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Daily Grind as an Expat
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What is your experience as an expats in the Philippines? How is the relocation? How is it the banking, employment pass, insurance, visa, work permit, citizenship and immigration issues in Philippines as an expats?
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Unless you are hired by a company in the Philippines before you arrive, you aren’t getting a work permit. Even if you do, the pay is lousy. On the flip side of that many of us who thought we could turn doctorates into college instructor jobs here and found out differently teach online ans make several times what the average professor does. Banking will require you to b here at least 60 days and possess your ACR-I card. Not all banks will take a tourist visa and i-card. Security Bank does and you can sign up online. BDO and Robinson are hit or miss depending on the branch from what I can tell. Unless you secure your visa ahead of time your first one is 29 days then 30 days, those each run around P3000 Your next one is with the ACR-I Card which runs $50 US, but the visa now comes with options of 1, 2, and 6 months. I know a Dutchman who goes in and gets 3 months at the Davao Office and even though that isn’t a listed option he manages to get it. Expect to pay P1000 express lane fees even if you are the only person there as that is what they buy office supplies with so they aren’t letting you out of it. All fees are payable in Peso only, even if they list a fee by the dollar amount. Citizenship will take you ten years and in my opinion not worth it. You can stay for 36 months on a tourist visa, but if you are here for longer than 6 months you will require an Immigration Clearance Certificate which for a tourist visa runs P1300. In Davao this takes the better part of an afternoon and lots of climbing the stairs and running to and fro. In other places it can take the 4 days the BI website says it will.
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No problem getting long term residential visa, O OK ending bank accounts, getting leases, insurance, driver license and buying and regestering a car. Cannot comment on work permit because I am retired. I am also not on a citizanship track visa so cannot comment there either. Overall my experience has been positive, I live well and dive as often as I want. In Canada I would need twice the mothly budget and would not dive to live as well.