment with any local entity, whether face-to-face or worked online from home, will be regarded by the BI as illegal employment that could be ground for deportation. As SkipJack advises, such gainful employment is better not flaunted about to prevent "sweet scent that draws ants" from the BI.