anyone here have any recent info of obtaining a single entry tourist visa in manila,,i need one for myself and my phillipine girlfriend

i have rung the embassy there and they told me that they have toughened up the requirements ,,suprise suprise,,whilsttney also told me of the requirements,,

unfortunately i think i will need to try at the embassy ,,but if unsucessfull will just come in on a 30 day visa exempt with my girlfriend with the intention of staying for 30 days before departing to a friendlier place in savannaket to get the tvs

any recent experiences would be welcome,,regards member

It might be harder getting her past Philippine immigration even with a visa...that "white slavery" thing and all  

 

Good luck on both counts.

I got one in April.

US Passport and here is what they wanted:

1. Application

2. 1450 Phil. Pesos

3. Air tickets into and out of Thailand

4. My recent bank statement (I used one of my US accounts with over $10,000 in it - I do not know if they require a certain minimum amount but obviously the more the better.)

 

Go in the morning and I think I got it back 2 business days later in afternoon.

Not a very crowded embassy - maybe 15 applicants when I was there and about all were Filipinos.

 

For tourist visas - Filipinos have to fill out an additional information sheet and I suspect it will be harder for them to get a tourist visa than a foreigner.

 

And yeah - unlike most countries on the planet - I got the impression at the airport that Philippines Immigration is more concerned with grilling and harassing their own departing citizens rather than concentrating on foreigners. I breezed right through while my Filipino girlfriend had to wait in a long line and got the 3rd degree.  One step below North Korea - completely asinine, treating supposedly free adults like children needing permission from their own government to leave their own country, not to mention the ridiculous travel tax they impose on them. Hopefully their new President will change that.

 

 

 

3 hours ago, calbts2 said:

I got one in April.

US Passport and here is what they wanted:

1. Application

2. 1450 Phil. Pesos

3. Air tickets into and out of Thailand

4. My recent bank statement (I used one of my US accounts with over $10,000 in it - I do not know if they require a certain minimum amount but obviously the more the better.)

 

Go in the morning and I think I got it back 2 business days later in afternoon.

Not a very crowded embassy - maybe 15 applicants when I was there and about all were Filipinos.

 

For tourist visas - Filipinos have to fill out an additional information sheet and I suspect it will be harder for them to get a tourist visa than a foreigner.

 

And yeah - unlike most countries on the planet - I got the impression at the airport that Philippines Immigration is more concerned with grilling and harassing their own departing citizens rather than concentrating on foreigners. I breezed right through while my Filipino girlfriend had to wait in a long line and got the 3rd degree.  One step below North Korea - completely asinine, treating supposedly free adults like children needing permission from their own government to leave their own country, not to mention the ridiculous travel tax they impose on them. Hopefully their new President will change that.

 

 

 

It's a concern for immigration for citizens entering a country they are departing too. Much the same for Thai citizens departing Thailand for another country even with a visa.

Try as a foreigner departing London for the US. They get the same grilling visa or not.

57 minutes ago, Ronuk said:

It's a concern for immigration for citizens entering a country they are departing too. Much the same for Thai citizens departing Thailand for another country even with a visa.

Try as a foreigner departing London for the US. They get the same grilling visa or not.

 

 

Are you referring to an airline making sure a passenger has a visa for their destination country or an immigration officer? I have never known or seen any Thai citizen getting any questioning about being allowed to leave Thailand at the airport or a land border by a Thai immigration official whatsoever. Likewise, I have never been questioned by a US Immigration officer when leaving the US. It is a very different situation that I saw at the Manila airport. Foreigners breezed through while the Filipino citizens were all waiting in long lines and some being taken aside for intrusive questioning.

12 minutes ago, calbts2 said:

 

 

Are you referring to an airline making sure a passenger has a visa for their destination country or an immigration officer? I have never known or seen any Thai citizen getting any questioning about being allowed to leave Thailand at the airport or a land border by a Thai immigration official whatsoever. Likewise, I have never been questioned by a US Immigration officer when leaving the US. It is a very different situation that I saw at the Manila airport. Foreigners breezed through while the Filipino citizens were all waiting in long lines and some being taken aside for intrusive questioning.

I'm referring to immigration officers checking there own citizens have the correct visas before being allowed to depart. It's common for it to happen. Females travelling alone have major issues even with the correct visas. I don't think you need for me to explain why?

In my original post I was criticizing how Philippine Immigration was questioning and sometimes offloading their own citizens leaving their own country, even if they were departing to a country that they did not need visas for such as Thailand. This is not common in most countries and is quite different than an immigration officer checking their own citizens for correct visas.

Checking for visas is a duty usually performed by the airline. And I have never been personally questioned about visas upon leaving the US by an US immigration officer nor have I ever seen it or heard about this happening to a Thai citizen leaving Thailand. This includes my ex-Thai wife and we traveled to many countries that she needed visas for. They are usually stamped out immediately without any questioning whatsoever about where they are traveling to.

As far as I am concerned, a free adult should be allowed abroad anywhere he or she wants to and it should not be up to some government bureaucrat to decide based on some stereotypical profile or bias. As long as they have a valid passport and are not some wanted fugitive - it really is not anybody else's business - especially a governments own immigration department.

Edited September 21, 20169 yr by calbts2

On September 21, 2016 at 3:54 PM, calbts2 said:

I got one in April.

US Passport and here is what they wanted:

1. Application

2. 1450 Phil. Pesos

3. Air tickets into and out of Thailand

4. My recent bank statement (I used one of my US accounts with over $10,000 in it - I do not know if they require a certain minimum amount but obviously the more the better.)

 

Go in the morning and I think I got it back 2 business days later in afternoon.

Not a very crowded embassy - maybe 15 applicants when I was there and about all were Filipinos.

 

For tourist visas - Filipinos have to fill out an additional information sheet and I suspect it will be harder for them to get a tourist visa than a foreigner.

 

And yeah - unlike most countries on the planet - I got the impression at the airport that Philippines Immigration is more concerned with grilling and harassing their own departing citizens rather than concentrating on foreigners. I breezed right through while my Filipino girlfriend had to wait in a long line and got the 3rd degree.  One step below North Korea - completely asinine, treating supposedly free adults like children needing permission from their own government to leave their own country, not to mention the ridiculous travel tax they impose on them. Hopefully their new President will change that.

 

 

 

 

On September 21, 2016 at 3:54 PM, calbts2 said:

I got one in April.

US Passport and here is what they wanted:

1. Application

2. 1450 Phil. Pesos

3. Air tickets into and out of Thailand

4. My recent bank statement (I used one of my US accounts with over $10,000 in it - I do not know if they require a certain minimum amount but obviously the more the better.)

 

Go in the morning and I think I got it back 2 business days later in afternoon.

Not a very crowded embassy - maybe 15 applicants when I was there and about all were Filipinos.

 

For tourist visas - Filipinos have to fill out an additional information sheet and I suspect it will be harder for them to get a tourist visa than a foreigner.

 

And yeah - unlike most countries on the planet - I got the impression at the airport that Philippines Immigration is more concerned with grilling and harassing their own departing citizens rather than concentrating on foreigners. I breezed right through while my Filipino girlfriend had to wait in a long line and got the 3rd degree.  One step below North Korea - completely asinine, treating supposedly free adults like children needing permission from their own government to leave their own country, not to mention the ridiculous travel tax they impose on them. Hopefully their new President will change that.

 

 

 

 

thanks to all the replies actually sorry forthis late mail i actually did not think anyone responded to my question asbefore i received sms notification of reply ,,but not thistime ,,but i do appreciate all advice 

On 9/21/2016 at 3:54 PM, calbts2 said:

I got one in April.

US Passport and here is what they wanted:

1. Application

2. 1450 Phil. Pesos

3. Air tickets into and out of Thailand

4. My recent bank statement (I used one of my US accounts with over $10,000 in it - I do not know if they require a certain minimum amount but obviously the more the better.)

 

Go in the morning and I think I got it back 2 business days later in afternoon.

Not a very crowded embassy - maybe 15 applicants when I was there and about all were Filipinos.

 

For tourist visas - Filipinos have to fill out an additional information sheet and I suspect it will be harder for them to get a tourist visa than a foreigner.

 

And yeah - unlike most countries on the planet - I got the impression at the airport that Philippines Immigration is more concerned with grilling and harassing their own departing citizens rather than concentrating on foreigners. I breezed right through while my Filipino girlfriend had to wait in a long line and got the 3rd degree.  One step below North Korea - completely asinine, treating supposedly free adults like children needing permission from their own government to leave their own country, not to mention the ridiculous travel tax they impose on them. Hopefully their new President will change that.

 

 

 

Most of the  "grilling" is for young girls going out with much older foreigners. This is not such a bad thing as many of these young ladies are very naive (uneducated, desperate and poor) and end up as prey for unscrupulous foreigners 2 or 3 times their age. I've seen some young Filipinos in Thailand being treated worse than animals by their foreign partners. (One girl I met was nearly starving {anorexia}, living with a foreigner 3 times her age. Another was frequently bashed by a Belgian national - we tried to help her, but she kept going back for more punishment. The foreigners virtually keep these girls chained up). 99 percent of the time these young ladies really don't have a clue what they're getting themselves into. Sure, it's an inconvenience, but it does have some merit.

 

I've heard many horror stories about how these young Filipinos are treated in Hong Kong and Arab countries while working as maids. No other nation of people are exploited around the world to the extent Filipinos are, so drastic measures are necessary at the airport.