New members of the Philippines forum, introduce yourselves here - 2021

First!!! LOL

Hi All,

55 years old, plan on moving to the Philippines once travel restrictions are lifted and a vaccine is available to me.

I'm single and live alone (well a cat, but alone other than that).

6 years Navy, the rest of my career has been electrical/controls/software.  I had a couple of visits to that area compliments of the Navy, but have also put in a ton of time on some of your video channels on YT.

Mostly an introvert/homebody.  Was raised in a rural environment and we were somewhat poor, so my standard of living/having fine things is pretty low.

My only real "deal breaker" as far as finding a place to live is decent internet and noise.  I spend an inordinate amount of time on the computer and have found over the last decade that I am sensitive to noise.  I guess I should say, I find the quieter my surroundings are, the more calm/at peace I am.

I recognize that both of those may be a challenge to meet, but it is my goal to try to give this a shot in 2021.  I plan on selling pretty much everything other than the clothes I can fit in a suitcase and my gaming laptop.  That alone is not a trivial undertaking as it seems I have accumulated a lot of stuff over the years.

I live in Cagayan De Oro in the uptown area and there are lots of subdivisions in this area which are pretty quiet because they don't allow roosters, but barking dogs can be a problem sometimes. The good thing is all of the subdivisions around here have PLDT fibre connection available, I don't know what the maximum speed available is but I've just had a free upgrade from 50 to 60mbps. Good internet is a little expensive here in Philippines but overall it's pretty cheap to live here.

Hello Ikeprof,

Welcome to Expat.com 

I would like to thank you for the introduction and for telling us about your projects. 

Should you have any question expat related, do not hesitate to start a new topic on the Philippines forum.

Wishing you all the best.

Cheers,

Cheryl
Expat.com team.

Welcome Ike, glad to have you here.

There are plenty of places in the Philippines without too much noise, but it takes time and exploration to find them, and a lot depends on how much is tolerable to you. Filipinos just tend to be noisy people and tolerate a lot - barking dogs, loud karaoke, open exhaust on motorbikes.

I found fairly quiet places, but you will almost always have a stray rooster calling out his gratitude for a new day, haha. Internet is getting better, in my experience. Fiber even in some of the smaller cities and provincial areas.

It must be a huge amount of work to get rid of everything. Have you considered renting your house while you explore?

Hi all. My name is Will and my wife is Sally.  We are originally from Seattle but now reside in Vegas.  We got here via Columbus Ohio.
I have been following the Philippines forum for awhile now as my wife and I are considering moving to the Philippines. We are former Peace Corps volunteers who were stationed in Bacolod City for 18 months in the early 70’s. Those were the Marcos years and yes we lived under martial law the entire time. There was no McDonalds or Starbucks back in those days but the traffic was nearly as bad. My eldest daughter was born in Bacolod. We have been back several times over the years to attend special birthday and wedding events. We have many friends in Bacolod and Cebu who we consider “family “. The bottom line is we basically know what to expect but still need to educate ourselves about various elements of everyday life like banking, health care and visa needs. Thank you all in advance for the information and wisdom each of you impart in your posts. I’ll jump in when I can.

Cookieduster wrote:

Hi all. My name is Will and my wife is Sally.  We are originally from Seattle but now reside in Vegas.  We got here via Columbus Ohio.
I have been following the Philippines forum for awhile now as my wife and I are considering moving to the Philippines. We are former Peace Corps volunteers who were stationed in Bacolod City for 18 months in the early 70’s. Those were the Marcos years and yes we lived under martial law the entire time. There was no McDonalds or Starbucks back in those days but the traffic was nearly as bad. My eldest daughter was born in Bacolod. We have been back several times over the years to attend special birthday and wedding events. We have many friends in Bacolod and Cebu who we consider “family “. The bottom line is we basically know what to expect but still need to educate ourselves about various elements of everyday life like banking, health care and visa needs. Thank you all in advance for the information and wisdom each of you impart in your posts. I’ll jump in when I can.

Welcome to the forum Cookie. While you are asking for advice for you and your wife to move here, that will come with research, reading etc but more importantly would from my perspective be your experiences when living here almost 50 years ago if you and your lovely wife would care to share with the members here.
The Philippines is an acquired taste and while not for everyone holds values and love for those that do live here, there are plenty of other countries that offer more or less.

Cheers, Steve.

Welcome to the forum Will, glad to have you and thanks for the introduction. Must have been really nice when you lived here before. The pics of the Philippines in those days were amazing. One of the biggest root causes of change in the Philippines has been the quadrupling of the population in a little over 50 years, which has put a huge strain on infrastructure and added significant congestion and pollution to the cities. Many areas are still beautiful though.

Thank you Steve for the warm welcome. I’ll be sure to provide comments and information to the forum when it is applicable. So much has changed since we lived there 50 years ago I’m not sure how much valuable information I can provide. I certainly have lots of “war stories” from the Peace Corps days which be of some value or interest.
Will

Cookieduster wrote:

We are former Peace Corps volunteers who were stationed in Bacolod City for 18 months in the early 70’s.

LOCK UP!  If you will do any volotary work, you need work permit nowadays. 
(I plan to if the permit handler will let me when I get there.)

Thanks for the information. I have no plans to do much of anything but enjoy family and friends after we make the move.
Will

Cookieduster wrote:

We have many friends in Bacolod and Cebu who we consider “family “. The bottom line is we basically know what to expect but still need to educate ourselves about various elements of everyday life like banking, health care and visa needs. Thank you all in advance for the information and wisdom each of you impart in your posts. I’ll jump in when I can.

LONG

Hi Wil,

You have received some good advise. As someone who moved from Vegas to the Philippines, I'll give you the nitty gritty of our move.

My wife is a Filipino. The Vegas Filipino population is very big, over 110,000. So we had many Filipino friends through my wife and I had a scattering through my job. All my wifes friends were in favor of it. For those that are unaware of daily life in Vegas, in my branch of Citibank, maybe half were employees were Filipinos. In the medical field there are lots of Filipinos.  My wifes church was mostly Filipinos. About half a dozen Filipinos who I came in contact with and knew, when I mention I was moving to the Philippines half said don't do it and the other half thought I was nuts.

First step don't do anything till the pandemic is completely over, you don't want any unforeseen things ruining your plans and put you in a real bind.

If you are set on moving to the Philippines start planning way ahead. If you have a house or condo it has to be sold or leased out through a real estate company.  Selling  it could take a long time.

If you are a renter plan to move when your lease is up. There are many Balikbayan box shippers in Vegas, shipping from door to door, it usually takes approximately two months, sometimes faster. Price varies on the season & sales. (Now it's important to have an address to ship to). It might helpful to pick up  Filipino newspapers at Seafood Village.

PAL out of LAX has morning & red eye non stop flights. Each of you are allowed two bags (50 lbs) and a carry on. You can also carry on your laptop (prevents theft). I found the tickets to be cheaper online than through a travel agent. Since you and your wife are not Philippine citizens it is required to purchase round trip tickets or else you can't board the flight. The outbound ticket must be within 30 days of your arrival. I've heard that some people will have a flight to the Philippines and they outbound to some country close by, as the outbound ticket is a throwaway.

If you make it this far in your plans, at the airport don't let PAL take your carry on. My carry on had all my important stuff which I could not afford to lose,  lost or pilfered. We gave them our carry when they asked,  thinking they would be secure and they were not. They were on the airport carousel with our other baggage when we arrived. Our baggage had TSA combination approve locks, with approved locks they have a special key to open up your baggage if necessary without cutting off your locks. Our carry on had no locks and were not secured.

Check online for the maximum size luggage you can use and for your carry on to fit
under the seat. Now to find the luggage (four large suitcases) for your trip a good place to look is second hand stores like Goodwill or  Salivation Army. It may require several or many trips, as suitcases fly of the shelf quickly. You can even purchase new large duffle bags with wheels. A note we were very concerned about the weight, I didn't want to pay through the nose if it was a few pounds over. PAL never checked the weight of our bags.

For us, everything than can be shipped was shipped, but not all at the same time, I mean everything even my HP printer. I think we sent about 18 boxes. Appliances and all. Your 120V stuff can easily run without a transformer, call a handy man or electrician, it is a simple job to rewire the outlet for 110V. Our side by side outlets are marked 110 & 220. Appliances are expensive in the Philippines a $79 microwave from Sam's Club cost $140 here. A refrigerator was close to $800 & and a 50 inch Sharp TV, if I remember correctly $700.

Get a re-mailer so you have a stateside address, that involves some paper work since you mail it going to be mailed overseas. Now is the time to set up your bill payer at your bank, you can do this online. I was able to change the address for all my charge cards and debit cards to the re-mailer address. If you have life insurance payments use auto pay. (It took six months for my premium to reach me by mail). Notify your charge card companies that you will be using the card in the Philippines. Fill out the change of address card at the post office, they will forward your mail to the re-mailer up to a year. The re-mailer will notify you by email of any arriving mail. They will scan the envelope so you can discard the junk mail. When you  have enough mail to forward to the Philippines, it runs under $50 FedEX delivery to your door in several days.

Now go out and buy an OOMA Telo, voice over internet protocal. I bought mine in the states and transferred my landline number.  So if anyone in the states calls my Vegas number, the phone rings in the Philippines. It's really useful when I have to make calls to the states, believe me, you will, especially to your bank or charge card companys. It does not received sms messages.

Liquidating your stuff in the states, you have to have the correct timing to get the maximum price. Like my car I started six weeks in advance and it was paid for. Believe me I was sweating this one out, it was a Lexus suv and people did not have the cash. I finally was able to sell it a week before my flight left at a loss of several thousand dollars.

We sold our bedroom set for $350 a real bargain for the buyer. A Samsung 55 inch curved screen TV for $350. A dinette & curio cabinet for $75. I thought the unsold stuff I could donate to charities, but each one told me it would take weeks, so get in line, I called them all. Ended up paying someone to haul the rest of the stuff away.

Return all your cable stuff, router, modem or whatever, else they will bill you and turn it over to a collection agency and screw your credit up. Cancel your car insurance, set the cancellation date slightly after your departure, cancel your homeowners insurance, telephone landline service, cable service, gas & electric.

If you are renting an apartment or condo, do a walk through, because you do not want any unexpected charges. We did and then we got a bill for $200 from the apartment management.

I was able to rent a SUV from dollar rent a car one way from Vegas to LAX for about $60 dollars. It had to be a suv because there was three of us going to the Philippine. Six big suitcases and three carry on's.

Timing is important, if you sell your car too early, you have to rent a car. If you sell it too late, you lose money. When all in all was done, we had to rent a hotel room because we had no furniture or anything left in our apartment. But as you know you can get a cheap casino motel room, because it's Vegas.

I'm sure after I post this other things will pop up in my mind.

Not too sure about your current passport...but my passport has a validity of only 5yrs & it has to be renewed on time...so thats what I did before planning my move here.
Last thing you need is an expired official document in a foreign country.
Anyways best of luck.

WOW!!  That was a very comprehensive response. It sure gave me a few additional things to think about. Thanks for taking the time. BTW all my friends and family also think we are nuts.

Thanks for the information. I will make sure all is updated.

Hi, My name is Rick P. I am an American Married to a Filipino waiting for the Embassy to schedule an interview

Welcome Rick!

Enzyte Bob wrote:

For us, everything than can be shipped was shipped, but not all at the same time, I mean everything even my HP printer. I think we sent about 18 boxes. Appliances and all. Your 120V stuff can easily run without a transformer, call a handy man or electrician, it is a simple job to rewire the outlet for 110V. Our side by side outlets are marked 110 & 220. Appliances are expensive in the Philippines a $79 microwave from Sam's Club cost $140 here. A refrigerator was close to $800 & and a 50 inch Sharp TV, if I remember correctly $700.

I would have to disagree.

First, your appliance can get damaged while being shipped. There are service centers here for popular brand appliance. But often they are located in big cities with heavy traffic. They could service locally bought electrical appliance, but not sure if they could service ones bought from outside the Philippines.

Second, sometimes it's not easy to find a competent electrician who can convert your outlet from 220v to 110v.  And if you can find one, consider that though you know not to plug in a 110v to your 220v outlet, other people who might visit or live with you might not and assume that your 110v appliance is 220v. Boom!  Zap! Oooopsie.

Third, the price of electrical appliance here is not that bad. They could eve be cheaper. I just bought a  220v 50" Samsung UHD Smart TV, with a remote with buttons for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video already built in, at S&R (which is like Costco) for PhP26k (roughly US$520).

I've been a member of this forum for quite some time, but I haven't really introduced myself.

I'm Eloise, or Elle, for short.  I'm in my 50's. I was born and raised in the Philippines. When martial law was declared in 1972, I was a toddler. When People Power happened in 1986, I was a teenager. 

My family had green cards. My parents tried living in the states, but they preferred to stay here in the Philippines.  Not wanting to lose our visas, we kept going back and forth to the US just to renew them.  It was becoming quite tiring and expensive doing that. My parents and one of my siblings decided to just not renew their visas.

I didn't want to live in the US, but I do like to have the perks that go with a US passport. So, I stayed in the US, and got an American citizenship.  Soon after I got it, I was planning to go back to the Philippines. But I met my husband, fell in love, stayed in SF, got married and had a baby.

I had a pretty good salary. But I lost my job in 2008 amid a looming recession. Jobs were hard to come by and wages were low. I would not really gain much by earning money from an 8-hour job and then paying 10 hours' worth of day care for our son so I could go to work. On top of that, we had very oppressive upstairs neighbors. We lived in a rent-controlled apartment. If we moved, we would have to pay more for a unit smaller than what we had. So, we decided to move to the Philippines instead.

We didn't have much when we moved here. My parents were a big help. I took over the family business. When my husband and I became more financially stable, we decided to have a second child. We lived with my parents for 7 years till we moved to our own house.

We've been staying here for almost 13 years. We have already adjusted to life here. We live in Metro Manila. To us, Metro Manila is really not as bad as some foreigners deem it to be.

What I miss most in the US? Driving on wider streets / lanes without needing Jason Bourne's intuitiveness to survive traffic and avoid danger arising from drivers' recklessness.

Welcome and Happy New Year to all.
I personally found it was quite meaningless to use the SRRV (USD $7000 tax free waiver benefit) that was provided for me to import my (electrical/furnishing) stuff fm home base. Like it was mentioned some actually turned out to be cheaper to purchase here.
I was never really a tools nor materials guy..so I really can't comment on those items...but I have picked up many tools here that works for me just great.
The only thing that I really miss/wish I had imported was my black bmw 6 series...anyway that too would have easily got damaged on the local roads that comes together with the lack of proper maintenance/service/tech know how that is available here...so I instead picked up my not so sporty nor speedy but still a 2 door 660cc multicab.

Fil-Am Mom wrote:

Enzyte Bob wrote:

For us, everything than can be shipped was shipped, but not all at the same time, I mean everything even my HP printer. I think we sent about 18 boxes. Appliances and all. Your 120V stuff can easily run without a transformer, call a handy man or electrician, it is a simple job to rewire the outlet for 110V. Our side by side outlets are marked 110 & 220. Appliances are expensive in the Philippines a $79 microwave from Sam's Club cost $140 here. A refrigerator was close to $800 & and a 50 inch Sharp TV, if I remember correctly $700.

Fil-Mom said:
I would have to disagree.

First, your appliance can get damaged while being shipped. There are service centers here for popular brand appliance. But often they are located in big cities with heavy traffic. They could service locally bought electrical appliance, but not sure if they could service ones bought from outside the Philippines.

Second, sometimes it's not easy to find a competent electrician who can convert your outlet from 220v to 110v.  And if you can find one, consider that though you know not to plug in a 110v to your 220v outlet, other people who might visit or live with you might not and assume that your 110v appliance is 220v. Boom!  Zap! Oooopsie.

Third, the price of electrical appliance here is not that bad. They could eve be cheaper. I just bought a  220v 50" Samsung UHD Smart TV, with a remote with buttons for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video already built in, at S&R (which is like Costco) for PhP26k (roughly US$520).

Before moving here we sent about 18 Balikbayan boxes and in the prior 10 years we sent 3 to 4 boxes each year. So all in all approximately 60 boxes, the only breakage was a figurine, so no need for appliance repairs. Delicate things things shipped: Waterford Crystal, Noritake Dinnerware, Salt Lamp, One Gallon Bottle Riunite Lambrusco and lots of Glassware and Nick Nacks. These things were shipped with most of our clothing, linens, towels and other fabric items that we wrapped our delicate things in and lots of bubble wrap and sealing tape. A big move like this takes planning.

As mentioned we have dual electric outlets, plainly marked 110 & 220, it is especially important to us as we did not want to but new appliances to replace our 110 V appliances. Most of the appliances are kitchen appliances. And no Boom! Zap! or Oooopsie for us.

A  list of 110 V appliances shipped to the Philippines: Hot Air Fryer, Kitchen Aid Mixers, Hand Mixers, Four Slice Toaster, Electric Perk Coffee Maker, Two Rotisserie Ovens, George Foreman Grill, Nija Smoothie Blender, Blender, Food Processor, Rice Cookers, Hair Clipper, Wireless Head Phones, Fax Machine, Answering Machine, Desk Top Computer, Lap Top, Ooma Telo (VOIP), Salt Lamp & Lava Lamp. Replacing these things would be expensive, if you could find them all.

Now the things that run on 220 V in our kitchen: Refrigerator, Microwave & Fan.

I was going to ship a new in the box 65" Samsung Curve Screen TV cost $970 USD. The Balikbayan Box company would only ship TV's up to 55" and they had to be new in the box, unopened. Checking out the same Samsung TV in the Philippines was $2500 plus.

There are many videos on You Tube on wiring changes to have 110 V outlets. Back in the states many years ago, before You Tube I changed one outlet from 110 V to 220 V to run a Ham Radio Amplifier.

(Caution: disconnect the circuit breaker, wear thick rubber gloves and have a Volt/Ohm meter.)

Hi All,

Animesh this side, Just waiting for the Visa to move to Philippines would be there on a 2-3 year assignment for a newly setup manufacturing company. Will move my wife and kids once I get a proper house fixed up. Have two toddlers 2.5 years and 3 months old. so would have to look out for there Kindergarten Schooling also.

Looking at the Alabang Area to live in for now as my work place is gonna be near Santa Rosa in Cabuyao, Laguna, is my choice right. Will have a company car with a driver, which I can chose  once I am there so would look for suggestions on that as well.

Would need to hire a nanny also for the kids and a live in house help, I have been told it is not going to be much of a problem, but would like to know whether the same should be appointed through an agency or any other method.

Would love to hear from all, as this would be my first long term Expat Assignment before this have been to Sri Lanka and Nepal but for 2-3 months only at a stretch. So this would be a new experience for me for sure.

animesh.jain wrote:

Hi All,

Animesh this side, Just waiting for the Visa to move to Philippines would be there on a 2-3 year assignment for a newly setup manufacturing company. Will move my wife and kids once I get a proper house fixed up. Have two toddlers 2.5 years and 3 months old. so would have to look out for there Kindergarten Schooling also.

Looking at the Alabang Area to live in for now as my work place is gonna be near Santa Rosa in Cabuyao, Laguna, is my choice right. Will have a company car with a driver, which I can chose  once I am there so would look for suggestions on that as well.

Would need to hire a nanny also for the kids and a live in house help, I have been told it is not going to be much of a problem, but would like to know whether the same should be appointed through an agency or any other method.

Would love to hear from all, as this would be my first long term Expat Assignment before this have been to Sri Lanka and Nepal but for 2-3 months only at a stretch. So this would be a new experience for me for sure.

Good luck brother

i am same like you
i want to go to live on philipines

Tanya99

I see part of your post is under review.

So I did a Google Check of your photo and it's all over the internet and that's not you but somebody else.

I use a fictitious photo also, Enzyte Bob, who sold male enhancement fraudulent products.

Enzyte Bob wrote:

Enzyte Bob, who sold male enhancement fraudulent products.

I've never felt the need to google such things - However, I suppose some men do 

Fred wrote:

Enzyte Bob wrote:

Enzyte Bob, who sold male enhancement fraudulent products.

I've never felt the need to google such things - However, I suppose some men do 

Hotness as well as BS always needs to be verified...especially so these days.

Fred wrote:

Enzyte Bob wrote:

Enzyte Bob, who sold male enhancement fraudulent products.

I've never felt the need to google such things - However, I suppose some men do 

Fred. . . In the states the Enzyte commercials ran for years with Smiling Bob always implying great big results. The owners of the company went to prison, because once they got your credit card info (postage for free sample) they would immediately charge you for months and months of this dubious product. The scam netted over 100 million dollars.

Enzyte Bob wrote:

The scam netted over 100 million dollars.

Fools gave their card details, but the biggest fool didn't disappear with 100 million bucks. A nice beach with golden sand in a country without an extradition treaty wouldn't have been too hard to find with that sort of cash available.

Fred wrote:

Fools gave their card details, but the biggest fool didn't disappear with 100 million bucks. A nice beach with golden sand in a country without an extradition treaty wouldn't have been too hard to find with that sort of cash available.

Assets sized, attorney fees, long stretch in prison gives him plenty of time to develop new scam.

An earlier* friend of mine  thought it was a good idea to test Tiger Balsam.  He got so much pain, so he almost fainted but  fell to the floor and it took  hours before he could get up.  I don't believe he think it was a good idea anymore   

(*He screw up a deal very much for me,  so it took me years to get that solved, so I skiped him as a friend. )

I am just starting to research becoming an expat. I’m working towards being semi-retired/digital nomad in the next couple years.  I’m 45 and am working towards leaving the states by 50.  Single, no kids, and 40% of my income comes from trading.  I’d love to hear from traders living in PH on logistics of trading with the Internet, tax implications, and any other tips.

PH is the top of my list for places to research and I’m planning my 1st recon vacation for Jan 2022 pending the Rona restrictions.  Plan is to stay for 30 days and try and get a feel before committing.  There are a few other locations on the recon list that I’ll check after. 

As far as this forum I’m looking for tips on upscale-ish 30day rental in Cebu.  I’ll be searching the threads for that info but any recommendations are welcome. 

Anyone else that has already done a recon that can give some advise on what I should plan to see in the 30 days and what to avoid would also be appreciated.  I’m familiar with forums and will search out most of the info as needed but still wanted to give my deets as a new member.

Hi David for 30 day rental try Airbnb. Make sure you have a good internet connection , read the reviews. Might also try research on YouTube.

Thanks for the reply Lat-

I’ve been poking around Airbnb and see some nice places on Mactan and around the City. 
I’ve also been watching a lot or YouTube for tips.  I’m seeing there is a lot of traffic from Mactan to Cebu and people say it’s better to be in the city. 

I’m looking to enjoy a relaxing vacation with a nice pool and some beach excursions but I also want to explore the city.  My current thinking it to go with something closer to the city and branch out as I get comfortable.   

My only concern with Airbnb is some places list a pool and after searching reviews it turns out the pool is a couple blocks away at another location and there’s a daily fee.  Really looking for a nice place that has a dedicated pool to make it easy to use daily and w/o fee if possible. 

This probably isn’t the best thread to go in depth... I’ll keep poking around the forum.

Hi all, I'm new here. Currently living in San Diego and is planning to retire to Cebu City a few years from now. I know Cebu quite well since I regularly visited the place in the past years. People are super nice and helpful. I also have a large family there. It's a perfect place to retire.

Hi Animesh, i am also waiting for my Visa will be moving soon to Philippines soon . I was suppose to travel last march but due to Covid, plan got delayed by 1 year. Hope to see you there and catch up some time. Good luck

Thanks for having me on this group.
I am currently living in Pampanga in the Philippines and is looking forward to moving to puerto princesa in palawan as soon as possible.
I am a German citizen of African descend and have lived in Poland, Germany and the Netherlands. I am a retired software developer but also with a lot of knowledge in backend stuff.. databases, operating systems..etc.
I am particularly keen on getting to know people living in palawan in the Philippines as it is the dream place I really want to settle here in the Philippines.
Once again, thanks for having me in this group.
***
Thomas

Welcome David Webb and gabuaya01. Cebu City is a lot of fun, I lived there for several years. Only drawback is getting super congested with so many moving in. David, lot's of condos near Ayala Mall - probably best location to start off.

Welcome dtkarik, I envy your move to Palawan - such a beautiful place. Have only been once to PP and El Nido, hope to go back to Coron next year.

Welcome Kern89.. I have also been stuck, unable to get back after leaving last March as Covid was ramping up. Soon it will be pretty much back to normal I hope.