Visa entry requirements for helper's relative

[tenten]

My experience has been that it's the Phillipines immigration that has proven to be difficult, not HK immigration.
Apparently, Phillipines immigration is making it tough for their own nationals to leave if they do not have proof of an employment visa to which ever country they are heading to.

Like you, I naively thought I could sponsor my helper's sister for a visit to "offer her a trial". So got her a return ticket, wrote a supporting letter to say she was visiting her sister and that we would fund her stay at our home. Didn't make it pass Phils immigration - and apparently 6 other ladies on her flight were turned back too. This was at Clark airport.
I called the Phillipines Consulate and they suggested that we get an affidavit of support from the Phillipines Consulate for her sister's stay. This required my husband to personally trek down to the consulate, pay a fee, hand over docs ( they wanted 3 mths bank statements, salary, address & employment proof etc - insane! And dodgy! We insisted a letter of HR attesting to above was sufficient). Got the official affidavit, and another plane ticket and guess what, turned away again!! This time at Manila airport - Immigration insisted no work visa, no go!

Livid by now, I called the Phils Consulate for an explanation - and all they said was they had no jurisdiction over Immigration!!
Another friend of mine experienced the same thing with her "trial candidate"- and this friend is Filipino!! All this was between Feb and May this year.

Sorry for the long post but just wanted to warn you of our frustrating experience. In the end, I just capitulated and got an agency to process my helper's sister...if I had known earlier, I would have just done that and saved myself a lot of time, money and effort. There really is no guarantee that your candidate will be allowed through....

 

[nltempany]

Thank you so much for the long post tenten. I really can't afford the time, hassle or money so I think I'll take your advice and just do it the agency way. I guess a trial isn't really important when a contract can be broken at any moment. I really like my helper so I'm sure I'll like her sister.

 

[MommyTo3]

I had similar situation before, but she couldnt even get on the plane. First attempt it turns out there is an exit tax in philippine for locals and she didn't have enough money on her to pay.
Posted via Mobile Device

There is an exit tax for all people leaving the Philippines. We always paid it as well.

 

[rani]

There is an exit tax for all people leaving the Philippines. We always paid it as well.

Do you know how much the exit tax is?

 

[tenten]

That's how we felt too nltempany re helper's sister. So we sat my helper down and explained that we would see how things go once her sister arrived, and if for whatever reason, things didn't work out that there would be no hard feelings. They both understood.
I just felt so sorry and bad for her sister And her family - being jerked around by immigration twice, not knowing next steps twice etc. Thankfully it has all worked out and we're all glad she's joined us now.

Btw, processing a direct hire is a another whole story - PM me if you need help in that regard. Phils mandates that all contracts go through agencies now so lots of ways for dodgy agencies to gauge these poor ladies and employers! All the best!