I recently received an email query from a fellow planning his first trip to the Philippines. He asked a number of specific questions about how he should prepare and since it is now a [rime time for visiting the Philippines I thought I would throw out answers to his specific questions plus a few more tips of my own. I’ve flow round trip from the US to the Philippines about 8 times and I flew one way LAX to Manila in October, 2006. I’ve also flown the Pacific (I lived for several years each in both Thailand and Japan)at least 15 other times. I have also made numerous domestic flights here in the Philippines so although I am an expert in nothing, I have logged a lot of time logged in tourist class seats.
Time of Year: I mentioned this is a good time, and I believe January through March are great for a first time trip almost anywhere in the Philippines. It’s winter here in Luzon and the weather is a few degrees cooler, kids are still in school and the Christmas madness is over. In April and May it will get hot indeed, but as long as you watch out for the Holy Week (Easter) (April 5th through April 13th in 2009) this is a great time. For those of you who are not very familiar with the Roman Catholic Calendar, here’s a good Church Calendar for the Philippines. No matter what your religion or preferences regarding your faith, this is a Catholic country and religion is much more a part of daily and even business life than it is in the US).
photo credit: Jenah Crump What is the Weather: There are two ways to answer this. The easy way and the hard way. The easy way, remember the number ‘2” and the number “8”. Whichever way it is easiest to you. Why “28” or “82”? Because there’s an excellent chance that is what the temperature is going to be. (as I wrote this, a little past 10am Philippine Standard Time (we don’t screw around with that idiotic daylight savings time here) I checked the current temp in four cities from Tawi Tawi in the very far south to Baguio in the far north mountains, and one, Cebu, was at 29 degrees C and all the others were 27 or 28. 28 degrees Celsius is a ‘special’ temperature … it’s the same as 82 degrees Fahrenheit, so no math, no calculator, no tables of conversion are needed. It’s always going to be 28C or 82F or a degree or two away.
Notable exceptions are winter nights in the high country, like Baguio and the like but the times it isn’t about 28 degrees somewhere actually makes the evening news. It’s a very valid rule of thumb.
Now the “hard way”, or exact way is to go to my old friend Weather Underground’s Philippine Cities directory. If you select the city closest to where you are going and browse around in the Almanac and History selection you will find day by day information, charts and tables with detailed weather history for the last 10 or 12 years. An amazing resource. You can also download the information in CSV format and do all sorts of analysis with Excel or the excellent Open Office spreadsheet if that’s your thing. me? I just plan on 82 degrees and forget about it.
Documents: For stays of 21 days or less, unless you are a national of a specially restricted country, your home country passport is all you need. Full list of visa requirements for the Philippines here. Your passport should be valid for at least 6 months past the date of the end of your anticipated stay. You also need a return ticket or a follow-on ticket to some place other than the Philippines to avail of this “visa-less” privilege. A question that come sup often … how do you count the days? The day you arrive (the day your passport is stamped) is the first day of your visit. (You might want to think about that if taking a late night flight). The day before your passport is stamped for departure is the last day of your stay.
If you are planning to stay longer than 21 days you are required to get a visa before departure. That is the law and I advise following it. Do people just go with no visa and then extend their passport “visa waiver” stamp? Absolutely. It can be done and it is relatively easy. (as long as you want to waste a day or more of your trip). But getting the tourist visa in advance is the right thing to do if you intend to stay longer than 21 days. Hint: It’s much cheaper and easier too. If you are a US citizen, here’s the website that shows you which Philippine consular office you use (it depends upon your state of residence) and the Philippine Tourist Visa application form is available here.
Do not be confused about this fact, please. there is no tourist visa with a validity period longer than 59 days. Period. Many people have told me “I went ahead and bought the “one year” option from the Philippine Embassy.” Well, actually, they didn’t. They bought a one year multiple entry visa but the one year refers to the tines they may leave and re-enter the Philippines. Each and every entry gets 59 days initially, period. If you are coming for just one stay, you obviously just need the cheapest, one time visa option.
Drivers License: I’m already at nearly a thousand words here, so time to wrap this up. I’ll talk more about driving, car rentals and such in a future installment. But I’ll leave you with this tip: You do not need an IDP (International Driving Permit) often referred to (incorrectly) as an International Driver’s License. As long as your US (or other home country) is in English and valid, you can drive on it for 90 days from date of arrival in the Philippines. The IDP is needed in a few countries, and it is needed when your home country license is not in English, it it is not needed (or even well known here in the Philippines and it is not required at all. Actually, if you bother to read the words on any of those IDP’s it clearly states it is only valid when accompanied by a valid driver’s license from you country of citizenship anyway, so save yourself money and time and don’t bother.
OK, that’s enough for one day. More as it happens. Get busy and plan your trip.
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thank you for deciphering what seems to be simple things for the experienced but not for people that have not been there.
please keep posting
Thanks for being a reader here and for your kind thoughts. Don’t worry, I’m unlikely to stop writing soon … I’d write alot more but mainly it’s a matter of time.
One thing I have learned about writing about the Philippines and actually living here is that actual day-to-day life is sooo much simpler for me than when I lived in the US. Just before i started writing this my door bell rang. I was the water guys delivering my weekly 10 gallons of triple-filtered water (about $0.65 cents each), which I had just ordered (free, via a text message) a couple hours ago. Could I even _get_ water delivered at my house in Colorado Springs? Sure. And I’d have to be on some sort of monthly subscription plan and I’s have to get deliberes when _they_ wanted to deliver, not when I needed them delivered. It’s a simpler world here in many ways.
In terms of weather, since the temperature seems about the same, is the true difference the humidity?
Hi Tom. Actually I am sure they have the day bby day humidity on those Wether Undderground charts along with everyone else, but I’m not that interested in going to look.
Thehumidity doesn’t chnage so as you would notice much, here on Luzon. It must be dryer now in the weinter … it’s about 42% at my desk right now, I don’t really motice that much difference humidity-wise in the heat of summer.
The Philippines is a lot like the British Isles, no part of the country is farther than maybe 70 miles from the ocean so what changes do occur are tempered by the slow rate of change of the whole Pacific Ocean.
Disregarding things like typhoons up here in the north. Mainly it’s shorts and t-shirt weather.
Hi Philly,
We had an enjoyable (if somewhat testing) 3 week sojourn in the Philippines over Xmas. I spent 3 days in Baguio and was glad to get of there…the pollution is shocking, and the traffic is worse. Even in La Union the pollution along the main road and towns like Agoo, Bauang, San Fernando etc is pretty bad. I’ve definitely changed my mind about living in that area because I couldn’t raise a family in such a polluted place. Jeepneys might look nice but they are killing the environment of the Phils.
On the upside, we travelled to Zambales (via Pangasinan) and had a great week at Rama Beach Resort in Bortolan. Accommodation is basic, but clean and the onwers and staff made us feel like part of the family. The countryside in Pangasinan and Zambales is also much nicer than up North and there is much less pollution. We had a day trip to Hundred Islands (from Lucap) which was beautiful.
Cheers,
Laurence
Hi Laurence, glad your trip was successful. Welcome back. Shhhs don’t tell people about Zambales and Pangasinan … the great majority of foreigners think Cebu and Davao are the only good places … cuts down on traffic if we keep coastal Luzon a secret
(my wife and I have land in Zambales and will likely build there someday)
I did go and look. With a couple outliers (down in the 50/60s), most of the humidity was in the 80/90s. If a person is looking for stable weather, it seems a good place to be.
Thanks for checking Tom. Wow that is higher on average than I would have guessed. Proves the old saying, “It ain’t the heat it’s the humidity”. My son, (who lives in Pueblo Colorado) and I trade barbs often in the summer time … he likes visiting but thinks it’s very hot here. Often for weeks at atime it will get hotter in Colorado than in the greater Metro Manila area … but he’s right also, it does fell hotter here.
Hi Philly,
I would like to visit the Philippines for about a month & I wanted to get a tourist visa before my departure. My state of Pennsylvania is not listed anywhere. I have e-mailed & written both consular offices in New York, & Washington D.C. to see which one has jurisdiction but I’ve had no response in the last 8 months. I’m a little nervous about mailing my passport and all my personal financial information to a government agency that can’t answer a simple e-mail or letter. It would be a real pain to have to replace my passport.
Also, the visa application form states the visa fee is payable in cash or money order/cashiers check and then at the bottom of the form it states that they do not accept personal check or personal money order. Sounds contradictory.
I think I may just get the visa waiver after I arrive, I can’t imagine it being more difficult than this.
Hi Ron, Thnaks for writing. I got a good laugh out of this one. You are absolutely right, the Embassay, as they divided up the US states and other territoes so diligently seem to have forgotten the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Seems as if they vcould have gotten that right, doesn’t it?
If you want to go with no visa, from a practical standpoiunt that’s fine too … it is no big trick to get your passport visa waiver stamp extended here in the Philippines as long as you will be near a BI office. One practical consideration is, though, if you do not get a visa but want to stay longer than 21 days your airline is going to give you a problem, becuase of the Philippine law they are required to follow. To be legal for departure from the US you must have follow-on travel out of the Philippines departing within 21 days of arrival. Some people just buty a ticket with a departure date farthe rout and hope the airline doesn’t pay attention, some buy an “open ticket” god for any date within the next year (not always easy to find these days) some buy their TR US-Phils-RT ticket for the days they actually feel they are going to travel and then buy a ‘show’ ticket out of the Philippines within the first 21 days (you cna find discount tickets on Cebi Pacific often for only a few hundred pesos … you can buy an online eticket from them in minutes, print out the receipt and be golden.
If you still want to pursue the ‘right way’ I would poivck up the phone and call the Philipine Embassay in DC, 202-467-9300 or even better fax them at 202-467-9417 (there are a number of online fax services if you don’t have a fax machine handy). Faxes mean more than phone calls. As I have said frequently in the past, email to Philippine agencies or businesses is virtually useless.
The easy way to handle the payment is a manager’s check or official check from your bank or credit union .. they are always free at my credit union. For the financial proof the asked for, just make a copy of a current bank statement and redact (black out) what you feel is personal … their only interest is that you have a bank account with a balance in it … they actually are pretty lose about this in my view, judging by the number of destitute foreigners I hear about so often.
If you go forward, again on the mail, it’s really not a problem. You applied for your passport by mail, it came to you by mail, and the embassy or it’s consulates handle business this way all the time. Get two free express mail envelopes, address one to you from the embassy, address the other from you to the embassy, go to the counter and ask the postal clerk to put postage on both, put the return embassy envelope and you application paperwork into the outbound one and you’ll have reliable, tracked service from the US government direct back to your door.
Or fly without, many people do. Don’t let these technicalities/gaps spoil your trp. If you expect to enjoy yourself here in the Philippines you need to be able to roll with the punches, becuase things don’t work with precision here, that is for sure.
i read the section about a “tourist visa” and you mentioned there is no such thing as one longer than 59 days. i thought you are able to get a longer term? i am a us citizen and i plan on visiting the philippines for 3 months and 2 days. i have always been a us citizen and have not been a former philippines resident. please let me know if longer than 59 days is possible. thanks again.
Hi Anne,
Thanks for writing. The answer to your question is, no, a Philippine tourist visa is valid for a maximum of 69 days, for each entry into the Philippines. There are several ways to stay longer.
You can buy a multi-entry visa initially, and then make a trip outside the Philippines during the first 59 days .. when you return you are then good for 59 days again, or you may extend the original 59 day visa at any immigration office for one month or two months at a time.
In you case it appears to me you have to renew once for an additional 2 months … renewing for one month will still leave you ‘short’. I know of no other way.
Be well
Dave
hi … my friend from india wants to come here in the Phils..and they told that in order for him to come here he needs to have an invitation letter so whats that invitation letter all about how can we do that….. whats the requirements so that he can get a visa … how much is the money needed? what are the requirements…. he wants to say here for 3months
im waiting for any responce and im waiting for it….thx…..
Hi Josie. Thanks for writing. I\m always mystified by these questions that start with ‘they say’ or ‘they tell him’, etc. There is no ‘they’. There is only one authority on the face of the globe who has any ‘say’ in visiting the Philippines and that is the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.
From ‘the’ official Philippine government web site:
So according to the government of the Philippijes, all your friend has to do is get on a plane and he is good for a 21 day stay (free) here in the Philippines (this stay can be extended up to 24 months, for a fee).
If he wants to stay longer I recommend he get a tourist visa. he gets that from the Philippine Embassy, New Delhi:
http://www.newdelhipe.com/basic-visa-requirement.html
The cost, also on that website, is 2320 Indian Rupees for the fist 59 day stay … this also can be extended, 2 months at a time, up to 24 months.
My thought is, who is this mysterious ‘they’ who are telling him about all these requirements? Friends at work? School chums? Chit-chatters in forums and web chat groups? “Fixers” looking to make money off this guy?
I say, go right to the source.
Hi. After I am in the Philippines, I want to stay in Surigao Del Norte for a long period of time. Will I be able to obtain the 59 day extensions in that city, or must i continually go to Manila every time to apply for additional extensions?
Also, if I stay two years and then must leave for a day, am I expected to have anything other than the visa I already have in order to re-enter? Must I get another tourist visa, or will the authorities already see that I have simply left for a day as required and allow me to re-enter?
I am a US Citizen and will be marrying a girl in Surigao Del Norte and living there with her. I cannot obtain any visa other than a tourist visa for reasons I will leave unstated. Thank you.
You do not have to go to Manila to renew a toursit visa. These are the Bureau of Immigration sub ports and field offices where visa’s can be renewed:
http://immigration.gov.ph/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=128&Itemid=72
You can not stay two years on a tourist visa without special permission from BI Hq in Manila. You can stay 16 months just by paying locally. Also, you can renew from anywhere using a licensed agent (many travel agents can do these renewals for you, for a fee.
When you leave the Philippines at the end of your authorized extensions, you can reenter again, immediately, for 21 days at any port of entry. You must, of course, deal with the onward travel problem .. you’ll need a ticket out of the Philippines within 21 days in order to board a flight to the Philippines. You don’t need anyhting else except you passport, good for at least 6 months beyond your date of entry.
Best of luck.
I see. So at the end of the 16 months, I fly to, for example, Hong Kong, spend a day there, then buy a ticket in Hong Kong to the Philippines but with an onward destination…same as when coming to the Philippines from the USA initially…and then once back in, simply change the flight plans out.
So in this case, when I first purchase a flight to the Philippines from the USA, it would be good to choose as my onward destination the place where I will go for the one day stay. I do not have much experience with flight arrangements, so I am guessing it will be possible to set a 16 month delay…reschedule….for the onward travel destination that I initially make as 59 days? (I’m going to get a tourist visa for 59 days before going).
Thanks for your time. Really eating up some information here on this blog. Great work!
Yep, you pretty much have the picture. I think the longest you can buy an “open” ticket for (one that can be changed) is one year from date of issue. But you really should use an expert in Philippines travel … don’t try to handle this all over the Internet .. a lot of discount web sites don’t know what they are doing regrading Philippines travel.
An alternative to buying a ticket that you are going to try to switch dates on later is to buy a ‘throw away’ ticket which won’t be changeable and just charge it off to the cost of the trip. Remember, you said you have your reasons for arranging your life this way, and that’s fine, but it surely is not the cheapest way to go.
Another thing you should “do your sums” on is the idea of staying only one year at a time. Reasons?
You can buy an open ticket.
You avoid paying travel tax when you leave (this can be as much as the cost of a round trip ticket, if you shop the sales)
You will have an ACR-I card (it’s now required after 60 days in country). Mileage varies, but everyone I have talked to has been getting on good for one year. According to some regulations I read, you have to surrender that card when leaving, but many have reported lately they were allowed to keep the card. With that card, many airlines will likely let you board for a flight back to the Philippines with no onward travel (again, mileage may vary, but you paid for the darn thing, might as well try.)
I want to emphasize something I see way too many people obsess over. Going out of the Philippines for a visa renewal is not that hard! It can be very cheap, too. Good destinations are Kuala Lumpur and Macao to name a couple. You can find sale flights on Cebu Pacific for $100 USD round trip, if you shop sales. You can get a nice hotel for $40 OR 50USD per night You can eat dirt cheap. You will enjoy the break in the sometimes mind-numbing routine of living here. To each his own, but it is just not as big a deal as so many make it out to be. IMO, of course.
My last thought on this goes back to your mysterious (I won’t get a visa) requirement. Your business is your business, but since you are coming here to get married, there is no reason for you to need a visa. I’m on my forth year of balikbayan privilege, I knoiw others who have stayed 10 plus years on a Balikbayan stamp.
Once a year my wife and I leave the Philippines and then come back and I get a free BB “Privilege stamp” good for one year more. Could not be simpler or cheaper, all for the cost of two cheap RT air fares … and my wife loves Macau, for example, so I can never lose points by taking her there for a date
It strikes me that you have only looked at two options and made a snap decision to go with one of them, without exploring your options.