Odd visa/ARC-1 question

@Larry Fisher Hi, you will get the ACR-I card which is valid for 1 year. When you leave the country you will get the 30 days free and then you can apply for another 29 days. After this you can apply for a 2 months extension or a 6 months extension (for the 6 months extension you might have to go to a big office. The regional offices are not allowed to give you 6 months). You can stay up to 3 years with the tourist visa without leaving the Philippines. (I stayed 2.5 years and they had no problem extending me the visa every 2 months)

Larry, that's what I do, pay for my ACR and visa extension then pick it up on my next renewal 2 months later. I see they have a couple of boxes with ACR cards waiting in their office to be picked up.

Andy you are correct with regards to the 6 month extensions, my regional office tells me that as far as they are aware only Manila and Cebu do them but I'm sure Davao would as well.

Cheers, Steve.

Hi Larry

Ive used a fantastic immigration Lady .Chen

Shes in Manila but im 6 hours out of manila.

I got a 3 year work visa all up cos was 130 k.rush

Had it 1 week. Working for my own company.

Shes honest has many was can make your life easier.

I met her once and did it remotely heres her contact

***

Chen inloa

[link moderated]

I applied for the ACR card at the J Centre mall and almost 8 months had pasted before I returned to pick it up. The BI had moved to Robinsons Galleria during that time so I applied at J Centre and picked it up at Robinsons. I extended my visa 6 months at the J Centre mall and when I picked up the ACR card at Robinsons I extended another 6 months.

ok results:

1. Arrived Robinson's Cebu City Immigration office just after 9am....maybe 9:30. As I was approaching the ACR window with no line, a masked up Filipino woman in her 50's literally just stepped in front of me approaching the window. I'm not rushed maybe she's just asking a quick question. Fifteen minutes later she's still at the window, has the ear of three officers and is talking about 2013 acr...btw she's using a US passport. Now I've chalked her off to one of the more typical Phil-Ams, "rude, with entitlement disease". One of the bosses backs away a moment and I get his eye and just mouth out "I'm just here to pick up my card" with a little sign language. He points me to go around the corner and I give my info to a different officer. "have a seat I'll call you" Five mins later we're out of there. The office was slow, but people were arriving. I would advise early arrival to get out fastest.
2. Time to go to Mactan Gaisano immigration office. Tons of traffic getting over the bridge. Stalled vehicle blocking a lane. Once there, arrive at Immigration Office front desk, talk to guard, small quick form to fill out. He hands it off inside at one of the windows and I take a seat inside. Let me just say, the two people outside handling arrivals...awesome friendly attitude, answered questions clearly with a smile. Go inside, this is around 10:45am? Two other foreigners getting extensions. 5 mins goes by, girl calls my name, hands me passport and paper to go pay cashier, 3030p for 30 day visa. Pay cashier, 3 mins later girl calls me back, hands me passport and visa. All done in maybe 15 mins total. And with smiles! I did also ask, and yes Mactan office does issue 6 month visa's. They do 1, 2, and 6 month.

From now on, I will prefer Mactan office over Cebu City, Robinson's Mall. At least until they get the Basement office installed to give a try. It's worth it to me the way they handle things swiftly, with smiles and information. Give us an excuse to visit my gals Niece and her boyfriend-soon to be husband anyways.

Upon suggestion from folks here. Afterwards we went to try out Landers Superstore. I was impressed! Better than S&R imho. But also much of the same. Just a bit more variety and some better quality foodstuffs. Did buy a couple US steaks, but had to pick through to find the best marbling with least big fat wastage. And a couple Aussie Angus steaks to try out. Still, very selective looking for marbling.

Did not find any smoked ham hocks for rice and beans sadly. Maybe next trip. But we got good looking tuna to cook, some garlic-sausage, scallops, and I'm going to try out the Aussie (or was it New Zealand?) Halibut steaks. Three to a pack. I'll speak up if they're worth a hoot. But they don't look as good as Pacific Coast Halibut.

The food court is very nice by comparison to S&R. I mean by leaps and bounds better. Member ship was 700p, and I got a 200p coupon good for grocery items only. I still spent 16k+

ok results:

Arrived Robinson's Cebu City Immigration office just after 9am....maybe 9:30. As I was approaching the ACR window with no line, a masked up Filipino woman in her 50's literally just stepped in front of me approaching the window. @Larry Fisher

Many years ago when I was a lot younger, I was in Bern, Switzerland lined up at the train ticket station with a colleague. There are only two us on the line waiting for ticket person to serve us. A man literally just stepped in front of us, not a Swiss from his accent, saying he's in a hurry. My thought was, if he's in a hurry he should have come early. Anyhow, my point is that there are people like this everywhere.

They come in different shape, size, color, citizenship and gender.

@Jackson4 True, while I accept the underlying meaning....I do find manners extremely lacking in the Philippines. But I knew that coming in.

@robmccredie

Hello, i m french and will open soon a french bakery at iloilo and manilla, can you give me the mail adresse or contact of this lady. It can be interesting for me andy business.

breakfastime@hotmail.fr

Xavier

@xavierasia

Bonjour,

Va tu nous faire des bon croissant? 🤪

I feel like saying oui oui on the bread

Boo

    @Jackson4 True, while I accept the underlying meaning....I do find manners extremely lacking in the Philippines. But I knew that coming in.
   

    -@Larry Fisher

Perhaps she was a senior citizen and you looked too young and handsome to be a senior.  Most places I go in Vigan, senior citizens go to the front of the line and everyone else spreads out.

So true mugteck, our BDO bank always shoves me/seniors in first, one or 2 of the local supermarkets have a seniors lane and it's a longer queue than the regular checkouts.

Cheers, Steve.

I have received my second 6 month visa extension (bye the way all online). I waited for my second 6 month approval to pick up my ARC-i card; they gave me a one year card; not 6 months! Now I am not sure whether I will need to apply for another 6 months half way through the one year ARC card date? Does anyone know the answer?  PS: living in Los Banos, Laguna on Luzon 45 minutes from Manila.

Thanks Dr. Keith

@keithherold86 arc cards are 1 year. Visa is whatever term. Totally separate.  See you in 6 months.

Visa extended online? Really? I'm planning to stop at BI tomorrow in Cebu for another extension.

I'm also curious Larry about the online extensions, never heard that before, will ask as I'm renewing my visa today. Perhaps Dr. Keith can help with the answer.

Cheers, Steve.

bigpearl said . . . . I'm also curious Larry about the online extensions, never heard that before, will ask as I'm renewing my visa today. Perhaps Dr. Keith can help with the answer.
Cheers, Steve.

*********************

Yes an extension from the BI office in Nigeria.
   

Took some digging. The BI website is not super intuitive. But I got myself registered online and finally found the visa extension form. I might give it a shot. I've already had two 6 month extensions, I'm going to try for another I think. See what the system says.

Yea, I couldn't get it to work. Kept giving me "failed" and fill out all req'd fields etc, but they were all filled out correctly with correct format.

Let us all know what you find Larry, difficulties/payment methods etc.

Thanks for your research.

Cheers, Steve.

@Larry Fisher I had a issue with rejection on a reentry permit and ECC b.  They told me to leave middle name blank and put it in as fn MN in given name.  In the registered name.

    @Larry Fisher I had a issue with rejection on a reentry permit and ECC b.  They told me to leave middle name blank and put it in as fn MN in given name.  In the registered name.
   

    -@smithta63

Tried that, to no avail. But thanks all the same for the effort!

@keithherold86

In order to receive an ACR-I card, you will have gotten a 1 year probationary visa. After that, reapply 10 months later for the permanent visa.

Once granted, the permanent visa doesn’t expire. The ACR-I card with the permanent visa expires every 5 years and must be renewed.

Once in possession of either type of visa, you will use that instead of a tourist visa. in doing so, the 6 month extension process is cancelled.

@Skip Scott

This is wrong on so many levels.

1. After 60 days here, or should I say at 60 days,  whenever you apply for the next extension which can be 30, 60 day or 6 months, you MUST apply for your ARC-1 card. You will not get it that day. You will get the visa you applied for and a receipt for the card. You can pick it up at the same office in a few weeks, or when you extend again.

2. There is no requirement of having a 1 year visa (that's not available to tourists anyways) before obtaining the ARC-1.

I don't know where you got such wrong information.  You obviously have not done it yourself.

Also, for those wondering about online visa. I tried last night to apply and it didn't work. So today at Lapu Lapu BI office I asked. They actually recommended to not use online website yet. They've had problems with it. Such as people paying and not getting the visa extension and such. So, for now, stay away from the website.

@Larry Fisher.

Agree and seems some members can't read or are very misinformed at all levels with regards to what an ACR1 card actually is, not a visa but a requirement married to your visa status. Useless and simply revenue from my perspective but no getting around it no matter the visa type, even SRRV still require similar under their system, simply a different name.

Some people need to read and learn.

OMO.

Cheers, Steve.

Big pearl:  kinda like your ecc-b is married to the reentry permit.  And everything is married to the express fee. 

some interesting observations about ARC-1 and your visa. This is based on actual experience.

My 1st year ARC was due to expire Jan 2024. My 6 month visa was due to expire Nov 8th 2023. In Oct 2023 I went to BI in Lapu Lapu to extend my visa. I thought I would get a 6 month visa as I wouldn't have to make the three hour trip for some time if I had that. But knowing my ARC would expire, I asked if I could renew that early. "Of course, no problem sir". Now keep up with me on this. They issued a 6 month visa and new ARC card. With the Visa expiration of May 8th 2024, six months after the current Nov 8th visa expiration. But the ARC card expiration became OCT 2024! I lost out on three months of ARC card that I paid for previously!

So yesterday I went to Lapu Lapu office again to extend my May 2024 visa. I asked for 6 month. But they said I would have to apply for a new ARC card because a new 6 month visa would expire Nov 8th whereas my ARC card would expire Oct 2024! Sigh I even explained (and they fully understood). But they said the "system" would kick it out when it links to my ARC card.

So I got a two month extension, then will go back in July for another two month extension to Sept 2024. At that point I will decide on either a 30 day, and renew BOTH arc and Visa so they are basically on same annual interval or just renew both, knowing they are still 30 days "off".

All because I was trying to save a trip back to renew arc card when I got a 6 month extension. They don't tell you the ARC card renewal starts from the day you apply, not the expiration date, like your visa does.