Visa & immigration services in the Philippines for expats and companies
The Philippines offers more residence and work categories than most people expect, spread across three separate administrations. We have worked here since 2011. Our job is to tell you which route applies to you, what it will take, and what it will not do.
The Philippines has more immigration categories than most arrivals expect, and they are not variations on one another. Employment, marriage, retirement, investment and citizenship each sit in a different part of the law, with a different office behind them and a different set of documents in front of them. Choosing the wrong one rarely fails on day one. It fails three weeks in, when a certificate is refused and the start date has already been promised.
Asia Relocation Philippines has worked in this country since 2011 — it is where the company started, and it remains where most of our immigration volume sits. Length of service matters on this subject for one concrete reason: we have watched categories be suspended and restarted, thresholds move, and counter practice change without an announcement. What we tell you is what is being applied now, not what a summary written two years ago says.
Two audiences read a page like this and they need opposite things. If you have not arrived yet, the question is which category you qualify for and what has to be obtained before you land — several routes rely on documents that can only be issued in your home country, and getting them afterwards costs weeks. If you are already in the country, the question is usually maintenance: an annual report that falls due, a card that expires, a job that ended, a stay that has to be converted rather than extended one more time. Both are handled here.
Immigration rarely arrives on its own. A lease is signed against a visa, and a shipment lands against a move-in date. Our relocation and moving teams sit inside the same country office, so the three timelines are planned together rather than reconciled after one of them has slipped. If your programme covers more than one country, our regional visa & immigration overview is the wider view.
Eight situations, and where each one leads
Start from your circumstances rather than from a category name. Each line below points to the page that carries the detail, the documents and the current requirements.
Working for a Philippine employer
The standard long-term route for a foreign national hired by a locally registered company, typically for contracts running beyond six months and for executive, managerial, technical or specialised roles. It is built in a fixed order: the Alien Employment Permit (AEP) from the labour department comes first, then the 9G pre-arranged employment visa, then the registration card. The employer carries as much of the paperwork as the employee does.
Short assignments and provisional work
For a consultant, trainer, technical expert, performer or project contractor here for a defined period, a full employment visa is the wrong instrument. The Special Work Permit (SWP) authorises short-term work on top of a valid visitor stay; the Provisional Work Permit (PWP) covers the gap while a longer application runs; the Special Temporary Permit (STP) applies to regulated professions. We will tell you when the short route is a false economy.
Regional headquarters and economic zones
Companies operating under a regional or area headquarters structure, and those established inside an economic zone, have their own immigration channels rather than the general employment route. The EO 226 headquarters visa covers the first case and the 47(a)(2) visa issued through PEZA the second. We work with HR and mobility teams to place each employee on the channel their entity actually qualifies for.
Married to a Filipino citizen
Residence granted through a legally recognised marriage, and the route that gives binational families the firmest footing. The 13A visa by marriage runs in two stages — a one-year probationary period, then conversion to permanent residence — and normally carries the right to work without a separate permit. The Temporary Resident Visa (TRV) serves cases the 13A does not reach. One point we always raise early: if the marriage ends through death, separation or divorce, the status has to be cancelled and the holder reverts to a visitor stay.
Retiring in the Philippines
The retirement route is endorsed by the Philippine Retirement Authority before the Bureau of Immigration implements it, and it is unusually generous once granted: holders are exempted from the annual report and from the registration card that other residents must maintain. The deposit and the fees are not the same at forty-nine as at fifty, and the deposit has to stay in place — withdrawing it ends the status. Read the conditions on the Special Resident Retiree's Visa (SRRV) page, or our guide to the age-40 eligibility band.
Investing, or creating jobs
Three separate categories, and they are not interchangeable. The Special Investor's Resident Visa (SIRV) is built around a qualifying investment; the Special Visa for Employment Generation (SVEG) rewards an enterprise that employs Filipino workers; the Section 13 quota visa is the numerically capped immigrant route — fifty grants per nationality per calendar year, non-transferable to the next. Processing was suspended in early 2025 and resumed in May of that year under revised guidelines; our guide to the quota route sets out where it stands.
Filipino by birth or descent
Former Filipino citizens who naturalised elsewhere, and their children, are frequently in a stronger position than they realise: re-acquiring citizenship removes the visa question altogether rather than answering it. Dual citizenship covers retention and re-acquisition, and recognition as a Filipino citizen for those born to a Filipino parent. We check this first for anyone with Filipino ancestry, because the alternative routes are slower and more conditional.
Already in the Philippines
Most immigration work is not the first application — it is everything after it. The registration card to issue, renew, replace, waive or cancel; the annual report due within the first sixty days of the year; a stay to extend; a visa to downgrade when a job ends or an employer changes; an arrival stamp to transfer into a new passport; an exit clearance before departure. These sit on our other immigration services page, with tourist stays handled through online extension and the 9A temporary visitor's visa.
Coming, or already here — the work is not the same
A visa is not an event, it is a status with a calendar attached. What we do for you depends far less on which category you hold than on which of these four points you have reached.
You have not arrived yet
The decisions that cost the most are taken now. Police clearances, civil-status records and qualification certificates are obtained in your country of origin, in English or officially translated, and apostilled or authenticated before you fly. Sourcing them after arrival is possible, and it is slow.
You are here on a temporary stay
Converting from a visitor stay is the ordinary path into several categories, and some of them expect you to be in the country to file. The constraint is that the underlying stay has to remain valid throughout — a short-term work permit rests on it, and a lapse stops everything sitting above it.
You hold a resident visa
Residence brings recurring obligations. The annual report falls in the first sixty days of the year, the registration card expires on its own cycle, and a promotion or a change of role can require the file to be updated inside a fixed window. We keep the dates rather than leaving them to you.
The assignment is ending
Leaving cleanly is an immigration task in its own right. A visa is downgraded, a registration card cancelled, an exit clearance obtained where the length of stay requires one. Skipped, none of it disappears — it reappears at the airport, or on the next application, years later.
Three administrations share the decision
This is the part that surprises people, and it explains why a single application can involve more than one counter. In the Philippines, immigration authority is not concentrated in one agency: a work file starts at the labour department and finishes at immigration, and a retirement file is endorsed by a third body before immigration acts on it. Knowing which office holds your file — and what it is waiting for — is most of the work.
Bureau of Immigration (BI)
The enforcement arm of the Department of Justice for immigration matters, responsible for ensuring that every foreign national within Philippine jurisdiction complies with the laws in force. It issues and implements the visas themselves, and the registration card that goes with them.
Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)
One of the executive departments of the Philippine government, mandated to formulate policy, run programmes and services, and coordinate policy across the executive branch in the field of labour and employment. It is the office that decides whether a foreign national may be employed here at all.
Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA)
Mandated to develop and promote the Philippines as a retirement destination, as a means of supporting the country's social and economic development while offering retirees a strong quality of life. Retirement applications are assembled and endorsed here before immigration implements them.
Accountable, resident, and priced before we start
The country we started in
Asia Relocation has operated in the Philippines since 2011. This office is not an outpost of a service designed elsewhere — it is where the method was built, and where most of our immigration files still sit.
One coordinator, end to end
The same person from eligibility review to card in hand, across every office your file touches. No handovers, and no repeating your circumstances to someone new each time a step changes agency.
Handled in-house
Our immigration work is done by our own consultants, not passed to a broker. It is the difference between an answer and a relayed message, and it is why we can tell you which counter your file is sitting at today.
Fixed-scope pricing
You approve the route and the cost before anything is filed. Government fees are stated separately and change on their own schedule — we do not fold them into an open-ended hourly total.
Dates tracked after approval
Annual reports, card expiries, extension windows, permit renewals. We hold the calendar for clients on our books, because a status lost to a missed date costs far more to rebuild than to maintain.
Realistic answers, including no
Where a category does not fit, or a timeline cannot be met, we say so at the review stage rather than after the fees are paid. Field experience is worth having mainly because it lets you see a problem before it arrives.
From eligibility review to card in hand
Eligibility review
Nationality, current status, employer or family situation, funds, length of stay so far, and what the household needs. We come back with the category that fits — and, where more than one does, with the trade-off between them stated plainly.
Scoped proposal
A written scope with our fee, the government fees listed separately, the documents you must obtain abroad, and the steps that depend on a third party. You approve it before anything is filed.
Filing across the agencies
We assemble the file, check that names and dates match across every document, and carry it through each office in the right order. You hear from us when a step moves and when one is waiting — including when the wait is not ours.
Implementation, then the calendar
Visa implementation, registration card, and the schedule that follows it: reporting dates, expiry dates and renewal windows. If the assignment later ends, we handle the downgrade and the exit clearance too.
Immigration FAQ
Which authority actually decides our application?
Is a visa on its own enough to work legally in the Philippines?
We are already in the country on a tourist stay. Is it too late to change route?
What has to be done every year once we hold a resident visa?
What happens to our status if the job ends or the employer changes?
Can a spouse and children be included in the same application?
Do documents issued outside the Philippines need special treatment?
How far ahead should a company start for a new hire?
Visa & immigration guides for the Philippines
Section 13 Quota Visa Philippines: 2026 Guide
Read →
Philippines SRRV 2025: Age Requirement Drops to 40
Read →
SRRV Philippines 2025
Read →
Philippines Work Visa Guide 2025
Read →
Suprising legal origin of the Philippines visa names
Read →
Holy Week in the Philippines: Guide for Expats and Families
Read →
5 Reasons Retired Couples Should Hire a Relocation Expert Before Moving Abroad
Read →
Best Moving Company Manila: 5-Step Guide (2026)
Read →Not sure which category applies? Start there.
Tell us your situation — a hire to onboard, a family to settle, a retirement to arrange, an investment to structure, or a status already running that needs keeping. We come back with the route that fits, a fixed scope, and a timeline we can defend. Names of the visa categories can wait until we know which one is yours.
Request your visa quote →