Update on 13a Amendment to Permanent

[ITGeek]

Hello everyone,

Hope everyone safe from habagat.  Wish I could send all this ulan to my home State of California to help with the wildfires.

On another note, I'll never understand Fiilipino government process.  Although any bureaucracy is same in any country, especially the DMV in California. I made trip to Angeles BI office (Marquee Mall) by myself to file my conversion to 13a Permanent Visa.  Previously, I was able to file and pay fees without asawa ko present.  Then the schedule interview and ACR-I Card appointments separately.  Not so this time and I wasted 10 hr trip via provincial bus to SM Pampanga/Jeepney to Marquee Mall , only to be told I needed asawa ko present.  I thought they were only interested in parting me with application fees.  So past Viernes, we both travel to BI office (Angeles) and no formal interview, just ensure all forms completed (ACR I-Card) properly completed and pay fees.  At least they took my biometrics for ACR I-Card to save another trip.  All in all our application was approved to send to Main BI office (Intramurous) and we await approval/issue of ACR  I-Card in few months.  So everything legal BI wise.  My I-Card expired Aug-10-2018.  We would have done it earlier, but habagat last month prevented us due to impassible rain.  Now it's back, wish I could send it to California to help extinguish all the wildfires.

Long story short, go to BI with asawa ko no matter what application state.  They never did formal interview, just verify proper paperwork correct. 

[Gary D]

Yes, it's the asawa that requests the 13a visa so sure she needs to be there. 

[OnMyWay]

7 hours ago, ITGeek said:

So past Viernes

So that was the 10th, your exact date of expiration?  Just in the nick of time!  Hope the rest is good!

Habagat is making us miserable here in Subic!

[jimeve]

1 hour ago, OnMyWay said:

So that was the 10th, your exact date of expiration?  Just in the nick of time!  Hope the rest is good!

Habagat is making us miserable here in Subic!

Just amended mine this week. The first-day wife went to Cebu from Dumaguete 7 hours...Closed due to local holidays. Next day she went back and the BI was open and she presented the paperwork. Next time we both had to be present for the interview. So all I do now is wait, if succsesfull wife or myself will pick up the Card. Oh, and my card expires on October 5th. 

Edited August 12, 2018 by jimeve
additonal info

[Ryan.]

Getting the perminant resident visa stamped in PP is a matter of appearing after whatever date you are approved as a perminant resident on the Immigration Agenda. (posted online)

For the absolute worship of bureaucracy they string out the arrival of the permanent resident ACR card instead of sending the card upon approval. You can get the PP stamped but not ACR card at same time.

Then each immigration official will appear to guess  when the ACR card will arrive to wherever you are picking it up at. In sixty minutes I was told card arrives 2 weeks after approval, 1 month, 2-3 months. Then a forth official said ACR card arrives about 3 months after you have your passport stamped and therefore converted to permanent resident. 

I asked them how Manila could possibly keep track of every manually stamped permanent visa in every PP and use it as a basis to start a 3 month wait clock to ship the card. How would they even know you got your PP stamped? It is manual and even if they somehow were alerted wouldn’t the basis to ship the ACR card be upon approval? 

It’s like not shipping you the tires until you pick up the rest of the car?? They, in theory, should be ready at the same time.

[Jollygoodfellow]

5 hours ago, Ryan. said:

It’s like not shipping you the tires until you pick up the rest of the car?? They, in theory, should be ready at the same time.

No difference than the tourist ARC. Takes the same time. 

[Ryan.]

Perhaps my final post on this 5hread

On 8/12/2018 at 12:51 PM, Ryan. said:

Getting the perminant resident visa stamped in PP is a matter of appearing after whatever date you are approved as a perminant resident on the Immigration Agenda. (posted online)

For the absolute worship of bureaucracy they string out the arrival of the permanent resident ACR card instead of sending the card upon approval. You can get the PP stamped but not ACR card at same time.

Then each immigration official will appear to guess  when the ACR card will arrive to wherever you are picking it up at. In sixty minutes I was told card arrives 2 weeks after approval, 1 month, 2-3 months. Then a forth official said ACR card arrives about 3 months after you have your passport stamped and therefore converted to permanent resident. 

I asked them how Manila could possibly keep track of every manually stamped permanent visa in every PP and use it as a basis to start a 3 month wait clock to ship the card. How would they even know you got your PP stamped? It is manual and even if they somehow were alerted wouldn’t the basis to ship the ACR card be upon approval? 

It’s like not shipping you the tires until you pick up the rest of the car?? They, in theory, should be ready at the same time.

ACR Card (13A) took two weeks to arrive to Cebu. We found contacts and phone extensions in Manila (as of August 2018) no idea if it was a coincidence that we got fast service by contacting them.

My theory of the longer quote times above was to lower expectations then have an official offer to help speed things up.

Anyway, the above is my follow up. I know it is a niché subject.

 

[ITGeek]

Update to my application.  I received a text message on Sept 25th from the Main BI office notifying me that my ACR-I card was being sent via 2GO to the Clark (Marque Mall) BI office.  So it only took 5-6 weeks for them to process and approve.  I'll be travelling to the Clark BI office next week to pick it up.  I'm hoping they open the BI extension office in Palayan by end of this year.  That way I won't have to travel so far to pay my Annual Report fee.