Latest on Visas per the San Francisco Consulate

[Heeb]

Well I got my Visa today, only took one week, I also found a copy of our marriage certificate certified by the county of San Diego, it’s beat up   but it’s readable, found it in my military record. BTW, other than your passport don’t send the consulate anything that you need back, no originals needed, they only send you the passport back with the stamp.

[DaveB]

On 8/27/2020 at 2:53 PM, Heeb said:

Well I got my Visa today, only took one week, I also found a copy of our marriage certificate certified by the county of San Diego, it’s beat up   but it’s readable, found it in my military record. BTW, other than your passport don’t send the consulate anything that you need back, no originals needed, they only send you the passport back with the stamp.

I kinda started this thread once upon a time.  Been riding and adapting to  all the travel changes and shifts in direction ever since.  Happy to announce I'm finally in the Philippines, riding out the 14 day self-isolation period in my sister-in-law's house in Angeles City (she's currently in Australia, so we have a good place to stay).  It was quite a journey over the past months, but a synopsis on the salient points:

1. The shut down of issuing visas in the US was a problem for a while - and stopped my effort to submit my 13A application.  When the last travel reg change required a visa for a Filipina spouse, the SF Consulate opened to such visas, by mail only.  They are very responsive to emails sent to the visa processing section and will send back info on what you need to provide to get a 9A tourist visa.  I got the one that allows multiple entry for up to a year, but note that each "entry" is for a 60 day stay - so I have to renew it to stay past 60 days.  I submitted the info they wanted, and got my passport back in the mail 3 weeks later with a 9A visa pasted into one of the pages.

2.  The DC Embassy advised that I should submit my 13A visa once I get to the Philippines, so that is on my to do list soon as self-isolation is over.  I prepped my package with all the required stuff for the SF Consulate way back when.  So I went to the BI website and found both a different application form, and a requirement for a different set of backup documents (seems to be less).  So I prepped that as I understand it - and fully expect to present and get told what to fix.  But at least I'll be able to do it on site and in person instead of from 12000 miles away.  Meanwhile, I've stumbled across some discussions on recent 13A activities and I have to catch up with those.  

3.  Despite dealing with one flight cancellation, and a weirdly long evening one night setting up my quarantine hotel, the whole actual travel/immigration effort went fairly smooth.  I connected through Incheon (whole side story to that decision), filled out health surveys and had my temperature taken every step of the way, and hit Manila at night on Oct 5.  All anyone seemed to care about was my visa page in my passport.  No one asked for or looked at my marriage certificate or hotel reservation confirmation, which I had heard they do.  Might be that they trusting the screen done by the consulate.

4.  COVID test came back the next morning.  I was impressed by the speed.  Don't know if that is typical these days.  

So...even though I have a suspicion absolutely no one in Angeles City knows I'm here, and I could wander the streets without concern, I'm honoring the promise to self-isolate for 14 days.  Don't want to introduce any reasons for additional trouble 

[OnMyWay]

16 minutes ago, DaveB said:

I got the one that allows multiple entry for up to a year, but note that each "entry" is for a 60 day stay - so I have to renew it to stay past 60 days. 

I'm interested to see what it will cost for the extensions.  Same as always or something different?

Did you decide which office to use?

19 minutes ago, DaveB said:

So...even though I have a suspicion absolutely no one in Angeles City knows I'm here, and I could wander the streets without concern, I'm honoring the promise to self-isolate for 14 days.  Don't want to introduce any reasons for additional trouble 

Not sure where you are exactly, but I heard that Angeles City proper is still locked down tight.  Also here in Subic area they have tightened up.  In Olongapo, starting this past Monday, the side streets are barricaded and only local barangay residents can go in and out, with their Quarantine Pass.

[Tommy T.]

1 hour ago, DaveB said:

Happy to announce I'm finally in the Philippines, riding out the 14 day self-isolation period in my sister-in-law's house in Angeles City (she's currently in Australia, so we have a good place to stay).

Welcome to the Philippines. I am glad everything worked out okay more or less. Your approach sounded very methodical and careful and obviously you did a great job.

Enjoy your stay and stay safe and healthy.

Incidentally, the checkpoints have tightened up scrutiny here in Davao City in the past few days. The police actually look at passengers in every vehicle carefully checking for masks. Apparently there have been a few new infections noted so that is the reason. Other than that, there don't seem to be any restrictions...yet.

[DaveB]

On 10/8/2020 at 1:09 PM, OnMyWay said:

I'm interested to see what it will cost for the extensions.  Same as always or something different?

Did you decide which office to use?

Not sure where you are exactly, but I heard that Angeles City proper is still locked down tight.  Also here in Subic area they have tightened up.  In Olongapo, starting this past Monday, the side streets are barricaded and only local barangay residents can go in and out, with their Quarantine Pass.

From what I saw on the drive in, things look fairly laid back, but I have to admit most of my observation of the Philippines the last few days has been sitting in a carport watching the world through a gate.  People are pretty much doing their thing, but almost 100% masked.  We did get stopped at the rear gate of Clark when my brother-in-law driver was taking us here to my sister-in-law's house, and we were asked  where we were going.   We put on our masks before that.  All the other checkpoints were just a wave through.;  My brother-in-law had to get a travel pass to come get us in Manila, and he says public places like the mall require face shields.  We stopped at a rest area for lunch outside San Frernando and aside from the social distancing, it was pretty normal.  Other than the stop at Clark, he didn't go through any checkpoints, and we did make some stops around Balibago on the way here, and I didn't note any special activity.  I'll know more about how it goes 11 days from now when I can get out of here.

My 9A visa is simply the basic tourist visa for foreigners that has always existed - but Americans never needed them so no one got them before.  I'm in the same world as any tourist - stay 59 days, and then get it renewed - for a fee that I haven't quite defined yet.