Recently the Bureau of Immigration has announced that foreigners must now apply for a visa, while they wait for their visa to process. In  Operation Order 2013-019 the Commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration stresses the importance and requirement of workers to secure a Provisional Work Permit (PWP) during the processing of either their business visa or alien employment permit.

Previously the accepted practice was to allow foreigners to begin working once the applications had already been filed with the respective government agencies without the need to secure the Provisional Work Permit. Philippines already has one of the longest processing times for work visas in South East Asia (3-4 months on average) and rather than find ways to improve the processing times, the government has opted to require additional permits to be secured while waiting for its own bureaucratic procedures.

I have continued to highlight additional requirements for setting up business in the Philippines and for foreigners doing business locally, in spite of all the press Philippines is receiving claiming in the easing of doing business. So now companies will have an additional compliance to file when hiring foreign staff.

Triple i Consulting is accredited by Bureau of Immigration to process visas and work permits, if you have any additional questions.

By: Judah Z Hirsch

Triple i Consulting, Inc. is the first and only ISO 9001:2008 Business and Management Consultancy in the Philippines. Specializing in business registration, food and drug advisory, tax and accounting compliance, payroll processing , and hr consulting.