DFA endorsement for holders of SSRV

[This before info from emvaningen below  - it was based on PRA office visit that still confusing to me so leaving as is]

I just back from PRA Makati office.

They have not gotten any EED in their sets sent to Immigration BACK yet.  That what I told, if somebody has gotten one be nice to know...

So if that's what you waiting for, its truly a unknown even by them.

This is all about the alleged abuse of the SSRV by likely the Chinese POGO industry, etc., just caught up in the crossfire.  PRA is pretty efficient and professional, it has always been when anything goes past them, to DFA, Bank, etc., they can find themselves literally waiting for somebody to come to work their that has the only sign-off authority, etc.

as they now accepting new applications for over 50 yr olds, that is where this may be headed...i.e. return to the 50 year old threshold - but again unknowable at this point.

I need to sort if I go so I can get vaccinated in USA or stay as I pretty sure I will not have a EED for some time.

It's disconcerting how much dis-information about this subject exists,

Hundreds of SRRV holders have applied for EED and gotten one. I have friends who went back, my partner has clients that have and i have a yet unused EED.

The current process is that PRA puts applicantions in batches, then sends those  to DOT who then sends them to DFA for action. A long process, designed to make it difficult for SRRV holders, who collectively have to suffer for the alleged misdeeds of a few. Currently they are working  is batch 15.

The previous writer was right in this. I have seen no names of PRC nationals on any list of approved persons.

To exclude only SRRV holders of reentry is a flagrant breach of the law. EO1037 is clear about travel privileges.

OUTSTANDING! That is the first I have seen saying EEDs granted in any real way.

What got me on the forum is exactly that: inre misinformation as usually an office visit and chat gets me the most accurate info, now feel like I may have been spun as it came with "if you have any political connections..." and repeat no way could tell me how long to get approved, even a range...rather told the line that not had anything back from DFA...maybe that more to the whole idea of the EED, I will give her the benefit of the doubt.

What is clear is that no promises then on HOW LONG it will take but assuming very clean low-risk profile then that good news for me.

I will get it in today.  I think they could certainly push HARD to say anybody over 50 as that the old rule & NOT the group at issue.  But the fact they want the order that got you the SSRV tells me that Immigration is to disorganized to check their own records.

So apologies if I confusing folks but I looking for actionable intel and today I got seriously thrown for a loop.

Hi Philres,
I am still a bit surprised about what you were told in the PRA office; did you hear that from a PRA employee? It might be a misunderstanding, or he/she may have meant that recently no EEDs were approved, which is correct, because there was a pause in processing during the last general travel ban.

I have joined PRA in requesting that genuine retirees, can return without EED or are automatically approved based on certain parameters. Age, length of previous stay, even nationality come to mind.

European diplomatic missions are aware of the flagrant discrimination of older SRRV holders. I am not sure if the US mission has interest. I heard (dangerous quote) that the PRC mission is not always answering when contacted by their people.

I am going to take the position that she was referring to requiring EEDs at all, even though the question was repeated to her about how long it would take.  I think she may have seen me as somebody that might have had some connections. Though that may just me my own vanity(hah!). 

Would be good to know at minimum how long the approval process has been, there is certainly a lot of risk from no flights to travel cap to restrictions in the future, etc.

I have also engaged in angles to get US approved vaccine here now as a plan...I don't know  I think I am up to "E"..

US embassy is highly unlikely to do squat, they however are now vaccinating their own KIDS 16 and over with US vaccines  [first hand knowledge...the irony is not lost on me.

keep up the chatter.

So it is difficult to get vaccine in Philippines  ? Im in u.s. coming back there in 3 months. U.S. is about to send millions of doses to countries. Did not say which

cltisdale - you got your EED? If so, how long it take?

I let others speak to vaccines as i had not expected it to be an issue for me.

There are vaccines in Ph, but it seems not very well co-ordinated. I cannot find much info about what DOH is doing vaccine-wise.

I think that I posted before that also non-Filipinos are being vaccinated. I am not sure how the vaccines are being organised. But it is Sputnik in Muntlupa, Pfizer in parts of metro Manila, and some Sinovac and a few including the pres with Sinopharm.
We were invited to get listed in Makati, which we did, but after that we heard nothing.

I am waiting to get vaccinated if I get vaccinated at all. Seniors must be careful about taking the vaccines. I do NOT trust the SINOVAC from China. They CREATED this covid to begin with.Controversy how it began whether from bats(on their menu) or in a lab. Chinese scientist who discovered the virus was told to keep it quiet-then suddenly died. Another Chinese scientist involved resigned or mysteriously gone or at least out of the picture. Its all kinda fishy that this happened just before Chinese New Year the time of the year Chinese and world travel travel is at its high. Chinese allowed to travel anywhere in the world including America but not allowed to travel via airlines within China.its fishy!(Remember-World de-population is a part of the New World order that Bill Gates(another vaccine advocate) is involved in and pushing the vaccines. Both Bushes-Clintons-Obama-Biden and most on the Left are part of this NWO.Its biblical.By the way-The NWO people want the 7 billion decreased down to 500 million. Theres evidence written in stone to confirm this.Kinda scary!Baguio Jimmy

I just going to say that I have yet to have anybody tell me how long it took them to get an EED. 

This is the reply to my filing this week below

For the record - at present it would seem justice delayed is justice denied, from PRA perspective this is not of their making and under the thumb of immigration, thus the fact there is an EED option at all allows ON PAPER to say gee we not saying "no" entry.

It would appear that HOW you get the EED is secondary and have added to the list the idea of whether a way to just deal with immigration directly while this off into the ether (that piece I will not be commenting on)

Dear SRRV members,

This is to acknowledge receipt of the attachments in your email.

Your request for re-entry is under review as it will undergo the usual vetting process by PRA, before forwarding the same as part of our endorsement by BATCH to the Department of Tourism (DOT) for the review and subsequent endorsement to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), for the issuance of the Entry Exemption Document (EED).

We cannot accommodate your request IMMEDIATELY due to the HIGH VOLUME/BULK of requests that we are currently receiving relative to the matter on hand.

Please bear with us, because we have been flooded with re-entry requests from our SRRV holders and we can only endorse a few number of persons per batch to the Department of Tourism.


Thank you for your understanding.


SERVICING DIVISION

Philippine Retirement Authority

29th Floor Citibank Tower,

8741 Paseo de Roxas, Makati City

Tel. No. 8848-1412 Local 2009, 2010

Cellphone No.: 0917-855-6354

Email Address : servicing@pra.gov.ph

Website: https://pra.gov.ph

PhilRes wrote:

Please bear with us, because we have been flooded with re-entry requests from our SRRV holders and we can only endorse a few number of persons per batch to the Department of Tourism.

Flooded...yup we have lots of flooding here.

2 months, but i was lucky. My first request was not actioned, so i did it again in January or so.

Friends who applied in october, were back home in January

2 months, but i was lucky. My first request was not actioned, so i did it again in January or so.

Friends who applied in october, were back home in January.

It's not BI that causes the problem. It's DOT of which PRA is part.
The reasons for discrimination of SRRV have already been mentioned here.

Anybody know how many SSRV's there are out there? 

We a year past getting stuck, so I would think a majority are hitting this issue..read article that pegged USD520 Million in US currency deposits as of 2018, I can assume there was a serious and continuous wave tracking the POGO growth so no idea what that number may have gotten to, thats a lot of people.

Sort of like news of vaccines, 7.7 million delivered, 5m is Sinovac, divide by 2 as they two shots, and Sinovac still lacks even WHO approval, and, well its a country of over 100m.  Soooo for NON Sinovac - the country has only gotten enough for about 1.4 million people to date...https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/data-documents/tracker-covid-19-vaccines-distribution-philippines.

Same here, since the onset of the pandemic.
There are thousands like us.
I am in regular contact with PRA, about the EED charade and the inability to properly communicate with people who indeed jointly deposited hundreds of millions USD and pay ridiculous service fees, as high as 750 USD per year, for no service at all.

Ok so 2months is lucky, noted - idea its DOT that is the holdup not BI is interesting.

Shame that Industry involved in SSRV not organize some sort of lobbying effort, realize once we have our Visas not in their immediate interest but man Phil is NOT the only market for this and they are seriously hurting their brand.

I going to go in tomorrow to the office and get them to confirm or tell me HOW confirm that it is in process, your point that it took you 2 tries is my hook.

Lobbying will be near to impossible, because too many people are scared.
There are many people inside PRA, who are literally devastated by what's going on.
On the PRA Facebook page i have seen horrible posts by cowards hiding between false names attacking  PRA, marketers and other SRRV holders.
PRA deserves our support, despite their inability to properly handle the request for information or updates they receive.

Thailand started promoting their programme again. Interesting ...

As someone quoted "This is all about the alleged abuse of the SSRV by likely the Chinese POGO industry, etc., just caught up in the crossfire.  PRA is pretty efficient and professional, it has always been when anything goes past them, to DFA, Bank, etc., they can find themselves literally waiting for somebody to come to work their that has the only sign-off authority, etc"

& this article :
https://www.asgam.com/index.php/2021/02 … o-workers/

So with that settled & necessary SOP's in place for further tax/revenue collection by the BIR...lets all hope the PRA is able to function efficiently as it once did.
And hopefully "compensate" some of the genuine senior expats/SRRV holders (chinese included) with this new revenue stream for all the trouble/pain/suffering this has caused them.

Omo

On POGOs, its a very fickle biz as not take a lot to have them move on...talk about a love/hate relationship btwn revenue and perhaps more so - leasing propping up the over building last 5 years.

The oddest piece to it all is that it is founded on illegal biz in PRC and by PRC nationals, in some ways that is what may bottle it up in Phil as other jurisdictions not likely to want it.  Phil POGOS jumped into Cambodia then Cambodia outlawed them, etc...

https://www.asgam.com/index.php/2020/10 … ilippines/

Update on my experience - my application went in 18 May for the EED, I went in this week to Makati office and person did come out and talk to me.  Said I in Lot 21 go to DTA by 2nd week June, expect likely receive EED by late August.  i.e the 2 months talked about in other posts.

I also talked with immigration lawyer that said part of issue is seen as "tourist" visa so important to add strong reasons why need to come in. Many SRRV's also have jobs w/ legit employment cert, for example.  Not me. 

So i added about (a) vaccine in Chicago now walk-ins and have email of our registration and (b) kids' school start 10 August here, with letter, etc. 

Will then go in AGAIN next week on pretext to confirm the info in the package and give hard copy and plead my case.  Then also bring up my ID cards all expire in the month of August...next will be booked flights and how I need as much certainty as possible...then I'll think of something...

Lawyers other words of wisdom was to email/visit constantly to be a squeaky wheel. AND that Immigration he knows is running at @ 30% staffing, all around the gov't this an issue.  SRRV Makati office actually closes every Wednesday for "cleaning"...

But the bottom line is that I will be facing a choice in 3 weeks of how confident am I to get on a plane and start running two households for ? long? So between now and then I will just engage engage engage, maybe not actually effect anything but will max my data for making a decision.

It  also seems to me that this is truly a reset of the program - so I don't see it at all related to covid, etc. 
#1 not letting ANYBODY back in they haven't refreshed themselves with,
#2. even the easy travel permit to leave so long as get a week ahead of time - I suspect if I was a 37 year old PRC national I might have trouble getting that as well.  I offered again about my order granting me the SRRV Classic and she said, no that is all for the Chinese only.

I do not see this EED thing, etc., getting lifted though once they have gotten to ID cards expiring (they made any 5 year just one year I read somewhere) they can use that instead as their hammer.

Good write-up.

Interesting, but true, that some consider it a tourist visa, despite the Executive Order that grants residency. I have a written statement by PRA that SRRV is a resident visa.

You did not mention TRAVELPASS that currently is required for SRRV holders to leave.

I am concerned about the negative effect all of this will have on our beloved retirement country. Will prospective retirees still trust the authorities? And will tourism, ever pick up and be like Thailand?

So a current SRRV holder "stuck here" would still need minimum :
a) Travel Pass
b) All clear Swab Test Cert
c) EED
d) Valid SRRV card in line with your expected re-entry date (US$360/yr)
e) Sufficient Travel Tax (>1yr stay)
to "HOPEFULLY" leave here & return safely.

Well I'd rather just stay put for now & will just go ahead & renew my SRRV card that expires Jan 2022.

manwonder wrote:

So a current SRRV holder "stuck here" would still need minimum :
a) Travel Pass
b) All clear Swab Test Cert
c) EED
d) Valid SRRV card in line with your expected re-entry date (US$360/yr)
e) Sufficient Travel Tax (>1yr stay)
to "HOPEFULLY" leave here & return safely.

Well I'd rather just stay put for now & will just go ahead & renew my SRRV card that expires Jan 2022.

Sorry forgot to mention

f) A *14 day quarantine in an approved Manila hotel that has to be fully paid by me / understand we also need to buy our own digital thermometer for daily temp checks.

g) Max *21 days quarantining which must be done in a singapore government facility and not at home. (But guess what ***PERMENANT RESIDENTS*** of Singapore are still allowed in; including those from the ***PHILIPPINES)
As I'm a citizen I'll get my FOC covid 19 inoculation immediately on arrival at changi airport.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnn.co … index.html

h) Then another 14days quarantining in Manila if I were to re-enter with my approved EED doc/renewed SRRV card.

So YES  I'd rather just stay put here for now and will just go ahead and renew my SRRV card that expires Jan 2022.
(However this time around maybe only for 1 year & not for the max 5years allowed.)

Renewal of the SRRV ID card is max one year at the moment.

Does anybody know if the travel pass for a return flight originating in the Ph automatically includes an EED.

emvaningen wrote:

Renewal of the SRRV ID card is max one year at the moment.

Does anybody know if the travel pass for a return flight originating in the Ph automatically includes an EED.

Thanks so *now its only max 1yr (SRRV card renewal)
Not that I heard off... (I could be mistaken)...All I know is that for me I still have to get my travel pass fm my local barangay office & thats only after the PRA has my approved EED.

Totally unclear to me:

Welcome to the Philippine Retirement Authority Travel Information Registration Page.

As a policy response to monitor the exit and entry of foreign retirees in the Philippines during this pandemic pursuant to IATF Resolution No. 99-A ALL Special Resident Retirees' Visa (SRRV) holders ARE REQUIRED to secure a Travel Pass on Entry Exemption and register their travel information from and back to the Philippines.

A TRAVEL PASS is a global and standardized solution to validate and authenticate all country regulations regarding COVID-19 passenger travel requirements. It is system generated with a QR Code.

A ENTRY EXEMPTION DOCUMENT is required to allow holders of valid and existing SRRVisa to be presented to the Bureau of Immigration upon arrival.

Both Travel Pass and Entry Exemption Document are FREE OF CHARGE

1. I don't believe we pay travel tax

2. you can leave with Travel Pass w/out an EED, in fact that is exactly my situation, i.e. leave on the PROMISE that an EED will be produced in a reasonable time for a return.

At present for me (see above) - my wife and children will go as they can get vaccine the next day in Chicago, and as school is starting remote/asychronistically in August, should be OK. 

Getting the IDs if it goes past August is a nut I have yet to crack.

But they need OUT mentally as much as anything and USA is an option for us.

Who knows what Quarantine will be like by August - can't be worse.  i assume they will not trust  anybody saying they already vaccinated.

UPDATE - went into to office today, staff I talked with was rather excited that they have approval at DOT level to scrap the EED and presenting to IATF to get decision THIS WEEK in their favor.  This also tracks my independent lobbying that did confirm that there is a serious Duterte loyalist assoc with the PRA and so if it got this much momentum it has a high likelihood of getting scrapped this week.  For what its worth the staff sounded extremely sympathetic to the plight of the SRRV holders and shaken by all the profanity that they have been dealing with for months....Same time they are still processing the next batch and she took my added paperwork.

Also NOTE:  I saw somebody mentioning getting travel pass to exit from their local barngay - I think you need to get it from PRA but now I will be actually studying that more carefully as I have booked flights as already decided I have to go no mater what.  Will share anything unusual there.

Everybody light a candle, knock wood, whatever, they ditch the EED.

PhilRes wrote:

UPDATE - went into to office today, staff I talked with was rather excited that they have approval at DOT level to scrap the EED and presenting to IATF to get decision THIS WEEK in their favor.  This also tracks my independent lobbying that did confirm that there is a serious Duterte loyalist assoc with the PRA and so if it got this much momentum it has a high likelihood of getting scrapped this week.  For what its worth the staff sounded extremely sympathetic to the plight of the SRRV holders and shaken by all the profanity that they have been dealing with for months....Same time they are still processing the next batch and she took my added paperwork.

Also NOTE:  I saw somebody mentioning getting travel pass to exit from their local barngay - I think you need to get it from PRA but now I will be actually studying that more carefully as I have booked flights as already decided I have to go no mater what.  Will share anything unusual there.

Everybody light a candle, knock wood, whatever, they ditch the EED.

Great news. Fingers crossed.

Good news indeed.
The IATF meeting will take place tomorrow.
The secretary of Tourism needed the support of the PRA board.
I am not sure what you mean with Duterte lobby.
The travelpass is explained on the official PRA facebook page. It's in breach of executive order 1037 and has to go too.

I signed up on the San Fernando list months ago. My spouse will not vaccinate. They seem to be corrupting every last dose. First to politicians, then 7 11 workers, police, etc., then whatevers left over for the rest. And same in Davao city. They basically told my spouse, with heart condition, to wait until the very last risk group was done.

Thanks Philippines. I'll remember that