Why Philippine Visas Are Called 9G and 13A
The codes look like bureaucratic shorthand invented to confuse you. They are something stranger and more useful: an address. Each one tells you exactly where in a 1940 statute your visa is defined.
Anyone who has dealt with Philippine immigration has met these codes: a 9G for employment, a 13A by marriage, a 9A to visit. They are used everywhere — on forms, by lawyers, by immigration officers — and almost nobody explains them. So here is the answer to why Philippine visas are called 9G and 13A, and it is more interesting than an administrative filing system. The names are not codes at all. They are citations: the section and paragraph of the law where each visa is defined. Once you know that, the whole naming system becomes readable rather than arbitrary.
On this page
01The law behind the names
Every one of these codes comes from a single piece of legislation: Commonwealth Act No. 613, better known as the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940.
The convention is completely literal. Take the section number, add the paragraph letter, and you have the name of the visa. A visa defined in section 9, paragraph g, is called a 9G. One defined in section 13, paragraph a, is a 13A. There is no translation layer and no hidden logic — the name is the reference.
1940
Key figure
The year Commonwealth Act No. 613 was enacted. It remains the operative immigration statute of the Philippines, and every visa code in daily use is a citation from it.
It also explains the division that confuses newcomers most. The statute separates people who come temporarily from people who come to stay, and puts them in two different sections. That single structural choice is why a 9-something and a 13-something are fundamentally different animals, no matter how similar the paperwork looks.
02Section 9: the temporary side
Section 9 defines the non-immigrants — foreign nationals admitted for a purpose and a period, not to settle. Each paragraph is a category.
| Code | Where it comes from | Who it covers |
|---|---|---|
| 9A | Section 9, paragraph a | Temporary visitors — business, leisure or medical treatment |
| 9F | Section 9, paragraph f | Foreign students |
| 9G | Section 9, paragraph g | Foreign nationals arriving for pre-arranged employment |
The 9A is the one most visitors hold without ever hearing its name — it is the ordinary tourist and business admission. The 9G is the workhorse of expatriate employment, and its position in the statute tells you something practical: because it sits under non-immigrants, it is tied to a purpose. Lose the employment and you lose the basis for the visa. That is not an administrative quirk; it is written into where the category lives.
03Section 13: the permanent side
Section 13 defines the immigrants — those admitted to reside permanently. The same convention applies.
| Code | Where it comes from | Who it covers |
|---|---|---|
| 13A | Section 13, paragraph a | The spouse of a Filipino citizen |
| 13B | Section 13, paragraph b | A child of a permanent resident, born abroad |
| 13D | Section 13, paragraph d | A woman who lost Philippine citizenship by marriage |
That last entry is worth pausing on, because it dates the statute more precisely than any anniversary could. A provision for women who lost their citizenship by marrying a foreigner reflects a legal world in which nationality followed a husband's. It is a window onto 1940, sitting inside a law still being applied today.
The practical consequence of the section-13 grouping is the mirror of section 9: these categories are not tied to an employer or a purpose. A 13A rests on a marriage, not a job, which is why it is generally the more durable status — and why our employment visa page and a marriage-based application ask for such different things.
04A 1940 statute, still in force
Here is the part that genuinely surprises people. The Philippine Immigration Act of 1940 is not a historical curiosity that modern rules were built on top of. It is the operative law, applied daily, more than eight decades after enactment.
It has survived the end of the Commonwealth period, independence, several constitutions and a long succession of administrations. Bills to replace it have been filed in Congress; none has been enacted. So the statute continues to govern, and its section numbers continue to name the visas — which is why the vocabulary of Philippine immigration sounds like it belongs to another era. It does.
The same 1940 Act is why one particular route carries a hard numerical ceiling: the quota immigrant visa, capped at fifty per nationality per year, is section 13's own creation. We trace that one in detail in our guide to the Section 13 Quota Visa, including what changed administratively in 2025 and what did not change at all.
A distinction worth carrying
When something about Philippine immigration “changes”, ask which layer moved. The statute is stable to the point of being remarkable. What moves — often, and sometimes without announcement — is the administrative practice built on it: thresholds, fees, documentary requirements, processing. Conflating the two is the most common error in immigration reporting.
05Why it is worth knowing
This is not trivia, and three practical things follow from it.
- The first digit tells you the nature of the visa. A 9-something is temporary and purpose-bound; a 13-something is permanent residence. You can read that off the name before anyone explains the conditions.
- You can go to the source. Because the name is a citation, you can look up the actual statutory text of your own visa category. Few immigration systems anywhere offer that.
- You can tell law from practice. If a requirement is not in the statute, it is administrative — and administrative requirements are revised more freely, and are worth re-checking on the day you file.
Not every Philippine visa follows the convention, incidentally, and knowing why is useful too. Categories created by later legislation carry their own names — a retiree visa administered under a separate authority, or an investment route created by executive action. When a visa's name is not a section number, that itself tells you it came from somewhere other than the 1940 Act. Our Philippines immigration team works across both families.
Not sure which category applies to you?
Tell us your situation — employment, marriage, retirement, investment — and we will identify the category and what it actually requires. Ask our immigration team →
06Common questions
Where does the name 9G come from?
From section 9, paragraph g of Commonwealth Act No. 613, the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940. The name is a citation rather than a code: section number plus paragraph letter. Section 9 defines non-immigrants, and paragraph g covers foreign nationals arriving for pre-arranged employment.
Where does the name 13A come from?
Section 13, paragraph a of the same statute, which covers the spouse of a Filipino citizen. Section 13 defines immigrants — those admitted to reside permanently — which is why a 13A is a residence status rather than a purpose-bound admission like the 9G.
What is the difference between a section 9 and a section 13 visa?
Section 9 covers non-immigrants: people admitted temporarily, for a defined purpose such as tourism, study or employment. Section 13 covers immigrants: people admitted to live in the Philippines permanently. The first digit of the code therefore tells you which of the two you hold.
Is the 1940 law still in force in the Philippines?
Yes, fully. Commonwealth Act No. 613 remains the operative immigration statute of the Philippines more than eight decades after enactment, having survived independence, several constitutions and many administrations. Bills to replace it have been filed in Congress but none has been enacted.
Why do some Philippine visas not have a number-letter name?
Because they were not created by the 1940 Act. Categories established by later legislation or by executive action carry their own names — the retiree programme administered by a separate authority, for instance, or investment routes created afterwards. A name that is not a section number tells you the visa came from elsewhere.
Does knowing the 1940 law citation help in practice?
Yes, in one specific way: it lets you separate statute from administrative practice. If a requirement appears in the section your visa is named after, it is law and rarely moves. If it does not, it is administrative — and administrative thresholds, fees and documentary rules are revised far more freely, sometimes without announcement.
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