BI warns overstaying aliens after arrest of French nat'l "We will not tolerate overstaying aliens who disregard the legal requirements of their stay in our country,” BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said in a statement. ... Debah is now under BI custody while awaiting his deportation proceedings in: Bicutan, Taguig. Unfortunately, it doesn't give too many details about the guy and how long he'd overstayed etc. - he was probably shopped by his wife/gf, one of the family or the bf/husband of the wife/gf... but writing does look to be on the wall for overstayers with BI starting to invest and use technology a bit more. Would strongly suggest if you are overstaying, try and get it sorted using a lawyer or your wits before you too end up in Bicutan... One place it's definitely not more fun in the Philippines
That reminds me, got to start my renewal 13a permanent spouse visa card. Means a trip to Cebu City, hate that place. I think I'll get an agency to do it, been quoted 15k full package, wife said she do it cheaper lol.
Funnily enough the guy that was my first most direct link with the Philippines in the first place some 25 years ago was a Frenchman, he's the one that set up a software development outsourcing company and web agency in Makati, he was a serial overstayer and used to fix it with under the counter payments, he's been married to a woman who is very well known in the media over there for the last twelve years or so, at least I think they are still married, so I expect he has done the 13A by now. I'm going to go the SRRV route when I finally retire.
Hmmm.... Is the SRRV better than the 13a or does it have other advantages ? Not sure if you're going down the military route (which looks like a good deal) but it looks like for most it's (post covid) not such a good idea: ThanksTo WhackerTheDog Not sure if he knows what that implies in "proper" English: Ok, the benefits of the SRRV are slight considering you have to deposit $10,000 or more in a Philippine bank, depending on your status, which doesn't pay you Jack !#$# in interest, but they use your money likes it's their own! I mean for $10,000 you should be getting a lot more benefits. That being stated, it does allow for unlimited departure and reentry, so if you're not retired and need to travel back and forth between countries for business purposes, or just to visit family and such, then it could be worth it. Also, you don't have to be married! A 13a requires marriage to a Filipino national. So, you couldn't get a 13a if you aren't married. Also, as stated above, the Philippines Retirement Authority (PRA). treated us like ****! I was married when I went back to the US in 2019 and was locked out of this country until July 2021, almost two years. Foreigners with a 13a were let in to be with their spouse. I didn't matter that I was married also, that was not even considered in reference to the SRRV. Denying a SRRV holder, in my opinion, was like denying a Filipino citizen access to the Philippines. Not only that, they had my $10,000 USD and were using it that whole time! I have recently started to conversion process to 13a, which is a pain in the ass! The PRA charges you for everything. It's a ridiculous process, but one I have to go through. It takes 6 months after the cancellation of the SRRV to receive you money back "6 months" WTF!!!! If I didn't love my gwapa wife so much and the Philippines didn't have some of the best beaches in the world I would leave this @%$@& place forever!! That being stated, I hope this helps and have a good day and God bless!!!! Just about to do the 13a myself...
The single biggest benefit of the SRRV is that I don't have to be married, I am never going to get married my pensions would put a target on my back and I've spent enough already in the Philippines over the last 20 years. I simply want to be able to come and go as I please to be able to spend time with my family without having to worry about everything you posted in your opening post. Also I've been leaning more towards the direction of continuing to rent, again to remove any target from my back, remember I'll be settling in Manila not the provinces and the 10,000 USD can be used for either investing in a condo if I buy or long term rent of a house and lot. When you look at the cost of a wedding and all the negatives associated with being married, 10000 USD does not seem such a large investment. It would give me the ACR i-Card and the right to have a bank account and slightly easier travel in and out of the country, I'll be living there on a budget of £43,000 a year after UK tax strictly speaking living in Scotland and the Philippines on that budget each year so the investment is relatively small amount of money for me.
43 grand a year, you will live like a king, regardless of what visa you hold. I'm still happy on my pittance and in my paid-for jungle shack though (and with my 13A 'Permanent').
It's going to take me three and a half more years of work to acheive this, with 2 full years work after age 66, with no NI to pay, a full wage and my state pension and it is in numeric terms so it won't be worth 43 grand in todays money after another 3 years inflation. But basically the state pension should be about £12600 per annum by then, I have a small pension in payment just now of a couple of grand per annum and I'm going to draw down on my main pension at the rate of about £37 grand a year for the first few years as that should keep me under the UK 40% tax threshold, so on about £52,000 I'll get taxed about £8500 a year after my personal allowance, my private pensions will be paid out in the UK and taxed at the default 20% rate no matter what I do, I'm not going to be able to get them to see me as non resident in the UK. I may also retain a little bit of annual support contract work working remotely which could cut my need to drawdown quite so much. The thing is I'll have the flexibility to take that much or a fraction more without hitting 40% tax or if I don't need it I can drawdown a lot less, a lot of it is going to get spent on my kids as they progress as young adults but I do want a reasonable level of comfort for myself too and I want to do a lot of travlling in other countries in Asia once I finally retire as well. And I reckon I should have spent all of the main personal pension pot by about age 80 if I ever reach that age, but even then I will have some fairly large cash savings remaining, what I might not have anyhere is a property that I own outright.
A small extra point that affects us all they just announced that the state pension (if they adhere to the triple lock so it's up in the air again) should rise by 8.5% in April based on average earnings increase being the highest figure, however it looks like they want to massage that figure down to 7.8% or less. Triple lock: State pension could go up less than expected next year - BBC News
