# 13a visa return on expired acr i card



## Henry1287 (11 mo ago)

Hi,
I had previously lived in the Philippines and had/have the 13a permanent resident visa. Me and family are planning to come back for a holiday to the Philippines for a couple of weeks this year but it will have been over 4 years since I would have been I'm the country so my re entry permit and acr I card are all expired. Will I be allowed in and stamped with a 9a tourist visa and then be able to leave on that visa without having to do anything about the acr I card or 13a visa. I don't actually want to have the 13a visa so hoping I can just come and go and the visa will then be void. I can't seem to find any definite info and can't really risk going and then getting stuck there with visa issues.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

Henry1287 said:


> Hi,
> I had previously lived in the Philippines and had/have the 13a permanent resident visa. Me and family are planning to come back for a holiday to the Philippines for a couple of weeks this year but it will have been over 4 years since I would have been I'm the country so my re entry permit and acr I card are all expired. Will I be allowed in and stamped with a 9a tourist visa and then be able to leave on that visa without having to do anything about the acr I card or 13a visa. I don't actually want to have the 13a visa so hoping I can just come and go and the visa will then be void. I can't seem to find any definite info and can't really risk going and then getting stuck there with visa issues.


Contact by message or call the Philippine Bureau of Immigration. Facebook PBI 

Have your wife standing by just in case they have troubles with the English language, they do answer their phone and also you could message.

I found this link on downgrading a Visa, unsure if this would still apply but it has the fee's. PBI website Downgrading a Visa You could also contact the Philippine Consulate in your country for guidance.


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## OzeBrit (11 mo ago)

Henry1287 said:


> Hi,
> I had previously lived in the Philippines and had/have the 13a permanent resident visa. Me and family are planning to come back for a holiday to the Philippines for a couple of weeks this year but it will have been over 4 years since I would have been I'm the country so my re entry permit and acr I card are all expired. Will I be allowed in and stamped with a 9a tourist visa and then be able to leave on that visa without having to do anything about the acr I card or 13a visa. I don't actually want to have the 13a visa so hoping I can just come and go and the visa will then be void. I can't seem to find any definite info and can't really risk going and then getting stuck there with visa issues.


I was the same situation except my 13A had expired after 3 years when I divorced my first Filipina wife in Australia and retired (again) to the Philippines.

I think I was put on the 30 day free visa (9A) on arrival 6 years ago....and I subsequently extended my 9A visa. However what I didn't know was you have to cancel your 13A icard with the BI ....they a form for this and a modest fee. Failure to cancel will accrue a yearly fine as I found out rudely recently when I remarried and applied for a 13A visa.

Hope this helps.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

OzeBrit said:


> I was the same situation except my 13A had expired after 3 years when I divorced my first Filipina wife in Australia and retired (again) to the Philippines.
> 
> I think I was put on the 30 day free visa (9A) on arrival 6 years ago....and I subsequently extended my 9A visa. However what I didn't know was you have to cancel your 13A icard with the BI ....they a form for this and a modest fee. Failure to cancel will accrue a yearly fine as I found out rudely recently when I remarried and applied for a 13A visa.
> 
> Hope this helps.


Thank you Ozebrit and welcome to the forum.  So what did you pay for fees?

This is just a guess but if you have to pay the late fees and down grade your Visa, then I can figure out what the fees wil be Henry because I was gone 3 years and had to cough up 14,000 pesos so for 4 year's your looking at nearly 20,000 pesos in fines plus the additional 6000 pesos to downgrade your visa so around 26,000 - 30,000 pesos.


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## OzeBrit (11 mo ago)

M.C.A. said:


> Thank you Ozebrit and welcome to the forum.  So what did you pay for fees?
> 
> This is just a guess but if you have to pay the late fees and down grade your Visa, then I can figure out what the fees wil be Henry because I was gone 3 years and had to cough up 14,000 pesos so for 4 year's your looking at nearly 20,000 pesos in fines plus the additional 6000 pesos to downgrade your visa so around 26,000 - 30,000 pesos.


Thanks for the welcome!

I can't give an exact cost as I used an agent working in the BI here to get my 13A (still in process did the biometrics in Cebu City 3 weeks ago) and he worded a letter apologising and explaining why I had failed to cancel my old card and was applying for a new 13A but around P5k extra got added to my total agents fee of P30k


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## Henry1287 (11 mo ago)

M.C.A. said:


> Thank you Ozebrit and welcome to the forum.  So what did you pay for fees?
> 
> This is just a guess but if you have to pay the late fees and down grade your Visa, then I can figure out what the fees wil be Henry because I was gone 3 years and had to cough up 14,000 pesos so for 4 year's your looking at nearly 20,000 pesos in fines plus the additional 6000 pesos to downgrade your visa so around 26,000 - 30,000 pesos.


Thanks for the help with this, my wife managed to get a reply after a couple of days on the messenger app but they seemed to think I wanted to stay at re validate my card. I will be allowed entry for 30 days but I'll be stopped from leaving if I haven't sorted out my card/visa in that time. Either downgrade or re validate my card, sadly I will have two weeks max in the country due to work and don't know if I can take the risk trying to sort it all out. Plus the fees and fines do seem like they are racking up. Its a shame its not possible to do anything from the UK from the Phil embassy, you can apply for visas there but not sort out existing ones.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

This would be one reason why an Expat wouldn't want the 13a Visa unless you actually live here, it's mainly a Visa for your final stop.

There's an unfairness if you decide to visit or return for retirement also, the fees seem ridiculous and it appears no way to stop them unless you hire a lawyer and give them power of attorney or remain in-country for over a month. You could check to see if they have an expedited service, let them know why.

Philippine Bureau of Immigration has a list of auttournies on their website.PBI approved entities


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## Dubbletee (1 mo ago)

Henry1287 said:


> Hi,
> 
> I had previously lived in the Philippines and had/have the 13a permanent resident visa. Me and family are planning to come back for a holiday to the Philippines for a couple of weeks this year but it will have been over 4 years since I would have been I'm the country so my re entry permit and acr I card are all expired. Will I be allowed in and stamped with a 9a tourist visa and then be able to leave on that visa without having to do anything about the acr I card or 13a visa. I don't actually want to have the 13a visa so hoping I can just come and go and the visa will then be void. I can't seem to find any definite info and can't really risk going and then getting stuck there with visa issues.


Hi Henry1287! I am in a similar situation. Returning to the Philippines as a 13A with an expired ACR, for short term tourism, and no longer intend to use it and am willing to surrender my status. What was the outcome of your situation? Were you able to arrive as a 9A and leave the country without issue?


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## Lunkan (Aug 28, 2020)

More 13a holders being away some years, have got DEPTS for the card by not renewing it during the years being away.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

Dubbletee said:


> Hi Henry1287! I am in a similar situation. Returning to the Philippines as a 13A with an expired ACR, for short term tourism, and no longer intend to use it and am willing to surrender my status. What was the outcome of your situation? Were you able to arrive as a 9A and leave the country without issue?


Welcome to the forum Dubbletee. 9a is a tourist, so there's no issue with the ACR card but you are on a 13a Visa "issue for sure"  so you'll be prevented from leaving the Philippines until your status is fixed, there's no such thing as short time tourist status for you any longer, it can take months the wheels move very slowly here and at least 5,000 pesos per year you've been gone, there's probably other fees and then what if they lose our paperwork so even longer or you don't have all your original documents, good luck mailing all that stuff from the US.

You'll have to refile your 13a Visa and go through the entire process again if you choose to go that route or pay your fees and work out it another way, the timeline again could be lengthy, so many holidays and you been through the process before... it hasn't changed it's still a very burdensome bureaucratic system and it's meant that way it provides jobs for the citizens and extra money, you probably already know this but just in case I'm trying to warn you in advance, so don't come here "short term tourist" you'll be very sorry.  

I feel that I've done my best to warn a fellow Expat of the many issues with the Philippine Immigration administration in a 3rd world developing country.


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## Henry1287 (11 mo ago)

Hi Dubbletee

I managed to sort it out with relevant ease when I went back, not sure if I was lucky though.

At immigration on arrival the lady actually stamped my passport with balikbayan, I didn't ask for it, just handed my passport and my card and said I had been out of the country for over four years so is my 13a cancelled? she said yes. I asked if I need to go to immigration and she said just go and cancel the card and waved me through. 

Next day went to immigration in intramuros first thing to see what they would say. Went to a window for cancelling acr I card, was given some forms and went outside round the corner to get a letter typed up from one of the lawyers, cost about 400php, couple of photocopies or passport and i card and went back and handed it all in. They were quite confused at first and had to explain I wasn't looking to reactivate the visa. The man at the immigration counter did also look a bit confused at my balikbayan stamp I now had, but everything went smoothly. Paid about 9500php to cancel the card including fines for late reporting etc, handed the card in, got the receipts and forms all stamped and said it would take about 5 days to cancel. Told I didn't need to return but given a number to call if I wanted to check the status. I was staying 3 weeks anyway so never called and left the country with no problem at all, passport stamped on exit. Whole process in immigration under and hour.

I think the blessing was being stamped as balikbayan on arrival as normally you need to downgrade it first if you were in the country already and wanted to cancel it. I also don't know if what happened to me happens to everyone, but basically getting a different stamp at immigration on arrival effectively downgraded my visa status it seems and all I had to do was cancel the card.

Hope it helps!


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