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From Nigeria to Philippines
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How can I immigrate to the Philippines? I would love to relocate there from Nigeria.
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How can I immigrate to the Philippines? I would love to relocate there from Nigeria.
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I have no idea when it comes to immigration but my advice is if you plan to work here, my suggestion would be to take a degree in Information Technology. Those folks who took up that course can usually command a salary of about 60k and up. That’s way bigger than the salaries that engineers usually get. Engineers usually get 20k salary. Being fluent in English can also help you land jobs in BPO that pays around the same level as engineers though be sure to be a graduate of a degree. Some BPO companies require graduates. Learning Tagalog would help you not get overpriced/scammed in the market. I’ve only seen Nigerian students here in Las Pinas area studying in University of Perpetual Help. Usually taking up Pharmacy course. There are also a lot Indians studying Med courses there. From Med Tech to Medicine. Be prepared to get discriminated when riding a jeepney if you’re a guy especially if you’re a big looking guy. One instance, two black guys wanted to ride a jeepney, but the driver did not stop at them and instead ramp up the speed pedal completely ignoring them. In Las Pinas, it’s very common to see African students riding a jeepney. They’re fewer in numbers when compared to Indian students studying Med courses. These Indian students can occupy an entire lane/hallway during dismissal. Not sure what happened to some of them after covid. I’ve seen an Indian guy buying groceries so I think some of them stayed.
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Before I answer your question, let me give you some expectations to consider and I assume, you’re a young adult like me. Our unemployment rate is around 5–7%. Not that high since we have enough opportunities here. BUT… The average salary here is so low. Yes, the cost of living is low (but it’s getting higher now too), but the average salary is just enough for your needs and sometimes, it still might not be enough depending on your obligations and priorities. For example: I’m an Engineer. I’m single, and my starting salary here as a fresh graduate will be P20000 (USD400) per month. This amount is enough for a single man like you and depending on your personal expenditure, you can even save up to 50% of your salary per month if you are a good money saver for future investments. I can rent a whole apartment for only P5000 a month or afford a well amenitized condominium/tall apartment building complex for the same amount if I have at least one person to live with me to split the cost. Then another P5000 for your overall needs (equal to USD100). This amount seems low in US standards of living but this is already enough in the Philippines. Then you still have P10k savings per month which is equal to USD200. Not high but not too bad. But let’s get different. Let’s get more realistic. After five years, my average salary appraisal could be P40000. Yes, it’s doubled. But at this age, I’ll be needing to invest to own a home, insurances, travels, other assets (like cars), and small business that I can manage whilst being employed at the same time. Sometimes, the P10000 that you hardly earned every month for 5 years to cover all these things for a more comfortable, satisfying, and dream-inspired living might not still be enough. So, you still haven’t escaped the life of choosing a few among all the choices that you supposedly all want to choose even after working here for 5 years. Let’s assume you are still single, by having P40k as your basic salary, you earn 30k a month or just 20k a month if you are that aggressive in providing more luxuries for yourself. Let’s assume you will marry and establish a family after 3 years or so. The 20–30k a month savings might still be not enough to conduct wedding and establish a family including investing more properties since you will be needing more of it once you build a family. Compared if I earn enough experiences and competitiveness even at a minimum of two years and work abroad at the same field let’s say in Germany, from P20k or USD400 a month salary here in the Philippines, I can have P200k-P300k salary in Germany (USD4k-6k). That is times 10 of the salary that I earn back home. Though Germany has more expensive cost of living, the savings will still be a lot greater than what you can have back home. It’s like spending in a country 3x the cost of living of your home country but earning 10x more than what you can earn back home. That’s why it’s very rare to see foreigners migrating to our country whereas many Filipinos do migrate in developed countries. Some less fortunate nationals of other countries regardless of economic status (we have immigrants from both richer and poorer countries than the Philippines) try to migrate to Philippines but they actually feel hard to stay here for the following reasons: The bureaucracy in the Philippines is insane.The required years here to be a citizen is 10 years, compared to other countries either developed or developing that have more lenient citizenship process.They thought that as a foreigner in the Philippines since Filipinos are very welcoming and treat foreigners like their family, they expect that they will be treated in a very special manner either more or equal to the locals but of course, that doesn’t happen when it comes to work and businesses. The Philippine government treat both the locals and expats the same. Most Filipinos are proud and competitive. The only main reason many foreign businessmen stay here is because of low business establishment cost or low capital cost compared to their home countries even if their businesses are not that much profitable here compared to their local competitors.English is widely spoken and is one of the official languages of the Philippines. But as an exapt, they thought that they can live with just English here forever whilst engaging in the local businesses. But the truth is, not really, you still have to learn our local language and culture to better assimilate. If you don’t assimilate, you will not be comfortable here.For Vegan and other picky foreigners when it comes to food, it’s a great challenge for them to find healthy food options in the Philippines. Philippines has the lowest morality rate in South East Asia because of our bad diet.The rule of 40% Foreign ownership and 60% Filipino ownership for all Foreign businesses. As a foreigner, you cannot have your company here fully owned by you. This offs many foreign investors.Some other reasons that are situational and personal.Reasons they stay here: Most of the foreigners that stay here are businessmen and not employees, because capitalizing a business here is so cheap.The labour is very cheap and they use both locals and a few foreigners for cheap labour might it be a white or blue collar job.The education system is good or at least average and at the same time, cheap even at our prestigious universities.There are many Koreans here mostly for English studies not for economical reasons but there are many Korean businessmen here as well due to cheap capitalization and labour.Chinese are the foreign nationals that we most have here. They are the best assimilators of our culture. The better you assimilate, the better and easier you will be accepted. They are here mostly for business. Our biggest business tycoon is a Filipino Chinese ethnic.Their family is here because they either marry a Filipino/Filipina, retirees, or businessmen.Philippines is a very popular retirement destination because of low cost of living.Some other reasons that are situational and personal.Ok Let me now answer your question: I’m not discouraging you to migrate here. Philippines is a beautiful and peaceful country in despite of some economic flaws. But I just want you to know the expectations. Whatever your reasons are to migrate here, might it be for university, employment, business, marriage, or retirement, these are the realistic expectations that you will face once you become an expat here, To answer your question straight-forward, these are the best possible things that you need to do to legally migrate here: If you are a young adult, you can study here first and later on find a job or establish a business but it depends if the embassy will allow you to do so depending on your visa status especially after studying. For enquiries, visit the Philippine Bureau of Immigration website.If you are willing to marry a Filipino/Filipina, do it. That’s the easiest way you can migrate here. When you get legally married, you will be eligible for permanent residency. After 10 years, if you assimilate well and have a decent knowledge about the culture and the national language of the Philippines, you will be granted Philippine citizenship. In the Philippines, we do not define Filipino by race. If you have a Philippine citizenship, you are classified as Filipino regardless if you are black, white, chinese, etc.Try to invest. I’m not sure about the exact amount but check it out in Bureau of Immigration website. By investing either a business entity or whatever, they will allow you to live here permanently.You can try to find employment whilst being a tourist. But, that’s actually legally illegal. If you get what I mean, lawfully, you will not be fined or sactioned if you did this, but logically, this is illegal because you are here as a tourist, not as a job seeker and sadly we don’t have job seeker visa. We are already having a hard time giving employment to those less fortunate Filipinos, what more to foreigners?I don’t know if the Philippines recruit people overseas. We are actually known as labour exporters not labour importers so this is a very rare chance.If you are a retiree, we have retirement visas. Check it out in our immigration website. I think, retirement visas have the most lenient and least bureaucracy even less than family/marriage tier.If you are a refugee, I don’t know how it works but as of now, we rarely get refugees. It’s either they rarely choose Philippines since this is still a developing country or maybe the Philippine government is out of that idea especially that we are 100 million in this averagely small country.If you are a missionary for religious beliefs or charity, there’s also a visa category for that that you can look at immigration’s website.To summarize, it’s not so difficult to migrate here as a temporary expat. But looking for permanent residency requires a lot of bureaucracy and approvals. Applying for citizenship is a pain in the ass. Philippine economy is between lower middle and middle, has potential to be upper middle in a few years if the growth status increases or stays the same. There are many rich and middle classed Filipinos but there are also many lower middle and poor Filipinos. If you are rich or middle classed, you have many competitors since we have many of them mostly working in white collar jobs. If you are a less fortunate person hoping for a better life, you have many competitors as well since we have many locals here that have the same situation. I do not discourage you. I actually want to encourage you to migrate here only if you are willing to assimilate and accept the present reality of this country. If you are, then you are very welcome as long as you will take all things legally and contribute a beneficial contribution to our society. No one knows, if Philippines turns successful in the future and you are one of the contributors, you shall deserve more than a thank you. If you are a student, may you learn a lot of good things from us. If you are a job seeker, may you continuously grow in your field towards success. If you are a businessman, may your business grow and expand for the betterment of this nation. If you are married to a Filipino/Filipina, may you have a happy and prosperous family. If you are a retiree, may you enjoy the rest of your life living in this beautiful country. Cheers!