# SSRV will now be accepted, apply from your country of orgin (updated information)



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

SRRV for 50 years old and above will be accepted, you'll be working with the Philippine Consulate and the Philippine Retirement Authority PRA,  PRA from your home country you'll need to bring with you the police clearance (police record), your pension documents (bank statements, these documents will be certified by the Philippine Consulate/Embasssy) if applicable with the SRRV and wiring the pertinent deposit amount and application fees for the SRRV you'll be applying for with the PRA.

Once you've accomplished this you'll get the *Entry Exemption Document* (EED) from the PRA and come here on a tourist Visa and finish up you're requirements in the Philippines.

I got this information from a video posted last night by "pea" YouTube channel snd also the table below from the PBI website under annoucments and advisory's. PBI Official website


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## art1946 (Nov 30, 2017)

hey Mark,
It states a foreigner has to have a valid visa to come there. How does a person get a visa before getting to the Philippines? I use to get my passport stamped when I arrived at port of entry. 

art


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## art1946 (Nov 30, 2017)

Anyone wanting to go to the Philippines should read this article from the Philippine's consulate office.









Mabuhay! Welcome to the Philippine Consulate General in New York - Philippine Consulate General


CONSULAR SERVICES Civil Registry, Dual Citizenship, Legalization, Passport, Visa, & more OTHER SERVICES Driver’s License, NBI Clearance, GSIS, SSS, and more PASSPORT STATUS Track status of your passport application ANO […]




newyorkpcg.org





this site has all the information you need to read about going to the Philippines. They still are not allowing a tourist to travel there unless they have a legal visa already.

THIS WAS UPDATED ON OCTOBER 7, 2021

Go under consular services at top of page and then select visa.



Art


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

art1946 said:


> hey Mark,
> It states a foreigner has to have a valid visa to come there. How does a person get a visa before getting to the Philippines? I use to get my passport stamped when I arrived at port of entry.
> 
> art


EED from the Philippine Consulate will allow you to travel on a tourist Visa but you'll have to pay all of your SRRV fees first and deposit money if applicable.

It's a process and if you want to go through with it contact your Philippine Consulate. Take another look at my original posting on this topic.


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## MaxLifeTraveler (Nov 15, 2019)

M.C.A. said:


> EED from the Philippine Consulate will allow you to travel on a tourist Visa but you'll have to pay all of your SRRV fees first and deposit money if applicable.
> 
> It's a process and if you want to go through with it contact your Philippine Consulate. Take another look at my original posting on this topic.


It was explained to me by PRA that once I get my EED then I have to apply with my local (San Francisco) PH consulate for a 9a visa. An EED alone is not sufficient to enter PH. The official posts on the BI facebook page also say this, though not always clearly.


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## MaxLifeTraveler (Nov 15, 2019)

MaxLifeTraveler said:


> It was explained to me by PRA that once I get my EED then I have to apply with my local (San Francisco) PH consulate for a 9a visa. An EED alone is not sufficient to enter PH. The official posts on the BI facebook page also say this, though not always clearly.


Forgot to mention. This is a one-time thing. Once I get to PH with my EED + 9a visa I will complete the SRRV. Once SRRV is issued there's no more EED or 9a needed for future entry in PH.


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

MaxLifeTraveler said:


> Forgot to mention. This is a one-time thing. Once I get to PH with my EED + 9a visa I will complete the SRRV. Once SRRV is issued there's no more EED or 9a needed for future entry in PH.


Thanks for the update MaxLifeTraveler.

From what I can remember talking with other Expats working their SRRV from the past, they had to certify all their document's with the Philippine Consulate of their country and if not, they had to mail everything back here to the US to have certified, you wouldn't want to get stuck in that expensive time consuming expensive quagmire.


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## MaxLifeTraveler (Nov 15, 2019)

M.C.A. said:


> Thanks for the update MaxLifeTraveler.
> 
> From what I can remember talking with other Expats working their SRRV from the past, they had to certify all their document's with the Philippine Consulate of their country and if not, they had to mail everything back here to the US to have certified, you wouldn't want to get stuck in that expensive time consuming expensive quagmire.


The authentication process changed for all the PH consulates in the US in the last year due to covid. None (most?) of the PH consulates in US will authenticate any US docs now. Instead the PH government accepts Apostilled documents. There's some Apostile international convention that countries like the US and PH have agreed too. In the SRRV case the PRA is saying that they recognized documents Apostiled in the US as being authenticate without involving the consulates.

You get documents Apostiled in the US through the appropriate state level department. In California its the Security of State which also handles Notary licenses. To get a doc Apostiled it has to be signed by a government entity/official the state recognizes (such as for a police clearance) or you have to get the document notarized first (such as with a medical exam certificate for SRRV) before you get it Apostilled.

I spent about 4 weeks getting my medical exam cert + police clearance, notarizing the medical exam, and getting both Apostilled. Took some time and effort!

Again, this is US + PH specific. I'm sure PH accepts Apostiled docs from other countries, but I'm not up to speed on which ones it accepts.


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

MaxLifeTraveler said:


> The authentication process changed for all the PH consulates in the US in the last year due to covid. None (most?) of the PH consulates in US will authenticate any US docs now. Instead the PH government accepts Apostilled documents. There's some Apostile international convention that countries like the US and PH have agreed too. In the SRRV case the PRA is saying that they recognized documents Apostiled in the US as being authenticate without involving the consulates.
> 
> You get documents Apostiled in the US through the appropriate state level department. In California its the Security of State which also handles Notary licenses. To get a doc Apostiled it has to be signed by a government entity/official the state recognizes (such as for a police clearance) or you have to get the document notarized first (such as with a medical exam certificate for SRRV) before you get it Apostilled.
> 
> ...


Good question and all I can share with my fellow Expats is how my 13a Visa was accomplished in the US.

I had to mail all original certified original documents to the Chicago Philippine Consulate because I'm from North Dakota and they sent me back my passport with my 13a Visa affixed and also package of documents sealed for the Philippine Bureau of Immigration, I was told not to open the package from Chicago.

So never second guess the PBI, get that cleared up by contacting them through their official Facebook page, they are sticklers on procedure's you'll find that out once you get here, if they give you some sort of vague reply then make sure you get those documents cleared through the Philippine Consulate you worked with in your home country.

Things can go smoothly if you have all your ducks in a row or your free time can be spent making appointments to the PRA or PBI.

Only reason I'm sharing this is that I've talked with many Expats over the years over this document certification issue and the stress it had caused them. Mailing documents back and forth was costly time consuming for their family members and don't forget this is a 3rd world country the term "hurry up and wait" comes to mind, along with redundancies, Red Tape and a computer based government still in development that still asks you for your PBI receipts... Get ready to pay dearly if you can't cough up that receipt.

I feel I've done my best to warn and continue to warn my fellow Expats of the hurdles you'll soon encounter but hey if money is not problem anything can be fixed.


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