Foreign tourists may stay in RP up to 24 months
Posted on August 7, 2007
Filed Under Travel, Living in the Philippines |
MANILA, Philippines — Citing the arrival of more foreign tourists, the Bureau of Immigration has increased to up to two years or 24 months the length of time visitors may stay in the country.
In a memorandum made public on Monday, Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said tourists may extend their stay in the country every two months up to 16 months. After 16 months, a tourist must submit an application to the bureau’s immigration regulation division (IRD) if he wants to stay up to 24 months.
Beyond 24 months, a tourist would need the approval of the commissioner, the memorandum said.
According to Libanan, he decided to ease the bureau’s policy on visa extensions after learning that the number of tourists who extended their stay during the first semester of the year rose by 21 percent compared to 2006.
He said the BI visa extension office approved from January to June 2007 a total of 196,172 applications for extension of stay, compared to 161,984 in the same period in 2006.
“These statistics indicate that our country is fast emerging as one of Asia’s most favored tourist destinations,” Libanan said in a statement. He said a total of 468,281 foreigners arrived from January to June, compared to 439,526 in the same period in 2006.
Lawyer Gary Mendoza, IRD chief, said the new policy would apply to all foreign tourists regardless of nationality.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Comments
One Response to “Foreign tourists may stay in RP up to 24 months”
Leave a Reply
Well, that is good news, I am looking forward to being able to stay in country longer….but I wish the government would quit charging people to stay in country and spend money. Obviously foreigners are adding to the economy when they visit and lowering the fees associated with visa extensions would bring more visitors.
On the other hand, I think it is odd how many kuripot foreigners there are that won’t pay 40-50 dollars to extend their stay and will instead only stay for only 21 days to avoid paying it.
I think they should eliminate the silly “express lane fee” that is mandatory because they do not have a “slow lane”.