Tourist Visa Best Posts in Thread: CAMBODIA makes it easy....

Sounds like the process for getting rejected is called offloading. I found several sites that talk about it. If she doesn't have a job, it sounds like the probability goes up. On multiple sites, they talk about being confident. Depending on her personality and understanding of the process, that could be hard to do when it's her first time doing something. It may be easy for an immigration person to fluster her, so she better have her story down and all the documents. Things like hotel names, proof of reservation, itinerary, etc. Is she a type A personality?

First Time Abroad: Tips and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) | The Poor Traveler

What can I do to make sure I won’t be offloaded by the Immigration?
The Bureau of Immigration has been implementing stricter rules lately. According to the bureau, every day around 40 people are offloaded at NAIA Terminal 1 alone. Three to four in every 50 of these offloaded passengers actually have legitimate reasons to go abroad. You don’t want to be one of them.

If you want to make sure you won’t be offloaded, you need to follow the guidelines released to Immigration Officers by the bureau. A 2012 memorandum enumerates what the officers must require from departing passengers:

1. Passport
2. Visa (if applicable)
3. Filled out departure card
4. Roundtrip ticket

They usually also ask for your company ID. Then, if they deem necessary, you will be assessed based on the following criteria:

1. Age
2. Educational attainment
3. Financial capability to travel

What does the last item mean? Well, in a nutshell, tourists with no steady source of income in the Philippines and no benefactors who appear to have a different reason for traveling other than for leisure are more likely to be offloaded. So if in case you are subjected to a secondary inspection, you would want to have the following with you:

• If you’re an employee, Certificate of Employment (best if it indicates your salary and how long you have been with the company)
• If you’re self-employed, a copy of your Business Registration Certificate
• If you’re a freelancer, you should still have an ITR. If your clients pay it for you, you may ask for a copy from the client. You may also ask your client to produce a document that would certify that they have hired you and the details of the project/contract.

I always have a copy of both my ITR and a “Certificate of Employment” from my clients to be safe.

For more info about this, check out: How to Avoid Getting Offloaded



Should I present all these documents at the Immigration booth?
No. Again, most of the time, the Officer will only ask for the following:

• Passport (with visa, if applicable)
• Accomplished departure card
• Round-trip ticket
• Company ID

Don’t present other documents when they don’t ask for them. All the other documents are more like safety nets IN CASE you need to prove you’re employed.

Just answer their questions confidently.

More articles on offloading.

7 things to remember to avoid being offloaded

Tips on How to Avoid Being Offloaded in Philippine Airports

What Filipinos Need to Know About Traveling Abroad

 

Vietnam is also doing a similar thing - an online application deal.

Vietnam has recently changed their VISA stuff - and to the better/easier way, too

My US friends who live in Hanoi really like it there. They've been in Vietnam for over 10 years now - Hanoi for 6 years.

They live a very nice, solid, middle class lifestyle - to include house cleaner & gardener (1X/p/week), (western style 3 bdrm/2 bth furnished house). All-in monthly living costs for everything they consume/use is under 1,300 USD p/mth - and that includes taking 90% of their meals out. They both own/drive motor scooters, and everything they need is within their walking neighborhood (banks, ATMs, markets, etc). Easy walk, easy public transport system. Oh. And there is an JCI accreditated hospital in Hanoi, too. They live in the Embassy row district/area - not too shabby, huh? Int'l flights are easy and often to get in Hanoi - and cheap!

She is a published writer, he is a photographer, so strong cable/internet is an absolute must for them.

I'll be visiting with them within a year and get eyes on. If it's as good as the pics they've sent me, I may stay awhile.... More of a 4 seasons in Hanoi - a bit better climate variation than in other parts of SE Asia - if one can be had in SE Asia.
**********
Hope you get a chance to visit Siem Reap, Cambodia. Plan on a 3-day entrance ticket - you'll need it!

V/R,
nwlivewire

 

I think you have it all. I had a similar situation, but not exactly the same. My friend + wife and me + wife + kid went to Thailand. My friends wife was still in the Philippines, so we met them in BKK. My wife + kid when to Cebu and I went with friend + wife to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat. The $40 e-visa worked great and saved time dealing with it at the airport. My friends wife just showed her PI passport. Not sure exactly what she had to pay PI side, but the Cambodian side was a piece of cake.

 

VERY GOOD Advice in that link! When I first came here I always gave a little something, but after several beggars RUDELY refused food and demanded money instead, I spat the dummy at them! I now only give food (if I have packed left overs from lunch) to women with small kids (never had a refusal) and never give money anymore. I have found the men to be VERY RUDE if I try and give food instead of money, so now just ignore them and walk past without even making eye contact...

 

If there's a time that the Chinese don't go on vacation, that's the best time.

 

When you have a passport, and if needed a visa, you should have the right to travel anywhere you want. I was really surprised, when I found out about the rules (if there are any rules), for filipino to leave their own country. It's like the old days in communist countrys

 

After reading some more on this subject, I understand the logic behind it. If you look at who they are targeting, unemployed and uneducated young women with little financial means, it makes sense to me. It is certainly a hassle for those with good intentions who want to take an unemployed, uneducated poor young woman on a trip, but it aims to protect the naive young woman enamored with a free trip to some exotic place with someone they may not know so well. It's more a statement about society in my mind than the immigration people and it's sad.