Hello all. I intend to migrate to the Philippines next June. My Filipina wife will accompany me, she has been in the UK since November 2017. My questions are: 1. What visa do I require, and how do I get it please? 2. I will ship my personal effects, (no furniture - only clothing, music hifi/cd's/tapes etc). What do I need to do for this please? Thank you, Martin.
By your numbers 1. You don't have to apply for any visa as you will be travelling with your wife. At Philippine immigration she should produce your marriage certificate and ask for a Balibayan Privilege for you. That will give you an initial 12 months. 2. Use Balikbayan Boxes to ship your effects.
Hi, and thank you for your quick reply and help. What is the benefit of using Balikbayan boxes, and would any shipping company supply them please? Martin.
We use Alsomavic Cargo. Takes about 11 weeks door to door. They will supply boxes in3 different sizes. Not all freight forwarders do balik boxes so better to use a company that specialises in doing them. The benefit is it’s cheapest way to send stuff to the phil.
my wife uses pootten cargo for balik boxes each year. no probs so far. they supply and collect the boxes.
Using the Balikbayan privilege to enter the country for a visa free year is good advice. Before that year is finished you can leave with your wife to say H.K or K.L and return next day to enjoy another year visa free stay! If you feel that living in the Philippines is for you after that time then why not apply for a 13a residence visa? With one of those things,you can work if you wish and you never have to leave. I also agree that sending all your stuff in LBC B.B boxes door to door is the way to go. Any other method can be fraught with problems..Usually in Customs.
Yup - more or less what I did - except I'm still on a tourist visa - LBC was easy once we found the local agent.
If you've got a quality lawn mower and strimmer.... pack them ! I left my lovely Flymos behind, and very much regret it. Here they (except Chinese crap) are hard to come by, and expensive. I also wish I'd packed my pushbike now... for the same reasons as above. Pack some cutlery too (Balikbayan boxes go by size, not weight, incidentally). Again, cutlery here is mostly cheap rubbish. I left my George Forman health grill thing behind...again, regretted. Can't buy one here. One lesson I had already learned, was to pack all my precious good quality tools, being a bit of a DIY person. If you have feet larger than size 9, pack plenty of shoes, plus your rubber boots.
You can get an electric grill, double plate foldable thing, she bought one over there over a decade ago and it still works. Cutlery I agree, I took my good cutlery over there a decade ago and none of them use it, stays in the drawer until I arrive when one set comes out but no one else will use it because for them it is too solid, it has too much heft For shoes I found a Clarks in Robinsons and in MoA prices identical to the UK but without the UK sales, I need a wide fit 9 and half or 10 so it is good to know that Clarks is there, I know that's a bit far for you. I like good tools but I bought most in the Phils and you're right they are not the same quality as you can get here. I got my son a half decent bike that has lasted but it was nearly 300 quid and still not really that well built.
@graham59 and @oss thanks for the tips. I read somewhere that gold and silver bullion is not allowed to be imported. I don’t have bullion, but do have gold coins. Any idea if I would be okay bringing them in please?
There used to be a chap on here, Markham would have known him, who swore that carrying gold bullion was a great idea in and out of the country. As far as I know the only safe(ish) way is to carry coins that have a legitimate value as legal currency, where the currency value is far less than the value of the gold it is made from, for example certain gold sovereigns with a specific face value, bullion bars and coins are another matter altogether. Silver is less of a value prospect in this sense as the value by density is far less, if you are flying you want to keep it small and as light as possible and gold is not light. I think the guys surname was Wilkie not sure.
@oss Thanks for the info. It’s only a few Britannia Sovereigns. I don’t want to sell them as I purchased them as a long term investment.
Over the years I have moved bits and pieces on each flight, lots of years A lot of what I moved is out of date and now irrelevant, IT equipment and so on but it gave us the best available stuff at that time, I have six more years of moving stuff to go so I need to choose carefully when I travel now. If you have to do it in one go the balikbayan box advice is the only way to go really.
Yeah the question was really is it bullion, bullion coins or gold coin currency. Any gold coin with a face value is easily transportable, if it says it is worth a tenner then that is its legal value in terms of transporting it internationally, it will of course be worth much more.
Yep, I know Matt, although I suspect that was not his real name. He was a resident on the island of Cebu for a while and opened a couple of businesses. I doubt he actually took any gold in or out of the country though, Philippine Customs Officers are prone to making the rules up on the hoof, so I wouldn't risk carrying those Sovereigns. Sew them into the hems of a denim or Barbour jacket and ship the garment(s) in a B-box.