Tourist visa first extension (29 days)

[frosty (chris)]

7 minutes ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

Yes courteous except for my last visit at Mactan.If the woman with earpieces connected to her phone did not even know I'm standing right in front of her with the form in hand she was not doing her job. When she did process the form I only just managed to hear my name and see a hand place the form and passport on the counter. She did not get out of her chair.

Hahahaha, geez if that's your only problem you haven't been here long enough, go to LTO and your invisible if you don't back hand some one.

[frosty (chris)]

11 minutes ago, bigpearl said:

Yes I saw this last Christmas 2016 or was it 2015, God, old timers disease, when Bengie went to renew his drivers license in SFC, sad really, while living in Oz he got his Father to extend his DL as he wasn't in the country, the extension permit was for 60 days, we got there day 63 and they basically said tuff sh"t he needed to do the medical and that was going to cost xyz etc etc; no thanks he said I have an Aussie license I can use. When we move back he can hopefully do an easy C/O.

Cheers, Steve.

Paid for my new License plates nearly 2 years ago, still waiting , every time I go and ask, they all have a good laugh and say come back soon, don't bother anymore

[frosty (chris)]

20 minutes ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

Yes courteous except for my last visit at Mactan.If the woman with earpieces connected to her phone did not even know I'm standing right in front of her with the form in hand she was not doing her job. When she did process the form I only just managed to hear my name and see a hand place the form and passport on the counter. She did not get out of her chair.

I saw her there still with her earplugs in, I just moved along to the next girl, she pointed me back to earphone girl, I said sorry and pointed at the earphones, second girl took my papers and gave them to earphone girl, that's the filipino way , they all smiled and I said thank you.

[Dave Hounddriver]

50 minutes ago, frosty (chris) said:

LTO only works with one hand and very, very slowly, give yourself at least 2hours, maybe

Some (all?) LTO offices allow you to use an agent to renew your plates.  I take mine to the emissions testing place and ask if they have an agent who can accomplish the insurance and registration after the "smoke test" is done.  There usually is someone who will do that for a nominal fee, at least there is in Dumaguete.  I am not talking about "fixers" here (where something shady is being done).  If you have the required paperwork you just use an agent.

[OnMyWay]

1 hour ago, frosty (chris) said:

My experience is completely opposite to yours. I go to the BI office at Mactan at Island Mall. I did my visa renewal a few weeks ago, was in and out in 12 minutes ( I timed them just to see). The staff are more than efficient and courteous. With the new form now it takes less than 30 seconds to fill in compared to the double sided one they had before. I wish every bureaucracy was as customer friendly as the BI I go too . If you want a day of frustration take a car along to LTO and get it relicensed, good luck with that

Most likely, the bigger the office, the more bureaucracy there is.  Intramuros is a mess all the time, but I got a few 6 month extensions there that were not too bad.  I won't be using them any more, but Olongapo has a good staff and good service when I have been there.

I hired an accredited agent to go to Intramuros and pickup my 13a and ACR, after it was ready.  He services RAO in Barrio Baretto and is "trusted", they told me.  I agreed to pay him p3000, which is quite a lot, but my only option other than going myself.  They turned him down last week because I did not give him POA, which is BS.  If he is accredited, he does not need POA, but they said he should have done the whole 13a, not just the pickup, to avoid POA.  BS.  Anyway, he went back yesterday (with POA) and had to leave the passport to get the visa stamp and it will be ready this afternoon.

Has anyone had to leave their passport to get the 13a visa put in, or did you get it same day?

[RBM]

24 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Some (all?) LTO offices allow you to use an agent to renew your plates.  I take mine to the emissions testing place and ask if they have an agent who can accomplish the insurance and registration after the "smoke test" is done.  There usually is someone who will do that for a nominal fee, at least there is in Dumaguete.  I am not talking about "fixers" here (where something shady is being done).  If you have the required paperwork you just use an agent.

Yes very common, most emission testers offer this service, here Thierry payment is commission on the insurance. My last test they did not even start engine...

[AlwaysRt]

30 minutes ago, RBM said:

Yes very common, most emission testers offer this service, here Thierry payment is commission on the insurance. My last test they did not even start engine...

Don't need to start the engine to see if it is smoking, in fact more pass when the engine is in the O-F-F position.

[Dave Hounddriver]

4 hours ago, AlwaysRt said:

more pass when the engine is in the O-F-F position.

But not all.  With the diesel engine on my last vehicle they sometimes made me go change the oil and bring it back for a retest, then it passed (this was in Cebu).  I often wondered how an oil change could make a difference when the engine ain't even running.  Perhaps they scrape inside the tailpipe for residue?  Just a guess.

[AlwaysRt]

57 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

But not all.  With the diesel engine on my last vehicle they sometimes made me go change the oil and bring it back for a retest, then it passed (this was in Cebu).  I often wondered how an oil change could make a difference when the engine ain't even running.  Perhaps they scrape inside the tailpipe for residue?  Just a guess.

Perhaps his brother was the mechanic he sent you to???