Philippines Visa

Thirty days visa-free on arrival, a free arrival registration in the seventy-two hours before you fly, and a retirement visa that reopened to applicants from age forty.

Last updated: August 2026.

The Philippines is among the easier countries in the region to enter for a holiday. Most Western passports are admitted for thirty days on arrival under Executive Order 408, with no advance application and no fee. What actually catches travellers out is not the visa but eTravel — a free, compulsory arrival registration that is widely impersonated by commercial sites charging for it.

For longer stays the country is unusually accommodating. Tourist extensions ladder upwards in blocks to a ceiling measured in years rather than months, and the Special Resident Retiree’s Visa was restructured in September 2025 — the minimum age dropped from fifty to forty, and two of the four old options closed. Every figure below is taken from the Bureau of Immigration or the Philippine Retirement Authority; both revise their schedules, so the References section lists exactly what was checked.

Tourist Entry

Visa-free admission

Nationals of non-visa-required countries are admitted for an initial stay of thirty days under Executive Order 408, granted at the counter with no advance application (Bureau of Immigration). The list is long and includes the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada and Australia. A handful of nationalities hold different terms under bilateral agreements, in both directions, so confirm your own passport with a Philippine embassy rather than assuming the thirty-day default.

eTravel registration

Every arriving passenger and crew member, Filipino and foreign alike, must register on the government’s eTravel platform. It is free, it collects no online payments, and the only correct address is etravel.gov.ph. Anything charging a processing fee is a copycat.

• Timing: register within seventy-two hours (three days) before arrival. The system will not accept an earlier submission, so it cannot be done weeks ahead (eTravel FAQ).
• What you get: a QR code, green or red. Green proceeds straight to immigration; red means incomplete data or a health flag and an extra inspection before immigration.
• Leaving: departure registration is required of departing Filipino passengers. Foreign visitors flying out are not required to register again on the way home.
• Save the QR code as a screenshot. Airport data connections are unreliable and airlines check it before boarding.

Extending your stay

Extensions are handled in person by the Bureau of Immigration and stack in stages rather than running on one fee. The first step has a published price; the ones after it depend on which block you buy and what else falls due at the same time.

Sources: BI — Temporary Visitor (9A) Visa Waiver for the 29-day waiver and its fee schedule; BI FAQs for the block lengths, the ACR I-Card and ECC-A thresholds and the 36/24-month ceilings.

Why there is no single “extension fee”. The 29-day waiver is the one step with a printed total, and even that already bundles an express fee. After 59 days what you pay turns on three separate things at once: the length of the block you buy, whether the ACR I-Card falls due on that visit, and the certification and express-lane charges the particular office applies. A traveller extending twice in Manila and one extending twice in Cebu can legitimately pay different amounts. Treat the PHP 3,030 as the only firm number and ask the office you will actually use for the rest. The Bureau also operates a Long-Stay Visitor Visa Extension for travellers who would rather buy one longer block than return every month; which offices process it has changed over time, so confirm availability before planning around it.

File before your current admission expires — the Bureau accepts applications from about a week ahead. Overstaying accrues fines from the day the stay lapses, and they stack with administrative fines; an overstay beyond six months additionally requires a motion for reconsideration, and nobody who has been in the country six months or more can depart without the ECC. Published penalty figures differ so widely between third-party guides — by an order of magnitude — that none is quoted here. Ask the Bureau directly, and simply do not overstay.

Retirement & Long Stay

The Special Resident Retiree’s Visa (SRRV) is issued by the Bureau of Immigration through the Philippine Retirement Authority, and it is the strongest long-stay option in the region for someone who can place a deposit. Revised guidelines took effect on 1 September 2025: the minimum age fell from fifty to forty, the deposits were restructured, and the old SRRV Smile and SRRV Human Touch options closed to new applicants. Two remain.

• What counts as a pension: at least US$800 a month for a single applicant, or US$1,000 a month for an applicant with dependents.
• Dependents: under Classic, an additional US$15,000 deposit is required for each dependent beyond two.
• Who qualifies for Courtesy: former Filipino citizens, retired diplomats and officers of international organisations, retired foreign military personnel, and applicants the PRA classes as high achievers. It is not a cheaper route for a general applicant.
• Annual fee: US$360 for Classic covering the principal plus two dependents; US$100 for Courtesy (foreign national); US$50 for Courtesy (former Filipino). A one-off application fee is charged on top — ask the PRA for the current figure.

Published summaries of the Courtesy band disagree with one another on the 40–49 figures. The table above follows the PRA’s own schedule, which is the one that governs. Confirm it with the PRA in writing before you move money.

What the deposit can become

The deposit is not dead money. Under Classic it may be converted into an active investment from thirty days after the SRRV is issued, in one of two forms:

• Purchase of a condominium unit. The property must be worth at least US$50,000 in Philippine peso equivalent (PRA conversion checklist).
• Long-term lease of a ready-for-occupancy house and lot, townhouse or condominium unit. The lease must run at least twenty-five years, renewable for a further twenty-five at the option of retiree and lessor, and the contract must likewise be worth at least US$50,000 in peso equivalent (PRA lease checklist).

In both cases the title or lease is annotated so that any later sale, transfer or encumbrance requires PRA approval. That annotation is the point of the scheme, and it is permanent for as long as you hold the visa — it is not a normal, freely sellable purchase.

What the visa gives you

The PRA lists permanent residency with multiple entry and indefinite stay; exemption from the Bureau of Immigration’s annual reporting and from the ACR I-Card; exemption from exit and re-entry permits; travel tax exemption; duty-free import of household goods up to US$7,000; and exemption from having to hold a separate work or student permit. In practice this removes almost all of the recurring immigration paperwork described in the tourist section above.

A word on the money. These are large sums lodged with a PRA-designated bank and recoverable only through the authority’s cancellation procedure, subject to its documentation and any lawful deductions. The programme’s terms have been rewritten more than once in recent years, most recently in September 2025. Verify every figure on this page with the PRA directly, and take independent legal and tax advice, before transferring anything.

Other long-stay routes

Retirement is not the only door. Marriage to a Filipino citizen leads to the 13A immigrant visa; employment with a Philippine employer leads to the 9G pre-arranged employment visa; and the Long-Stay Visitor Visa Extension noted above suits someone who simply wants an uninterrupted stay without changing status. The Bureau’s visa index lists the full set with their own requirement checklists.

Student Visas

There are two study routes, and which one applies is decided by your age and the kind of course — not by how long you intend to stay. In both cases the school must be accredited by the Bureau of Immigration to accept foreign students, and the application is filed through the school’s representative rather than by you alone.

Figures from the Bureau’s own pages for the Student Visa (9F) and the Special Study Permit. Both totals bundle several line items, including optional express charges, so an office may quote a slightly different sum.

• Neither is a work permit. Studying does not carry a right to paid employment; that needs a separate pre-arranged employment (9G) visa.
• Flying schools carry an extra requirement: an NBI clearance with the application. Worth knowing, because the Philippines is a common place to train.
• A BI Clearance Certificate and a Certificate of Acceptance from the accredited institution are required in both cases.

A short language or diving course taken inside a normal tourist admission is the grey area most visitors ask about. The permit requirement attaches to the study, not to the visa you hold, so ask the school what it holds you to — an accredited institution will know, and it is the school that files.

Before You Fly

• Passport validity: at least six months beyond your intended stay, with a blank page for stamps.
• Onward or return ticket: airlines verify it before boarding, so book onward travel before you fly rather than intending to buy it there.
• eTravel QR code: registered inside the seventy-two-hour window and saved offline. It sits alongside your passport and ticket as the third document you are most likely to be asked for.
• Proof of funds and an address: a first-night booking and a bank-app balance cover the questions that are actually asked.
• Extension plans: if you expect to stay past thirty days, note where the nearest Bureau of Immigration office is before you settle somewhere remote. Extensions are done in person.
• Never pay for eTravel. It is free at etravel.gov.ph and nowhere else.

References

• Bureau of Immigration — FAQs — the thirty-day admission under E.O. 408, one/two/six-month extension blocks, the ACR I-Card threshold at 59 days, the ECC-A threshold at six months, and the 36-month and 24-month ceilings.
• Bureau of Immigration — Temporary Visitor (9A) Visa Waiver — the 29-day first extension to a 59-day total, with the itemised PHP 3,030 fee schedule.
• Bureau of Immigration — Student Visa (9F) — the age-18 minimum, above-high-school requirement and the PHP 9,720 conversion and PHP 4,020 extension totals.
• Bureau of Immigration — Special Study Permit — eligibility for those who do not qualify for a student visa, and the PHP 5,240 total.
• Bureau of Immigration — SSP checklist (PDF) — the course types, the Certificate of Acceptance stating length of study, and the NBI clearance for flying schools.
• Bureau of Immigration — visa index — the full list of immigrant, non-immigrant and special visas, including 13A and 9G.
• eTravel — official portal — the only correct address for the free arrival registration.
• eTravel — FAQs — the seventy-two-hour window, who must register on arrival and on departure, the green and red QR codes, and confirmation that no payment is collected.
• Philippine Retirement Authority — SRRV — the age-40 minimum, the Classic and Courtesy deposit schedule, the pension thresholds, the annual fees and the listed benefits.
• PRA — conversion of visa deposit into a condominium purchase (PDF) — the US$50,000 minimum property value and the PRA title annotation.
• PRA — conversion of visa deposit into a long-term lease (PDF) — the twenty-five-year minimum term, the US$50,000 minimum contract value and the thirty-day waiting period.

All of the above were checked in August 2026. Immigration fees, deposit schedules and eligibility bands change without much notice — the SRRV was rewritten in September 2025 — and a page like this one can only ever be a snapshot. Where anything here differs from the Bureau of Immigration, the Philippine Retirement Authority or the eTravel portal, those sites are the authority. Check them last, shortly before you fly, and never pay a third party for the free eTravel registration.

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