Permanency for 13A Issue Abroad

I originally went to get my 13A visa in the Philippines Embassy to Singapore. It was a relatively straightforward process, though they clearly do not get many applications there for this type of visa, as they handling was in part quite personal. I even had an actual interview with embassy staff (don't remember if it was the ambassador) about it.

Word of caution: what I did not know at that point is that if you get the visa from abroad, once you enter the Philippines, you must get your ACR i-card before you exit again - a process that takes about 10 working days. I only found that out after I arrived, and there are literally no provisions to allow you to exit before getting that card.

Since the expiry date printed on that visa was drawing close, I decided to go to the Bureau of Immigration to convert to permanent. I had read online that the probationary visa is issued for one year only, so my (foolish) assumption was that this was a probationary visa since it had a validity of one year. There is a whole process of converting to permanent, and a high fee to pay, so I prepared for that.

I tried, once again, to go to the BID in Makati first, since it is much more accessible. After some forth and back, it turned out that my visa was already permanent, and the "expiry date" printed on it merely meant "must enter the Philippines by"; maybe it would be better to make that clear somewhere. I am also not sure if all overseas-issued visas are treated like that, or how this works between probationary and permanent. The permanency, btw, is noted on the ACR card itself, so if it says "permanent" there, you should be good. For those who say it is possible to clarify this by phone or email - I had gotten bad advice from BID before that way, so I prepared for the "worst" instead, and get advice in-person.

However, since my passport was due to expire in early 2015 and was almost full, I had already gotten a new passport. What I had to do, then, was to transfer the visa to my new passport, a process that the BID in Makati was not equipped to do, so back I went again to the main office in Intramuros. It turned out to be a very simple and, for once, free process - just fill out a form, attach two photos, old and new passport, copies of passport and visa details page and date of last entry, get your last entry/exit records validated on the first floor, and wait two hours. While the old visa was a printed one-page visa, the transfer to the new passport was only a half-page stamp with manual additions.

All done in a day, with no expenses other than the fuel and taxi fare spent to go to Intramuros. For once, I was pleasantly surprised by Philippines bureaucracy ;)

Getting an NBI Clearance as a Foreigner in the Philippines

So, it was time to renew my visa - which it turned out I didn't need to do, but about that another time. As part of the process, I needed to get an NBI clearance. Now, it is not exceedingly difficult to find the relevant data online for Filipinos, but there are no instructions for foreigners that I could find. None.

As a background, I have been in the Philippines on 13A visa with validity until Oct 2014, and the instructions to convert to permanent visa (which, unbeknownst to me, I already had) were to get an NBI clearance first.

My primary source of information for that was How To Apply For NBI Clearance Online. Yes, you can apply online and it's a good idea to do so. This helps with data encoding, meaning you don't need to fill out the paper form. In my case, the reason for applying - BID requirement - was not listed, so I went with the most expensive one (ACR Card requirement), seeing as that is the likely case as a foreigner with local government agencies.

Originally, I went to the NBI outlet in Robinsons Galleria. The queues there are long, but when after a few minutes I spoke to one of the officers there, they told me I can only get my NBI Clearance from the main office in Manila! Well, that was that. It would have been great if it were mentioned on the NBI website, for example, but at least Robinsons Galleria is a place I can visit during my lunch break, so not much time lost.

So, we went to the main office one fine Thursday morning, and I have to say that the experience was surprisingly good. We were done in less than an hour overall, including applying for a clearance for my wife - note that they do not issue the clearance immediately, but only after about 3-5 working days. I sent somebody else to pick it up for me, by printing a short letter with a copy of my passport, and signing it twice.

Documents needed for foreigners were (always original + copy):

• Passport - details page and visa implementation page. Last entry if you want to be safe.
• ACR i-card front & back
• The printed-out form from the online application

I always bring passport pictures, but in this case they were not needed. The process is fairly easy and fast as well:

1. Go to the Alien Desk on the 1st floor to get another form. Fill it out while waiting, if indeed you need to wait.
2. Pay the relevant fee. In my case, it was BID requirement, so only 115 PHP. Keep this payment slip! This took me about 5 minutes.
3. Go for data verification, picture taking and electronic fingerprinting (3rd floor). If you made any mistakes, or did not enter the data according to expected standards, corrections will be made here. I have two first names but no middle name, so I sometimes just use the second first name as middle name, but NBI apparently won't accept that and changed it to have my middle name as "NA".
4. Go to the Alien Desk on the 1st floor again for ink fingerprinting. (Good if you have something to clean your hands with - the toilets don't really have soap.)

That was it. No waiting for items 1, 3 and 4 for me. As noted, you either need to go yourself again or have somebody else pick the clearance up at the releasing counter a few days later. The payment slip is stamped for that with the pickup date - don't lose it!

If you have a "hit" - which they will tell you at verification/encoding - you may need to have an interview with an officer to determine whether it was you on the releasing date. In that case, you will obviously have to go back personally. With my unusual surname, that was not an issue - but my wife got a hit, since she had a very common surname before marrying. Supposedly, the national ID law will be implemented in 2015, so that will hopefully make this process a little easier.