Philippines Balikbayan one-year visa-free stay

[PhilipinaMagic 0]

I have a question for anyone from the Philippines. My wife and I just returned to the Philippines. She requested the Balikbayan 1 year visa free privileged for her and myself. However the immigration officer did not speak English and she did not speak Tagalog. He seem to just stamped a normal entry visa. We asked twice and he said it was good for 1 year but no where did he write a date noting the approved 1 year stay.

Has anyone had any experience with this and know what the correct stamp should look like and what info should be on it. Is there anyone to correct this now after we have entered the country? We are worried we will now have problems when we leave the country of them possibly saying I have over stayed and charging us large fines or something. The only info the stamp has on it is the arriving flight number. Nothing in the space of the date except some type of scribbles that you cannot make out.

[En-oh-eh-to now 147]

I have a question for anyone from the Philippines. My wife and I just returned to the Philippines. She requested the Balikbayan 1 year visa free privileged for her and myself. However the immigration officer did not speak English and she did not speak Tagalog. He seem to just stamped a normal entry visa. We asked twice and he said it was good for 1 year but no where did he write a date noting the approved 1 year stay.

Has anyone had any experience with this and know what the correct stamp should look like and what info should be on it. Is there anyone to correct this now after we have entered the country? We are worried we will now have problems when we leave the country of them possibly saying I have over stayed and charging us large fines or something. The only info the stamp has on it is the arriving flight number. Nothing in the space of the date except some type of scribbles that you cannot make out.

We entered on a blaikbayan visa 6 weeks ago. I got the usual entry stamp in my passport, but the difference is the allowable stay date written in is the current date + one year.

[C-ma'am 684]

**Post moved from K1 to Philippines.

[SpigglySpoo 0]

Do the scribbles look like they may say "BB"? If so, that is the balikbayan visa stamp. I have received four of those in the last few years, three of the stamps had a hastily scribbled "BB" where the date should be, and my most recent one had the date of arrival plus one year.

[sweet cakes 326]

I have a question for anyone from the Philippines. My wife and I just returned to the Philippines. She requested the Balikbayan 1 year visa free privileged for her and myself. However the immigration officer did not speak English and she did not speak Tagalog. He seem to just stamped a normal entry visa. We asked twice and he said it was good for 1 year but no where did he write a date noting the approved 1 year stay.

Has anyone had any experience with this and know what the correct stamp should look like and what info should be on it. Is there anyone to correct this now after we have entered the country? We are worried we will now have problems when we leave the country of them possibly saying I have over stayed and charging us large fines or something. The only info the stamp has on it is the arriving flight number. Nothing in the space of the date except some type of scribbles that you cannot make out.

Some example images:

http://www.living-in-the-philippines.com/balik-bayan-visa.shtml

http://www.bradleyfarless.com/how-i-got-a-1-year-visa-for-free-in-the-philippines/

http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/75/stampt.jpg

It appears like there is really no standard Balikbayan stamp and Philippine IOs don't seem to apply consistent marks on the stamps. If it has something like BB (as SpigglySpoo mentioned) or written with "1" and some sort of scribble that may be decrypted as "year", that should be fine.

[PhilipinaMagic 0]

Some example images:

http://www.living-in-the-philippines.com/balik-bayan-visa.shtml

http://www.bradleyfarless.com/how-i-got-a-1-year-visa-for-free-in-the-philippines/

http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/75/stampt.jpg

It appears like there is really no standard Balikbayan stamp and Philippine IOs don't seem to apply consistent marks on the stamps. If it has something like BB (as SpigglySpoo mentioned) or written with "1" and some sort of scribble that may be decrypted as "year", that should be fine.

On my Passport it just looks more like MM or anything it is just up and down scribble marks. nothing that would look close to BB or 1 year. on my Wife's passport he left the Date section Blank.. in the past when i entered the country they always write in a date. This guy did not write in any date. The stamp is just a regular normal entry stamp so that is what has us worried. When she told him she wanted to declare Balikbayan privilege for herself and me he seemed very confused like he had no idea what she was talking about and he would only talk to her in Tagalog and she could not really understand what he was saying. Is there anything we can do at this point to confirm we are ok or just wait and deal with it when we leave the country?

[sweet cakes 326]

On my Passport it just looks more like MM or anything it is just up and down scribble marks. nothing that would look close to BB or 1 year. on my Wife's passport he left the Date section Blank.. in the past when i entered the country they always write in a date. This guy did not write in any date. The stamp is just a regular normal entry stamp so that is what has us worried. When she told him she wanted to declare Balikbayan privilege for herself and me he seemed very confused like he had no idea what she was talking about and he would only talk to her in Tagalog and she could not really understand what he was saying. Is there anything we can do at this point to confirm we are ok or just wait and deal with it when we leave the country?

For peace of mind, I guess best to contact Bureau of Immigration to check if the IO indeed gave you both a Balikbayan stamp: http://www.immigration.gov.ph/index.php/contact-us/main-office

If you guys are only staying for 30 days or less, no need to worry about it.