It’s a bit amazing to me how many people write we, week after week about what sort of visa they would need in order to live in the Philippines.  All the information one could ever want is on line, especially on the new and improved Philippines Bureau of Immigration site (Thanks BI, even all the reduced down to only two and they are downloadable).  Resources readily at hand also include the hundreds of articles I’ve written on the subject right here, and many more on friend Bob’s site.

Maybe there is too much data … I dunno.  Anyway, Bob took a great step forward a couple days ago and produced a very simple and clear Immigration Guide that will guide you through the process of deciding what visa you need.  I highly recommend it, and for $10 ($9.99) actually, you can get the information in one place that might take you hours or days to find on your own.

Know all those folks who write me and ask how to earn a living in the Philippines too?  This book (and Bob’s other books) are a great object lesson.  Find a need and fill it.  Instead of thinking ‘what can I find to sell to people … how can I convince them to buy?, find out what they are already hungry to buy and satisfy their need … the sales part just follows naturally.

Three quick comments on the different visas the book recommends.

Former Filipinos and the SRRV.  A former Filipino can avail of the SRRV for a very small investment, $1500 USD plus fees.  But mist would not want to … they can get a 13g visa for less.  bear in mind that the SRRV covers children they must be minors at the time the visa is applied for who are _not_ Philippine citizens .. like children of the spouse from a former marriage,  It also covers those children up to any age as long as the SRRV holder or his/her spouse is still alive.  This doesn’t apply to many folks, but it can be very important to those in an his/hers/ours family situation.

Second, the SRRV itself, especially the version for those over 50 with a monthly pension.  I see so many guys reject this visa out of hand, usually with one of two comments .. a., |I don’t have $10,000”.  My thought on that is, you have no business coming here then.  You need savings and this is a very, very bad country to be poor in.  Even younger people get heart attacks, car wrecks, etc. and you may literally die here without money.  Think this trough carefully.  The second objection always revolves around the attitude of “I am not going to tie up even $10,000 dollars in some Philippine bank.  Well the money only has to be in the bank 30 days.  After that you can take it out to make an approved investment.  One ‘approved investment’ is the lease of a home.  You have to live somewhere, and thus you have to pay rent or make condo payments.  So in reality, this visa is free.  Apply that $10,000 to your condo purchase or long-term home lease (which you are going to have to pay anyway) and live here as long as you want.

Lastly, and I’ll be brief and direct here.  Most people living here on a tourist visa or with their spouse on a balik bayan privilege stamp, make way, way too much out of the issue of a periodic trip outside the Philippines to restart their visa ‘clock’.  Flights to Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau (my recommendation) are very cheap if you take advantage of sales.  My wife and I went to Macau in February for less than $275 air fare, round trip for the two of us … total price.  International flying just doesn’t get a whole lot cheaper than that.  To my mind an annual trip to a close by but different location can be a nice plus factor to anyone’s life .. after all people do have wedding anniversaries or birthdays, don’t they?

OJK, enough of my rambling.  Got questions?  Buy Bob’s Guide.

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