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 ;)