Visa information

The Philippines guide names four ways in: the SRRV retirement visa from age 50, the extendable 9(a) tourist visa, the employer-sponsored 9(g) work visa, and a Digital Nomad visa launched in 2025. The guide's tagline calls the SRRV the cheapest retirement visa in Asia, and the country scores 74/100 for visa and bureaucracy — workable routes, but the paperwork stage still runs to weeks on every plan tier.

The routes the guide names

SRRV retirement visa — the Special Resident Retiree's Visa, available from age 50 and described as deposit based. The guide's retirement text calls it “one of the most accessible retirement visas anywhere, with low deposit thresholds,” and its cover line calls it the cheapest retirement visa in Asia (see the Retirement page for the retiree-specific costs).

9(a) tourist visa — listed as extendable for long stays, the route the guide gives for people testing a long stay without a work or retirement basis.

Work visa (9g) — listed simply as via employer: this is the employment route, tied to a Philippine employer.

Digital Nomad visa — listed among the schemes that attract expats and detailed in the remote-work line below.

The income and deposit tests — what the sources actually say

For the Digital Nomad visa, the guide gives the only hard figure on this page: 1 year, renewable, on $24,000 per year income, and it dates the visa to 2025.

For the SRRV, both sources say only that it is deposit based with low deposit thresholds. Neither prints a deposit amount, a pension amount, or any tier structure, so this page does not invent one — confirm the current deposit for your age and pension status before you plan around a figure.

For the 9(a) and 9(g), the guide prints no income test at all: the 9(a) is characterised only as extendable, and the 9(g) only as employer-based.

At the guide's exchange rate of $1 ≈ ₱57, dollar figures convert at roughly that rate for planning.

What the paperwork costs — plan budgets, not government fees

The guide does not list individual government visa fees. What it gives is a bundled “Visa, permits & translations” budget line in each move plan, and those lines are the only sourced cost figures for the application itself:

• $650 — Affordable plan (you file yourself)
• $950 — Mid-range and Retirement plans
• $2,250 — Luxury plan (the plan notes the luxury tier adds an immigration lawyer)

The Retirement plan carries one further, separate line: $1,750 for “Retirement visa, lawyer & pension certification”, covering an immigration lawyer, apostilled pension letters, medicals and translations.

Application steps and timelines, by tier

The guide builds the application into each plan's timeline rather than printing a single step list. The common sequence across the plans and checklists is:

• Choose the route first and print its requirements; the Affordable checklist starts with “Visa route chosen and requirements printed.”
• Gather and legalise documents — apostilles and translations are named in every tier; the Retirement paperwork stage adds pension or income letters certified and apostilled, a police certificate, a medical, and birth and marriage certificates translated.
• Check your passport — the Affordable checklist requires a passport valid 18+ months.
• Arrange health insurance before you file (see the Hospitals page for the guide's first-year insurance budgets).
• File — yourself on the Affordable tier, or with a lawyer or agent on the Mid-range, Luxury and Retirement tiers.

Paperwork-stage durations in the guide: ~10 weeks filing yourself (Affordable), ~8 weeks with a lawyer or agent filing (Mid-range), ~6 weeks with a lawyer filing everything (Luxury), and ~14 weeks for the Retirement paperwork stage. After the move, the settle stage includes registering your address and opening a bank account.

Renewals and long-term status — the honest limit of the guide

Only two renewal-type facts are sourced anywhere: the Digital Nomad visa is 1 year and renewable, and the 9(a) tourist visa is extendable for long stays. Neither the guide nor the site data gives the number or length of 9(a) extensions, SRRV renewal or retention conditions, deposit withdrawal rules, or any path from these visas to permanent residency or citizenship — so this page states none. Treat the SRRV deposit terms and the 9(a) extension limits as things to confirm with an immigration lawyer or the consulate before you rely on them; the Retirement plan's lawyer line exists for exactly this kind of question.

Frequently asked questions