PHL Embassy BS?

[Dert42]

So my helper is supposed to be going home for Christmas on Monday.
Philippino helpers apparently need some special paperwork from the embassy to go home and come back.
And we HAVE to apply through a maid agency we're told. So we did about 50ish days ago with G&A who are supposedly reputible.

She STILL doesn't have her papers and the agency everyday tells her to call back the next day.
Well tomorrow's it since the flight is monday morning. The Agency says the embassy is backlogged but says they papers will be there tomorrow.

I'm betting she's not going to get her papers, Someone is going to owe me $250 for the application fee and the cost of the airlines.

Who can I hold responsible? Has anyone dealt with this before?

[Steve1960]

I don't think you have any recourse here. Most likely you will be told the same as for a passport application or renewal. You should not make travel arrangements until you have the travel documents.

The UK passport office says it takes 8 weeks to supply a passport to a citizen abroad. Its been 10 weeks already and with Christmas approaching I am guessing we will not see it until January. If I had booked flights for Christmas would that be the UK passport office fault or mine?

[nakatago]

For what it's worth, even "professionals" or white-collar workers are subjected to similar levels of BS.



They don't discriminate; everyone's subjected to the same ridiculous hoops, red tape and male cow pies.

[x9200]

I don't think you have any recourse here. Most likely you will be told the same as for a passport application or renewal. You should not make travel arrangements until you have the travel documents.

The UK passport office says it takes 8 weeks to supply a passport to a citizen abroad. Its been 10 weeks already and with Christmas approaching I am guessing we will not see it until January. If I had booked flights for Christmas would that be the UK passport office fault or mine?

The office may be obliged by law to respond within defined period of time (likely), so it well could be the UK passport office's fault and you may have some recourse in such cases. Of course practicality of any recourse action is a different matter.

[ecureilx]

For what it's worth, even "professionals" or white-collar workers are subjected to similar levels of BS.



They don't discriminate; everyone's subjected to the same ridiculous hoops, red tape and , Male cow pies.

LOL

atleast fair that everybody gets discriminated

I have a friend, who signed his agreement via electonic signature, started work and when he tried to apply for OEC, he was told his agreement is invalid and need to be 'reprocessed' !

Till then, no going back to PH for holiday

Reality !

PS, the embassy has improved in a way, now they allow you to get multiple OEC, provided .... your initial approval is clean .. you can run but can't escape !

[Steve1960]

I don't think you have any recourse here. Most likely you will be told the same as for a passport application or renewal. You should not make travel arrangements until you have the travel documents.

The UK passport office says it takes 8 weeks to supply a passport to a citizen abroad. Its been 10 weeks already and with Christmas approaching I am guessing we will not see it until January. If I had booked flights for Christmas would that be the UK passport office fault or mine?

The office may be obliged by law to respond within defined period of time (likely), so it well could be the UK passport office's fault and you may have some recourse in such cases. Of course practicality of any recourse action is a different matter.

No I don't think so. After the backlog earlier this year at the UK passport office when so many people lost money on flights and holidays the Commons home affairs select committee recommended people be compensated but it is not law as yet.

[rajagainstthemachine]

a person I know has to get a business visa to go to Philippines, time for processing they state is six weeks!! what the hell? how can a person who needs to travel frequently surrender his passport to the PHL embassy for six weeks?
the only other way is to apply a single entry visa each time.. and thats now what he is doing.
it seems to be a money spinning technique for the embassy.

[Steve1960]

a person I know has to get a business visa to go to Philippines, time for processing they state is six weeks!! what the hell? how can a person who needs to travel frequently surrender his passport to the PHL embassy for six weeks?
the only other way is to apply a single entry visa each time.. and thats now what he is doing.
it seems to be a money spinning technique for the embassy.

I have a similar issue when going to mainland China on business which I do two or three times a year. Every time I apply for a multi entry visa every time they give me a single entry visa.

[Dert42]

This is the Philippine embassy... nothing at all to do with UK.

And this is supposed to be the procedure. You HAVE to have the airline tickets before you apply for the papers.

I got a feeling i'm going to be screaming at someone in about 30 minutes.

[singapore eagle]

This is the Philippine embassy... nothing at all to do with UK.

And this is supposed to be the procedure. You HAVE to have the airline tickets before you apply for the papers.

I got a feeling i'm going to be screaming at someone in about 30 minutes.

I would direct your anger at the agency. We embarked on this same process at the start of November, and got all our paperwork back from our agent at the start of December. Our helper flew off last week.

[ecureilx]

a person I know has to get a business visa to go to Philippines, time for processing they state is six weeks!! what the hell? how can a person who needs to travel frequently surrender his passport to the PHL embassy for six weeks?
the only other way is to apply a single entry visa each time.. and thats now what he is doing.
it seems to be a money spinning technique for the embassy.

I have a similar issue when going to mainland China on business which I do two or three times a year. Every time I apply for a multi entry visa every time they give me a single entry visa.

chief, china- you are a foreigner going to China

here, it is a Filipino going BACK TO PHILIPPINES !

That's the sorry part there ..

Dert42, getting the exit permit has nothing to do with flight ticket

Exit permit is processed by the department handling OFWs, and that process seem stuck/overloaded

Unfortunately you can't hurry anything, in PH or PH missions, if they decide it is to take 2 weeks, it will take two weeks

And Exit permit may still be rejected for some minor clause missing in the Employment agreement, been there, seen that.

if it was me, I may see how to differ the flight.

[zzm9980]

a person I know has to get a business visa to go to Philippines, time for processing they state is six weeks!! what the hell? how can a person who needs to travel frequently surrender his passport to the PHL embassy for six weeks?
the only other way is to apply a single entry visa each time.. and thats now what he is doing.
it seems to be a money spinning technique for the embassy.

I have a similar issue when going to mainland China on business which I do two or three times a year. Every time I apply for a multi entry visa every time they give me a single entry visa.

My visa agency turns around my 1-yr multi entry business visas in 48 hours (soon to be 10yr, thanks obama!). This is even when I need to purchase the "welcome" letter from them, which is allegedly sent hardcopy from China to the agency, then to the embassy. Of course it costs about S$1100 for everything, more than half of which I'm sure really just goes into some embassy official's pocket to forge a welcome letter.

If you want, send me a PM and I can tell you who I use.

[nakatago]

here, it is a Filipino going BACK TO PHILIPPINES !

I really can't believe that bullshit myself. The destination country would welcome the Filipino with no dramas but the Philippines would add layers and layers of red tape NOT to let said Filipino out of the country even though visas and all other paperwork (save for the stupid OEC) are in order! The OEC is just utter bullshit. Exit clearance? And the only requirements for it are membership in OWWA which is just redundant. They say it's for Filipinos' protection but isn't that part of a consular office's role in the first place? It's just a waste of time to queue up for this otherwise useless piece of paper and if I could, I'll just pay the yet-another-useless-if-not-money-grab terminal in Philippine airports.*

*on a side note, I like the Clark airport so much because it's so small, it doesn't get a lot of traffic and the staff there--including usually power-tripping customs and immigration officials--are so laid back and pleasant to deal with. If I'm gonna deal with crappy airport facilities, I'll take the airport with the more amiable staff.

[ecureilx]

a person I know has to get a business visa to go to Philippines, time for processing they state is six weeks!! what the hell? how can a person who needs to travel frequently surrender his passport to the PHL embassy for six weeks?
the only other way is to apply a single entry visa each time.. and thats now what he is doing.
it seems to be a money spinning technique for the embassy.

mmm, actually they have their own 'processes' to make the 6 week requirement, i.e. many people employed, many documents triple checked etc, so all have to put up with it

Heck, even spouse of Filipino Nationals get "probationary" multiple entry visa .. for example

Not money spinning, just a way to ensure the dozens of employees can be busy doing nothing ..

let's not go there anyway ..

Nakatago: thanks for the tip on travelling via Clark, then again, per the Land Transport Rules (another huge monster employer), the busses from AC aren't allowed to advance sell tickets to Baguio as of now, so .. back to square one ! Manila / NAIA it is ..

[nakatago]

Nakatago: thanks for the tip on travelling via Clark, then again, per the Land Transport Rules (another huge monster employer), the busses from AC aren't allowed to advance sell tickets to Baguio as of now, so .. back to square one ! Manila / NAIA it is ..

See, what most Filipinos would do is get a friend who is a friend who knows someone who's someone's uncle's nephew of the godmother who attended your second cousin's sister's wedding who drives an AUV for hire to pick you up from the airport and drive you to any point of Luzon. And that person can only be contacted via phone, text or in person by sending someone there.

You may be married to a Filipina but you're not Filipino enough yet to get your honorary insanity to realize that when you approach certain things in the Philippines, you use a different manual. I just recently handled a fairly significant financial transaction and the trouble I had to go through all because people don't check their business e-mails and have offices in places where they have no mobile phone signal.