The wheels turn slowly...but they turn

[DaveB]

I guess I'm now officially living in the Philippines...got my ACR card today.

For those who like to keep score on such things, here's the time line:

Dec 15 - submitted combined application for 13A and ACR card

Jan 28 - on the approved Agenda posting for that date

May 5 - got my Provisional (one year) 13A stamped into my passport

July 6 - got my ACR card.

In case you're wondering, none of this relates to impacts from submitting at a regional BI office (in Angeles City) vs. submitting at BI "central" in Intramuros.  From simple personal reading, it seems like the regional offices are a LOT less crowded and easier to work with.  But ultimately, every thing that everyone does ends up going to the central BI world for approval and processing.  If you ever look at one of the approved agenda spreadsheets (available on the BI website), you see every two weeks there are hundreds of pages of applicants for every agenda, country-wide.  That's a monstrous backlog going through one constrained bottle neck.  So...gotta have faith.  As noted in some other posts, it is almost impossible to track a specific request (i.e., yours) from submission to completion.  If you haven't been rejected, then you are probably still in process...somewhere...hang in there.

[Jollygoodfellow]

What was the exact cost of getting the 13a now? 

[Yeochief]

Also did my 13A probation and ACR in Angeles City.  Submitted them together on 26 November 2020, cost was P11,025.5.  They were approved on 14 January 2021, got them in March 2021.  Will start the process over again in October 2021 to get my BI.  Then in November 2021 the process for 13A and ACR.  

ACR was P2,405.5

13A was P6,120

Express was P2,500

Edited July 31, 2021 by Yeochief

[Jollygoodfellow]

11 hours ago, Yeochief said:

ACR was P2,405.5

13A was P6,120

Express was P2,500

Thank you 

[OzeMike]

Helpful information many thanks. When you go through it all again in 12 months for the approval from probationary to permanent what additional costs are involved? 

[Yeochief]

20 minutes ago, OzeMike said:

what additional costs are involved?

NBI, don't remember the cost, I think you can do it online.  Unless the cost has gone up, it should cost the same for the 13A and ACR card.  I will know in a couple of months, was told to submit 3 months prior to the expiration and my expiration is 14 January 2022.

[graham59]

Yes, my probationary 13A cost (the official fee of)  p11.000+ ... applied for through the Dagupan, N.Luzon field office, earlier this year. 

I think the costs are about the same again, when converting to the permanent 13A.