US Citizen Overstaying in PH.

Most of the information you are looking for will best be found with communication to the US Embassy.    If you were born in California,  you are a US citizen by birth, and should be able to obtain a US passport if you can provide the necessary certified birth records.    Be sure you are communicating with the correct agency.

Than29 wrote:

We asked the immigration about my case and they said we need to pay roughly about 600,000 pesos.

Do you mean you asked the Manila US Embassy immigration service? Or you asked a Filipino immigration attorney? Please clarify what immigration service will cost you P600,000.

In re-reading, I think Than29 may be here with his US passport or at least US citizenship credentials, and someone calculated the fee for over staying in the Philippines, based in months.   He may need some legal help as this is a special case situation...

I believe you are right on that, Bob. Overstay for 18 years....FUBAR. Ridiculous they would have even quoted that cost. I bet a good attorney could sort that next to nothing based upon humanitarian consideration. There are those in the BI that actually have a heart.

I think he's entitled to have both passports.

Hi,

This is a similar case as mine that happened in 2000. My daughter was born in Norway and was 3 months old when we moved to the Philippines in 1989. As she was written into my passport and not my wife's, she was considered entering the Philippines as a Norwegian citizen in spite of the fact that her mother was a Filipino citizen and entered the Philippines on a Filipino passport.

When we were due to leave back to Norway in 2000 the BID wanted PHP 156.000 in fine to let her leave the country.  I wrote to the BID Commissioner and stated that my daughter was a Filipino citizen as well since her mother was a Filipino citizen and never had acquired any other citizenship. Through the help of our Embassy in Manila she was allowed to leave the Philippines without paying any fine. We applied for "Certification of Filipino citizenship" to the BID in 2001. Finally, in 2008, my daughter got it, but not after I had complained to the BID about its non-response to our application and sent my lawyer to the Commissioner's office to follow up. The application was sent through BID, Cebu, in April 2001 and finalized in August 2008. Quite a processing time you ask me!

Nonetheless, my daughter is now free to enter and leave the Philippines on her Norwegian passport by only showing her Certification of Filipino citizenship. She never applied for a Filipino passport since she now lives in Norway and doesn't need it. But her two children have both Filipino and Norwegian passports.

In conclusion:  As a child of a Filipino citizen you have the right to apply for a Certification of your Filipino citizenship since the Philippine Constitution states that a child of a mother with Filipino citizenship is considered a Filipino citizen by birth.

The BID knows this of course since it has the forms and procedure for such an application. However, rather than telling you about this option it will ask you to pay the total fine for overstaying x number of years. Unfortunately that is just in line of what to expect from the BID.

It is possible of course that rules may have changed since my case, but I doubt it. However, a good Immigration lawyer will be able to clarify this for you.

Good luck.

Your right he has dual citizenship, years ago you had to be born in the Philippines to be a citizen, but no longer as long as your mother is Filipino no matter where your born