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Retirement Visa COURTESY SRRV FOR VETERANS (US VETS AND OTHERS)

Discussion in 'Passports and Visas' started by nwlivewire, May 25, 2015.

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    nwlivewire

    nwlivewire DI Senior Member Showcase Reviewer Blood Donor Veteran Army Navy

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    Thank-you DaveD for this everyday information. Yours is a much better explanation than what I got from the PNB lady that opened an account for me here. No sense having blank checks laying around the house if they aren't of any useful value (excepting the thief).

    The "ATM" card I was given has NO logo on it, NO expiration date on it, and NO chip in it. It's just a plastic card with the PNB name on it and says "SUPER TELLER". It DOES have a magnetic strip on the back side.

    **********
    Once I can get this card activated, is this card usuable in ATM machines in Dumaguete? Or is this just a card I need to have on me and then have to go inside the PNB Duma Branch to make a teller withdrawal?

    Since I'm in the States right now, I assume I will need this card if ever I am near a PNB "remittance center" and want to add money to this PHP account. I'll check this out later - after I get this card activated and after I have to make my first in-person transfer from Wells Fargo to PNB.

    But I do know that once the first, in-person tranfer is done from Wells Fargo to PNB, then I can sign-up for the Wells Fargo "Express Send" internet transaction process, and be able to do all these transfers through their Internet, 24/7, anywhere I may be located.
    **********

    I have this first part understood. Now the next part for me to know and understand will be to know and understand the ways I can get my money OUT of PNB when I need to get it out once I arrive to Dumaguete, and, the ways OR CARDS I might need from PNB that I may need for usage when I am somewhere bumming around outside of Dumaguete (like if I'm bumming around SE Asia).

    **********

    Thanks again for any info you may have on this!

    V/R,
    nwlivewire
     
  2. DaveD

    DaveD DI Senior Member Showcase Reviewer Veteran Navy

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    I honestly do NOT know. I have not used PNB since 1998. @JackPeterson would be a better person to ask questions about local PNB Bank as he has his pension sent there and uses them regularly (be advised he is English retiree not American retiree) I am not in a position to give advice about this. Sorry!
     
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  3. NYC

    NYC DI Senior Member Showcase Reviewer Blood Donor Veteran Air Force

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    I've corresponded at length with Ms. Elma Anora-Corbeta at the Cebu PRA office for the past few months. This is repetitive from what has been posted, but concise:

    --------------------------------------------------------
    Dear Mr. .........,
    Greetings from the Philippine Retirement Authority Cebu!

    Here are the requirements for E-Courtesy SRRVisa:
    1) Visa Deposit - $1,500.00 - to be Inwardly Remitted to the PH to Accredited Banks
    2) Processing Fee - $1,400.00 - to be paid at LANDBANK OF THE PH
    3) Original Passport with Valid Tourist Visa
    4) Medical Certificate - Authenticated by PH embassy if done abroad
    5) US Police Certificate - Authenticated by PH Embassy in US or US Emb/Consulate in PH
    6) Pension Certificate of at least $1,000.00 per month - Authenticated by PH Embassy in US or US Emb/Consulate in PH
    7) DD FORM 214 - Authenticated by PH Embassy in US or US Emb/Consulate in PH
    8) Photos 12 pcs 2X2
    9) SRRV application form

    Should you have further inquiries, please don't hesitate to ask.
    Thanks!

    Sincerely,

    Elma Añora-Corbeta
    Officer-In-Charge
    PRA Cebu Satellite Office
    Tel/Fax. No. (032)2388001
    202 Club Ultima Tower II
    Crown Regency Hotel & Towers

    --------------------------------------

    I'm going through the process of preparing the paperwork to present to the Consulate in Manhattan for authetication. The Consulate website does not say anything about these documents being apostilled (in fact, the Philippines is not a signatory to the Hague Convention regarding Apostille.) With plenty of lead time before I head to Manila from NY, I will bring to the Consulate the FOUR DOCUMENTS that need authentication and see what they say. I will bring my Social Security benefits letter, my FBI background check letter, my medical exam notarized (then the notarization certified by the New York County Clerk...this appears to be sufficient according to the Consulate website...no need for going to Dept of State in NY), my DD-214 with the raised seal.

    I will see what happens and report back. I have two months to jump through any hoops the Consulate places in front of me, and I only have to make them happy with only four documents. I'm glad I live close enough that I can go back easily, if needed.
     
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  4. NYC

    NYC DI Senior Member Showcase Reviewer Blood Donor Veteran Air Force

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    Needing to get four documents "legalized" for use in the Philippines, I made the trek to the Philippine Consulate in NY with my notarized (and County Clerk authenticated) medical form, my Social Security benefits letter, FBI Background Check letter (in the sealed envelope in which it came) and my DD-214. I was given a "Take-a-Number" computer-generated check at the front door and by the time I got downstairs to the waiting area, they were calling the number ahead of mine. I waited about 2 minutes to be called! Submitted the documents (with photocopies of each and photocopies of my passport and state ID card) and was given yet another form (an affidavit) to fill out listing the three "federal" forms which needed to be legalized. AND, I had to make a photocopy of the affidavit.

    I was thinking that now I had to hit the street and find a photocopy machine, and that would be my punishment for the short two-minute wait. Lo and behold, they had a photocopy machine in the waiting room for 25 cents/copy....and it took paper money, too! They said I could go right back to the window when I was ready, rather than wait on line again. I filled out the affidavit, copied it, submitted it and I was out the door within a half hour.

    Since I had come in before noon, they promised to have all the documents blest and returned that day with the window open at 4 pm for distribution. I stayed in Manhattan for the day and was back in the Consulate about 10 minutes before 4 pm. The waiting room was full (no seats) with about 35 people, mostly Filipinos. At 4 pm, the window did not open. At 4:10 pm, still not open. At 4:20 pm, the Filipinos were showing their New Yorker tendencies and were getting anxious. I kept my cool realizing that I was effectively in the Philippines while in that building, and giggled to myself about the Filipinos getting upset by the delay with no announcement. By 4:30, the Filipinas were knocking on the window, and it did finally open. (I think the Consulate General was simply trying to make everyone feel "at home" by having everyone wait around.)

    There was a rush to the window to get receipts in the queue. Papers came through fairly quickly and I was out of there by 4:45 with my red-ribboned and gold-sealed documents. Upon examination, it appears that no one even glanced at what I submitted. The FBI Letter, submitted in its sealed envelope, was still sealed in that envelope with the Consulate's hole punched in the corner and the red-ribbon running through it.
    Anyway, now I simply need to go (with a pocket full of money) to Chase Bank, or Citibank, here in NY and do an "inbound remittance" of US$1500 to the Development Bank of the Philippines for my deposit.

    I have my 2x2 pictures, my x-rays, all the medical test results, SRRV Application, my remittance receipt and, of course, my passport. Now I just have to remember to bring all of that, and US$1400 to the PRA Office in Manila and wait.

    Anyone know how long it takes once the PRA gets everything processed and the SRRV issued? I only expect to be in Manila one week before I head to the provinces. Can I just retrieve it on my way back through Manila if it takes longer than a week (which I suspect it will, since it all has to get sent to Immigration Offices, too)?
     

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  5. NYC

    NYC DI Senior Member Showcase Reviewer Blood Donor Veteran Air Force

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    With two weeks to go before I present myself at the PRA office in Manila, I decided to let go of my US$1500 visa deposit and remit to the Landbank of the Philippines using the instructions provided by the PRA (attached file in the previous post.)

    It doesn't work. Unless you have a checking or savings account with Citibank or Chase (which are choices 1 and 2 on that PRA form), you are out of luck getting them to send this wire transfer for you (having my Individual Retirement account at Citibank meant nothing to them.) The manager of one of the Citibank branches (in the Citibank HQ building in Manhattan) told me that US banking laws do not permit any bank to wire internationally unless the remitter has a checking or savings account there. Chase said the same thing, basically. So, I called my bank (USAA Federal Savings Bank in San Antonio) and did the wire transfer over the phone using the information on that sheet the PRA provided.
     
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    nwlivewire

    nwlivewire DI Senior Member Showcase Reviewer Blood Donor Veteran Army Navy

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    This is why I set up a Wells Fargo (US) account and a PNB account before coming to PI. These two banks can "talk" to each other as I now have both an account in the PI (PNB Duma branch) and a W/F account in the States. W/F does a lot of remittance transactions with/between PI citizens working in the US who send money back home.

    V/R,
    nwlivewire
     
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  7. Edward K

    Edward K DI Senior Member Veteran Navy

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    Just discovered this forum after two months in Du, great info. Now i know how to get packages.. I am also applying for the SSRV. Jackie in Cebu has helped tremendously (her email is gmail, i love it)..

    I SHOULD have gotten everything done in the states, especially since i lived 20 minutes from the SF Philippine Consulate, but left most of it for here (bad idea). Now i have to get my pension 1099R and my discharge DD214 (poor copy of a carbon) notarized by the US consulate Cebu in the Waterfront hotel and then "authenticated" (red ribbon) by the Bureau of Foreign Affairs.

    Anybody have experience with this process ???? Any hints ???? Timeline ???


     
    Last edited: Aug 27, 2016
  8. NYC

    NYC DI Senior Member Showcase Reviewer Blood Donor Veteran Air Force

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    Someone mentioned that relationship on the forums here somewhere. I went to a WF branch in Manhattan and asked about it, and they said they would be happy to set up a WF account, but could could not help with the PNB account. Even the PNB branch in Woodside (Queens), NY, would not open an account for me. Last time I was in Dumaguete, I went to a PNB branch and they wouldn't open an account either without a Philippine address.

    Just curious...how long ago did you open these accounts? The US government has been tightening all the rules for the past few years and international banking by us citizen-peons gets to be all but impossible now.

    But even if I had a WF account, it would not have met the "requirements" sent to me by the PRA. And sending the money to the PNB bank would not have done much good, since the wire has to go to the Landbank of the Philippines into a specific account.

    So, I just wired into that Landbank account from my own bank (USAA) and hoping for the best. I will find out soon enough how it worked, or did not work. I am sitting in Narita airport waiting on a delayed flight to Manila. I hoped to be in the PRA offices first thing tomorrow (Wednesday, 31 Aug), but now I may be sleeping in a bit. I wonder if the lines of SRRV applicants are very long at PRA-Manila?
     
  9. NYC

    NYC DI Senior Member Showcase Reviewer Blood Donor Veteran Air Force

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    Submitted my application and paperwork 31 August (Wednesday). A very pleasant experience dealing with the PRA in Manila. The woman dutifully pulled out a checklist and went through everything I brought. I was missing one item: The receipt from my bank with the wire transfer information. I had it on my iPad, but a paper copy was needed to go into the package. Tried emailing it to her address so she could print it out, but the cellular connection was too slow to send the email, and there is no visitor WiFi available in the PRA offices. She also indicated that the wire transfer needed to be certified, i.e. the Development Bank of the Philippines had to show in the system that my deposit was there. Getting the receipt was no problem, and I could have the hotel print it out and come back the next day. But without the DBP certification, the application could not even begin to be processed. With my paperwork incomplete, I was handed the entire package (including the forms that she had filled out) and told to come back with the receipt. They could then accept the application pending bank certification. Once they have a completed application AND the bank certification, it takes 15 to 20 business days to get the SRRV...basically one month from a complete application. She photocopied my passport and entry stamp and rubber stamped that photocopy with a "Received by PRA" stamp. That photocopy would serve as my "passport" while I waited for the SRRV (since they keep your passport through the process.)

    If it does take 30 calendar days to get the visa, I would be overstaying my visitor visa. Somewhere in this thread it was indicated that the PRA office could arrange for the extension (after paying the fees, of course), but that is no longer the case. There is no liaison on their office anymore with authority to do that. Since I was going to be traveling in the Visayas when the SRRV would come through, I had two choices. Even without the SRRV, I could return to Manila, get my passport from PRA and take it to the appropriate office somewhere in Manila to extend the visitor visa, and then return the passport to the PRA to finish the process (after having interrupted it by pulling my passport out.) Or, I could simply wait for the SRRV to be completed, then return to Manila when I had planned and then get the now-expired visitor visa extended (even though I now had an SRRV) and pay the penalty for overstaying the visitor visa. I was told the penalty is 1000 pesos (plus, of course, the fee for the visa extension itself). No brainer....pay the PHP1000 penalty and wait until the SRRV is done.

    When I returned again to the PRA the next day (thankfully, only a 10 minute walk from my hotel) to submit the receipt for the wire transfer along with the rest of the application package, I asked if they could check again on the status of the deposit with the Development Bank. The woman left her desk to look into it, and she came back beaming and said "Congratulations! Your certificate is here!"

    I started the wire transfer from the USAA Federal Savings Bank in San Antonio, TX, on August 18. It took exactly two weeks for the Development Bank of the Philippines to acknowledge that the funds were there. USAA told me it could take that long, and it did. I am puzzled in this day and age why wired funds can take that long. I can use Western Union or MoneyGram to move funds to the Philippines in less than 5 minutes, sometimes less than 60 seconds.
     
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    Last edited: Sep 1, 2016
  10. robert k

    robert k DI Forum Patron Highly Rated Poster Veteran Army

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    Someone taking the float.
     
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