A person can enter the Philippines with just a passport for 21 days. If your planning on staying longer than that you must go to the Bureau of Immigration and apply for an extension of your stay. Once you've completed your 21 days of entering the Philippines with your passport. You can apply for an extension of another 38 days. This first extension will cost you 3,030 pesos or $62.00. So with your 21 day entry and your 38 day extension that is a total of 59 days. When your 59 days are up you are now able to apply for 2 month extensions from here on up to 16 months.

After 6 months of stay you are now required to obtain an ECC-Emigration Clearance Certificate. I'm not sure at what point in time that an ECC was required for leaving the Philippines? It wasn't required the first time I left the Philippines but it is now required to have one after 6 months of stay. It's not too time consuming to get it but I would recommend not hiring anyone to help you get it taken care of or you will probably pay alot more money than necessary and your presence will be required anyways because they will take your fingerprints. It cost me about 500 pesos and the form was very easy to fill out.

When your 16 months is up you are required to leave the Philippines for at least 3 days and then you can return starting the whole process over again. Plane tickets can be a bit expensive so if you don't want to pay for a plane ticket all the way back to America you can just choose a country that is a little cheaper to fly to. I left the country after 12 months just because I wanted to get it out of the way. I decided to go to Hong Kong because it was cheaper. A ticket from the Philippines to Hong Kong cost me 11,246 pesos or $230.00. I'm not a huge fan of flying. I don't know what it is about planes but I can't stand being on them. The flight from the Philippines to Hong Kong was 2 hours and I booked a room in Hong Kong from a Cebu travel agent for 3 days at the Dorsett FarEast Hotel. The room cost me about 8,000 pesos or $164.00 for 2 nights. That also included breakfast and free bus travel to and from the hotel to the airport. The room was small and the bed was a little too firm but the shower was great. It had everything I needed and i wasn't there to do any shopping. There was a seven eleven and a McDonalds within walking distance. I watched some crazy Hong Kong TV and that was about it.

One thing you must be sure to have when returning to the Philippines from whichever country you decide to go to is an ongoing ticket. What I'm referring to is purchasing another plane ticket again leaving the country of the Philippines. When leaving Hong Kong I was asked if I had a plane ticket to leave the country of the Philippines. I was also asked once I arrived in Cebu. I made sure I had an ongoing plane ticket. Basically this shows them some evidence that you are not intending to live in the country and you do have plans to eventually leave. While I purchased my first plane ticket to Hong Kong I also bought a second plane ticket the same day. The second ticket I booked is again, leaving for Hong Kong but doesn't leave for about 6 months from now. I will also change the ticket to a later date about 6 months from now so I can stay a total of 16 months.

So I'm glad its over and I'm back home in the Philippines for another 16 months...
For more information on Immigration Fees click here for the Philippines Bureau of Immigration Fees.