Visa Question Best Posts in Thread: Permanent resident ACR pros and cons

Well after the final, final appointment to pick up the permanent 13a card and documentation along with the return of my passport I am waiting for the final appointment with immigration - they will text me when all is ready to be picked up. Big surprise.
Some info I did find out - this is for the 13a visa ONLY! There is a smorgasbord of visa's available so for the
13a:
No min bank balance in the PI required
No TIN (tax #) issued
the visa (13a) your ability to be here is permanent, the ACR card expires after 5 years. I don't know the cost of that and after asking (i.e., close questioning) where I could renew the ACR card 5 years hence the response was Manila for certain, Cebu don't know, Dumaguete NO. This was followed with the gem - wait 5 years and find out, things could change.

The ACR card also requires a yearly fee of a little over 300 peso ( I forgot if he said 310 or 320 peso) this can be paid in the Dumaguete office Jan - March. IF you leave the country for a year or two and then return you will have 30 days to pay the yearly fee without penalty, again this can be paid in the Dumaguete office.

Cost of permanent 13a I paid - 25k peso.

 

TTOM (used to be Maganda) upstairs corner of mall past food court. Not sure but I think it cost Php15,000, cheaper than air hotel meals for me and helper, and hassle avoidance.

 

I hope Wise will survive long and prosper. As far as I can tell they are by far the best (cheapest and fastest) way to send money here.
I wouldn't worry too much about the VAT thingy, 12% of 1% fee means additional costs of 1.20 € for every 1,000 € you send over. Hardly worth complaining about.
Save your ire for overseas banks wanting to close accounts for non residents, much bigger issue.

 

If you are referring to Barclays and other banks closing ex-pat accounts, they think we are more trouble than it is worth (to be fair to them, this is based partly on what governments now expect them to do to the ordinary man that they don't do to the crooks).

Many governments now print money in times of financial crises and give it cheaply to banks - so why do they want our piffling amounts?

I moved a significant sum of money to another country before I left home but did not make any further transactions - so after a few months they closed the account. You have to be a cash cow for them or they are not interested.

 

I just paid 15k for 13a card renewal, the one in Robinson's mall top floor. All I need to do now is wait.

 

From my experience, with 13A, no TIN needed, just lots of repeat paperwork and travel to either Cebu, Manila, or Illo-Illo for additional fingerprints.

Each visa has different requirements.
Also, exceptions with/without military service.

Best source of up to date requirements is immigration office, recomend going in person and talking.
Then go back a few days later and talk to a different person for a different set of answers.
On the 3rd trip you hope the answers match one of the previous 2, then pray that 2 out of 3 are correct

 

I am in the process of renewing my 13 Quote permanent residence visa. Decided not to go to the Immigration department in Cebu just paid a company here in Dumaguete to do all of the requirements. It needs to be renewed every 5 years. I am not married so I can't get a balikbayan visa but its a lot cheaper then renewing a tourist visa. I have been on the 13 quota visa since 2007 saved quite a lot of money tho.

 

I am on a 13A Permanent Resident Visa and there is no requirement for me have a minimum US $16,000 in my bank account here. So not sure where you got this from? unless it's part of the SRRV retirement visa?