Bi Imposes Return Ticket Requirement

[Jim Sibbick]

[so does this mean that a foreign person although married to a Filipino would be required to get an ongoing ticket as they are not and never have been a Filipino .....

A reply I received from the Bureau of Immigration some time ago

Dear Mr. Sibbick,

We would like to inform you that the Balikbayan admission is under the category of temporary visitor (tourist) and as such are required to present valid travel documents including a return ticket or an onward ticket or even a round trip ticket prior admission in the Philippines .

The said ticket does not necessarily need to be confirmed but its presentation proves that the tourist has the intention to leave the country.

Have a nice day.

[johnb]

On the third of August my wife and I will fly to Hong kong from Cebu, then return after a few days, at present I have a tourist visa but will attempt for a Balibayan stamp on my return, as it happens I have to leave the Philippines again for the UK in November so I already have an onward ticket out of the Philippines, but I am interested to see what happens in Hongkong if they ask for an onward ticket when i tell them i will be staying in the Philippines on a Balibayan stamp, I can of course produce my eticket for november if required,

The other question of wether an onward ticket is required to be dated within the initial 21 day visa period, i have always had an onward ticket but never one within the 21 day period, and on the odd occasion i have been asked i simply say that my ticket is open and I can change the date as required, its never been a problem, years ago I would just buy a ferry ticket from Philippines to Malaysia as my onward journey, then leave the country with my wife on one of cebu pacific promo flights, then return and get my BB stamp, the ferry company are based in cebu and would refund the ferry ticket price minus a 20% handling charge.

Just to add the update to my post above, My wife and I left Cebu for Hong kong on friday 3rd Aug and returned today Monday 6th Aug, just to be precise I was leaving Cebu on a tourist Visa, which was on my second extension, i did not have a valid temporary Icard because at the time of my second visa renewal [ when temp i cards are normally required] my old Icard was still valid, it lapsed in July so i would have had to pay for a new temp Icard on what would have been my 3rd extension on the 19 aug if Ihad not left the country.

Hope this is making sense lol, anyway on our departure I wasnt asked for any I card, my wife of 9 years had a new Philippine passport which of course had no stamps of any kind, she wasnt asked for any evedence of previous travel etc but did have her old well stamped passport ihad she been asked. Arrived in Hong Kong everything went fine, on my return to the Philippines at Hong kong check in, the check in clerk who was from Hong kong asked if I lived in the Philippines I answered yes, he then asked if I had any card or permit, I said no. he just continued on and gave us our boarding cards, I did see a list on the clerks table showing all the various visa's issued in the Philippines, but I was not asked about anyone specificly nor was I asked for an onward ticket.

on arrival in Cebu whilst in line for passport control i did see signs displayed stating that Visitors should have there passport, embarkation card and onward ticket available for inspection, when we got to the immigration officer he was very pleasent, didnt ask to see an onward ticket, and when I asked about having a Balikbayan stamp he said "of course", and issued a stamp with a deparure date of Aug 6th 2013.

you should realize that this was just my experience, another clerk or immigration officer and it all could have been different, we flew with Cebu pacific, had we flown with a non Philippine airline maybe things at flight check in would have been different. I think I overheard a foriegner in another line being asked for his onward ticket at Cebu passport control, he was saying that the ticket was in his check in luggage..........the Immigration officer let him through.............

time for sleep