Things to Know Before Traveling
Traveling should be fun and memorable from the time you stepped out of the plane until the day of your return to the city. To avoid stress and some problems you might meet along the way, here’s a list for both foreign and local tourists on what you should know before booking that plane trip.
For foreigners:
Foreign tourists who are planning to travel to the Philippines but do not have visas yet shouldn’t be worried at all. May it be for business or tourism purposes, nationals from different countries are allowed to stay in the Philippines for not more than 21 days, provided that they hold valid tickets for their return trip to their own countries or a next destination.
Passports of tourists should be valid for a period of at least six months beyond the contemplated period of stay.
Below is a list of countries that are allowed to enter the Philippines without a visa for a period of stay of twenty-one (21) days or less:
Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Australia Austria Bahamas Bahrain Barbados Belgium Benin Bhutan Bolivia Botswana Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Chile Colombia Comoros Congo Costa Rica Cote d’Ivoire Cyprus Czech Republic Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Fiji Finland France Gabon Gambia Germany Ghana |
Gibraltar Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hungary Iceland Indonesia Ireland Italy Jamaica Japan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Lao People’s Democratic Republic Latvia Lesotho Liberia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Monaco Mongolia Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Norway Oman |
Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Poland Portugal Qatar Republic of Korea Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Seychelles Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa Spain Suriname Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Thailand Togo Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Tuvalu Uganda United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland United Republic of Tanzania United States of America Uruguay Venezuela Vietnam Zambia Zimbabwe |
Holders of Brazil and Israeli passports are allowed to stay in the Philippines without a visa for not more than 59 days while holders of Hong Kong Special Administrative (SAR) passports, British National Overseas (BNO) passports, Portuguese Passports issued in Macao, and Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) passports are only allowed to stay in the country for not more than seven days.
Those who are subjected to deportation or blacklisted in the Department of Bureau of Immigration shall not be admitted to the country.
The 21-day tourist visa is ideal for foreigners who visit the country for a business trip. But if you’re here for leisure and exploration, 21 days may not be enough. For those who want to stay a bit longer, you can renew your visa for 38 days more. From then on you can renew your visa every two months for a period of one year. After that you have to leave the Philippines for a couple of days and start the whole process again.
If you stayed in the country for less than six months, you can leave anytime you want to. However if you exceeded a six-month stay, you have to acquire exit clearance as a testimony that you haven’t done anything illegal during your stay here.
If you want to avoid the stress of renewing your visa, travel agencies usually organize tourist visa extensions. You just have to drop off your passport, pay the necessary fees, and come back when everything’s ready. Just be sure to go to distinguished travel agencies to ensure a fast and guaranteed service.
For more inquiries, you may call the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Visa Division (telephone numbers: 834-4854, 834-3707, and 834-4810).
For locals:
Filipino tourists don’t need visa or passport to travel within the country via airplane. You just need a valid identification card (ID), and of course your plane ticket to book your vacation. Also, prepare for a terminal fee going to and coming from the place you visited. The fee depends on the terminal; NAIA domestic terminal fee costs P200 but other provincial terminals costs as low as P20.
For those who have unstable health conditions, be sure to first get medical clearance from your doctors before traveling. Prior knowledge to some of the culture and tradition of where you’re headed will also be helpful and advantageous for you.
Aside from their personal belongings, both local and foreign tourists are allowed to bring in 400 cigarettes, 50 cigars, or 250grams of pipe tobacco and up to two liters of alcohol.
Sources:
http://www.dfa.go.ph/
http://www.tourism-philippines.com
http://www.worldtravelguide.net/
http://www.goway.com/asia/philippines/
