Good News for Retirees In the Philippines
I had been holding off on getting a retiree visa here, since you had to maintain a balance of $50,000 in a Philippine Bank in order to qualify. I had been on a Balikbayan Visa, which means married to a Filipina and you have to do a visa run once a year, which really is no hassle at all. Hassle is that each time you re-enter the country, your spouse must re-enter with you in order to get the BB visa. Thus, you can't travel without the wife, which is a pain in the ass if you have to make a business trip in the region at short notice. But now they have dropped the requirement from $50,000 to $10,000 if you are over 55. Now 10,000 parked in an account is something I can handle, not $50,000. So, after my upcoming visa run to LOS in a few weeks, I apply. No requirement to ever leave, or you can leave and return weekly if you want. No BS at airport or Immigration. When you go through the Immigration line, you just hand them your passport and retiree card (looks like a driver's license). You can go through the foreigner or Filipino lines. Piece of cake. And, after five years on retiree status, you can apply for Filipino citizenship, i.e., be a dual citizen like my wife and kids. Becoming a Filipino citizen by choice sounds idiotic, but it means that I can then own land/property in my name, etc. So, for once, they appear to have passed a law which makes sense.
