Return air ticket - reply to question to Bureau of Immigration
Replies: 16 - Last Post: Oct 21, 2012 9:28 AM Last Post By: mrsteve38
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Return air ticket - reply to question to Bureau of Immigration
There seems to be some confusion with some airline check in staff about the requirement for a return ticket. I contacted the Bureau of Immigration last week.see below" Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2012 16:06:51 +0100
From:**** ************
Subject: a new FAQ for you
To: binoc_immigration@hotmail.ph
I am a frequent foreign visitor who has been visiting the Philippines for years with or without a 59 day visa and extending my visa.
There is a lot of confusion with airlines and the return ticket rule. my return ticket is April 2013 and this was a accepted at NAIA when I arrived however tourist websites have reported that some airlines are insisting on a return ticket within 21 days of arrival.
Can the bureau post a directive to the effect that the return ticket need not be within 21 days. This confusion I suspect is causing tourists and potential employers not to come.
I have never had any problems with long haul airlines nor with your visa section in London who happily grant me visas with return tickets many months in the future nor with your staff on arrival however the Lonely Planet website ( Lonely Planet are publishers of guidebooks for most of the countries of the world) has carried various questions and answers on the topic and there appears to be a degree of confusion amongst check in staff as to the rules.
I look forward to hearing from you.:
Dear Sir,
Good day! Outbound tickets are not limited to a period of 21 days. They may even be open-dated.*
*Thank you.
FROM Bureau of Immigration National Operations Center ;
Should you have other immigration-related queries, please do not hesitate to call the BI Helpdesk Hotline at (632) 524-3824 or (632) 524-3769, visit our website at www.immigration.gov.ph or like us on Facebook: officialbureauofimmigration and follow us on Twitter: immigrationPH "
1
"Outbound tickets are not limited to a period of 21 days"So the Bureau of Immigration have no problem with flights that are over the 21 days limit, and this has always been my experience. Never any issue on arrival or departure. Then it does seem confusing that some Airlines do seem to have a problem?..
2
Yes, it is confusing then that some airlines are insisting on the ticket being within 21 days. My question is whether the airline which insists on a ticket within 21 days would accept a print out of that reply from BoI? or would they stick rigidly to their interpretation?We have argued with check in staff previously and asked them to point out where exactly the BoI rules state an onward ticket must be within 21 days. The airline supervisor on duty agreed it didn't state that in the rules but because people got a 21 day visa waiver on arrival, this was the time frame they asked for onward flights to be within and wouldn't accept any ticket over 21 days.
4
yea this situation keeps getting discussed here but I have never even begun to have had an issue with it in over 10 years of annual flying. I come from the states and use opened ended tickets. I generally fly the Korean or Taiwanese airlines. I buy my ticket get on the plane fly there and get off, it never comes up or seems to even be noted by anybody.5
somebody ought to tell the Philippine Embassy in London too, as well as the airlines that the BoI doesn't insist on a time frame just so long as there is an onward ticket. They say on their automatic voice message, that the onward ticket has to be within 21 days if you don't get a visa.6
Hi,I have reported several times on these pages that at times airlines do demand to see a return ticket within the time limit described. I have witnessed what I have reported here as a scam several times when checking in at Hong Kong for Manila. No amount of arguing with the check in operative would help the hapless individual and a cheap return to HK was the only answer. Every time (3) Cebu pacific was the airline involved.
The last time I flew to the Philippines I obtained a visa and was advised by phone that I needed to show a return ticket when obtaining the visa. When I went to the embassy I got the visa without showing my return ticket. What hope has the traveller got? It can at times be a lottery.
10
#9 I sure wouldn't rely on them not asking for one. The cheapest legit 'dummy' ticket out of the country is usually the Air Asia Clark-Kota Kinabalu flight, which you should be able to get for less than 2,000 pesos.12
Which airlines check in staff are causing the problems?Over the years I've used Emirates, Quatar, Gulf, Cathay, Asiana (before that Philippine Airlines and BA when they still did London-Manila).
I've never once been asked any questions and nearly always I'm going to spend over 21 days in the Philippines.
When I've had the 59 day visa in my passport I just make sure to show it to immigration at Manila.
Nowadays I arrive with the mrs and am given a free 1 year Balikbayan visa...
13
Dont think its an issue with the long hauls, seems to be only Cebu Pyschopathic??..14
Hi,Ok mrsteve you asked. Whilst I cannot remember all I know for fact is that on one occasion I was asked in the uk by Emirates to show an onward ticket fairly recently when flying to Thailand.
The only thing that we can report is what happened to us. Only a few occasions when I have been asked as opposed to the many I have not
