[2021-03-09] 13A Visa Intramuros Update **Implementation" with notes

[Shol]

Applied: October 31st, 2020

Approved on BOI Website:  January 14th, 2021

Implemented:  March 9th, 2021 (Could have been sooner, but needed to wait for online appointment)

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Hi there :)

I wanted to create an update to a thread I started in October when I applied for the 13A with my experiences, with what has transpired since and the news is great as I was successfully implemented this morning!

I wanted to simply go over the particulars just in case it might help some folks with their own applications or interactions so here we go.

Approval

For 3 months was constantly checking on the BOI web site, which was down quite a bit of the time due to maintenance and I was beginning to get that feeling of dread as my Balikbayan Visa was expiring in early February so would have to go drop 4-5k PHP if my approval didn't go through.   It seems like they disabled the Agenda search (last option) as it simply goes to a webpage not working but the Approved Visa Search despite being updated pretty slowly finally showed my approval in the January 14 list.

I hadn't realized but they did some changes to their online appointments and now instead of being 3 days out always I suppose they enabled more days and this resulted in a much longer timeframe to secure an appointment.   Upon reading the approval in late January, I wasn't able to secure an online appointment until March 5th, 2021.   This caused me to panic as my old visa would be expired.   At this point I can say at least for me, this doesn't matter at all.   What matters is when your visa is approved.  If it's before your old one expires, you are golden and they will respect that and not penalize you for having to wait so long for the online appointment.  (Which for this portion of the process, WAS / IS required.)   So I just had to bite the bullet and "hope" that I would be OK because I did not know beforehand this was reality other than a promise over the phone :)

Highly recommend that anyone anticipating an approval might want to try to secure the online appointment sooner or you might end up waiting like I did.  (Which in the end, only caused anxiety; hopefully this message will avoid some for you fellers :))

Implementation

Honestly, I was a bit shocked here as unlike my application, this was about as smooth as it could possibly be.   I was expecting some degree of nonsense or issues, but I can't really say that there were any hardships outside of simply having to go back and forth to the Intramuros location.  (As in the process, the way things are done, is outdated/not modernized.)

On March 5th, I went to the Intramuros site early as my appointment was in the first slot. (8AM) There can be a line up so you might want to arrive early.  It's hectic and there are fixers and others there wanting to "help" you but you can safely ignore them if you have done your due diligence.  (I was shocked at how many foreigners were there, stumbling around with issues and not knowing what to do, not having appointments, etc.)  

We called ahead and were told to go to window 36, where a gentleman took our passport and looked at our receipt (Some tense, oh no, what if something goes wrong here moments), gave us a yellow stub and told us to come back in 2 business days which would be March 9th to pick up the visa stamped implemented passport.   He told us that the yellow stub with our date on it and time (2PM he said don't go early) was going to get us access to the building and we would NOT need to secure another online appointment thank goodness.   Now at this point, we had also been told to check on the ACR card progress and went to Window 1 and they told us it was "ready" (probably since we had done it 2 months ago lol) and they would just need to see the stamped implemented passport.  That was it in/out in 20 minutes.  Can you imagine :) ?

So March 9th arrives, and we had back there hoping/praying that nothing had gone wrong, or will go wrong.   We got in no problem with the yellow stub thing they gave us; actually there was a massive lineup but I think that since we were for implementation, they simply let us through right away.   Felt like a VIP for the first time ever in PH immigration :)

Headed this time to window 40 and signed a ledger, and was handed my beautiful 13a visa implemented stamped passport.  Yehay!

Following that we headed back to window 1 for the ACR where they verified our papers, and we handed in that white strip stub that was provided to us when we took the ACR pictures many months ago, and after signing another old looking ledger that lots would find hard to find things in, was handed a shiny, security laced ACR card with my homely picture on it :)  

That was it in/out in 20 minutes.  No extortion/corruption attempts this time :)

This experience was great though I will mention that there is so much paper, and a lot of this dropping 1K PHP for travel to go to an office multiple times is a bit "behind the times" in 2021.   I mean I couldn't help but think imagine how someone's stuff could be affected if one person put the wrong paper in the wrong folder?   Oh well let's hope they modernize everything about it at some point like PSA so that you could simply courier things and they put things into a computer.   Oh well food for thought.

Thanks for listening and if there's something I missed I will try to add it and here's to hoping this helps someone or gives them peace of mind or whatever :)

Thanks and have a great day/night :)

(A happy 13A guy who won't have to hit up immigration stuff for a while)

[DaveB]

This was a great post to read.  I checked in here as I'm waiting for my 13A to process.  I note all your angst on just what to expect every time you engage this arena, and being prepared for any ambush that comes along.  Glad to hear it went so well, ultimately.  I'm working with the BI office in Angeles City whish is thankfully not so crowded, and I think a tad more informal, but it has its own quirks.

Having said all that: the reason I came to this topic was to ask a simple question: can I have confidence in that link on the BI website that is supposed to retrieve info on an approved application...the one where you enter your OR number.  From what I can see, it is only a "yes" or "no" query - so nothing comes back at all unless the visa is approved...no other status information.  Kinda leaves ya nervous if you have the aforementioned cynicism over just how well a government website is functioning.  Is it the general opinion that the "approved" search is dependable and accurate?  Does anyone know of any other source where you can check to see just where your application is in the flow, like maybe asking a BI agent to look it up for you?  The only other thing I know to do is check those big Agenda spreadsheet lists that they post every two weeks and make sure I'm not on the "Denied" list.

[OnMyWay]

1 hour ago, DaveB said:

Is it the general opinion that the "approved" search is dependable and accurate?  Does anyone know of any other source where you can check to see just where your application is in the flow, like maybe asking a BI agent to look it up for you?  The only other thing I know to do is check those big Agenda spreadsheet lists that they post every two weeks and make sure I'm not on the "Denied" list.

That Approved Search didn't exist when I did my 13A 3 years ago, and the Agenda list was fine for me.  I think they uploaded the agenda list weekly back then.

In any case, wait a week and/or call the local office to make sure they have it.  When I was approved I mistakenly went over to the Balanga BI to get in after a few days, and they did not have it yet.  Left my number and they called me a few days later.

Pampanga is locked up tight again.  Hopefully that does not impact your ability to pickup the visa.

[DaveB]

I found my name and OR number on the agenda list of January 28.  Now, those lists are published every two weeks, but they only seem to include either new submission batches, or denials.  I've never found my name on any of the spreadsheets since it was listed, so completely in the dark as to where it is in the process.  I might be a month or two away from being completed anyway, but if my record doesn't come up on aa "approved" search, and it doesn't come up on a "denied" list, all I can do is assume it's in work and someday it will come back in some final status.

I may just go down to the Angeles City BI office, ask them if all this is normal, and see if they offer any assistance in tracking current status.  It's not an over busy office, but it's hard to get past that guy in the lobby who does the initial "what are you here for - let's see your forms" screening.

Most of the new agenda lists are around 200 pages of unsearchable spreadsheets.  All you can do is scroll until you find your BI office, and then go through it line by line.  This last one posted, that I saw for the first time today, is 365 pages plus.  Must be sweeping up the holiday backlog.  Real tedious to work through that much microdata.

[DaveB]

And yeah...Pampanga is back in lockdown.  Only one or two members of a household, between the ages of 18 and 60, are allowed out to go to the market.  I fail both ends of that age bracket.  So I'm not gonna do much at all for at least the next 2 weeks.

[OnMyWay]

3 hours ago, DaveB said:

Most of the new agenda lists are around 200 pages of unsearchable spreadsheets.  All you can do is scroll until you find your BI office, and then go through it line by line.  This last one posted, that I saw for the first time today, is 365 pages plus.  Must be sweeping up the holiday backlog.  Real tedious to work through that much microdata.

Dave, send me a PM with your name on the 13A.  Then when the new file is posted send me a reminder.  I can search it for you quickly.  I convert it from PDF to Excel and then it can be searched.  

[Jollygoodfellow]

10 hours ago, DaveB said:

I'm working with the BI office in Angeles City

Was it difficult getting a job at the Bi ? 

[DaveB]

17 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

Dave, send me a PM with your name on the 13A.  Then when the new file is posted send me a reminder.  I can search it for you quickly.  I convert it from PDF to Excel and then it can be searched.  

Hmmm...hold that thought.  I'm actually a decades long EXCEL user...but it never occurred to me to import a .pdf file.  It's obvious these Agenda dumps are either spreadsheets, or maybe formatted reports out of a database, converted to .pdf (I'd hate to think they're just one big WORD table).  I'm gonna go play with those files and see what I can do, if nothing else because it will give me something to do while in lock down.  I have to start with checking to see if I need to have Adobe Acrobat advanced, or I can pull it off just using vanilla Acrobat reader.  Anyway, let me poke at it and if I hit a wall, I'll be in touch for technical support.

Just to clarify...I did find my name when it first appeared in the Jan 28 Agenda dump.  It's on page 175 and shows my 13A has been submitted (though at that point it does NOT show it was assigned to a lawyer for review), but that's where I also got my OR number.  My main struggle is that I haven't ever seen my name come up again since then on any of the bi-weekly Agenda dumps.  The last four or five pages of these things show those that have been "denied", and thankfully I haven't popped up on any of those lists.  But there doesn't seem to be any occasional indication of status changes as the submission works its way through the review process.  Just "submitted", long silence, and at the other end "approved" or "denied".  My angst is my paranoia from not knowing if this thing is even being administered and isn't laying on the floor behind someone's desk right now.  There doesn 't seem to be any way to query anyone or anything to check where it is right now.  If that's all there is, then future reviews won't tell me anything until it comes up on that "Approved" query, or it comes up on the "Denied" list, and I just need to keep checking those and have faith in the process.

Anyway...I'm gonna go play with this new electronic toy box for a bit, just for grins.  After my 20 years in the USMC, I spent 25 years as an IT Project Manager - can't help myself.  Along the way, I may have established some specific thoughts on just what a "user friendly" interface is supposed to be, and I may need to just let it go for my own peace of mind.  MIght be another necessary cultural adjustment.

[OnMyWay]

26 minutes ago, DaveB said:

Hmmm...hold that thought.  I'm actually a decades long EXCEL user..

I was going to tell you how I do it, but after a few experiments, it would not work the way I do it, without paying.

I use https://www.freepdfconvert.com/ for all kinds of PDF work.  I liked it and needed it a lot last year and this year due to selling my house remotely and now working on my family's US visas.  So I bought a monthly subscription.

I tried using the free PDF to Excel, but it will only do the first two pages.  So I used the pay version to convert the PDF to Excel.  If you don't want to pay and can't find another way, I am happy to do it for you.

t

[graham59]

Well, from looking at the visa agenda pages... if your wife is called Marites, then I'd say it (13A) has been approved... as the expiry date of January 28th, 2022 is listed. 

That is how it appeared on my approval listing.

After that, I received a phone call from my local BI office, confirming the approval, and asking me to come to have my passport stamped...which I did, the next day. 

Fingers crossed for you sir.