Philippines Visa

Visa regime and entry to the Philippines in brief

• Citizens of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, EU countries do not need a visa for a trip to the Philippines for up to 30 days; a stamp is placed in the passport for free upon arrival.
• For entry, a return ticket or ticket to any other country within the visa-free period or visa validity is needed. The ticket may be asked for at the departure airport, and if you don't have one, they might not let you board the flight.
• 5 days before entry, you need to fill out an electronic form on the website https://etravel.gov.ph/ and get a QR code, which is checked upon entry.
• Insurance and hotel reservation are not required, it's up to you. Although some travelers report that a hotel reservation is mandatory, we have not encountered such a requirement in official information.
• If you need to stay for more than 30 visa-free days, you can get an extension for another 29 days while in the country. Or you can exit the country to a neighboring country for about a day, return, and get a new free 30-day stamp.

Is a visa needed for the Philippines?

Citizens of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, EU countries do not need a visa for a trip to the Philippines for up to 30 days. For a longer stay, you can apply for a visa in advance, extend your visa-free stay on the spot or at the airport up to 59 days.

Citizens of Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova must apply for a visa in advance at consular departments in their country or in Southeast Asian countries. The visa fee is about $50 depending on the method and place of receipt.

Upon entry, you must fill out a standard immigration card and customs form (see more about Philippine customs rules here). The customs form is filled out by everyone, regardless of the need to declare. Usually, the card and form are handed out on the plane; if not, you can get them at the counters before passport control. After filling them out, you can proceed directly to passport control; no fees are charged for stamps and data processing. At international airports in the Philippines, passport control lines are typically huge, and you can wait for almost an hour. So it makes sense to first take the forms, get in line, and fill them out while queuing.

When going through entry passport control, you must provide your passport, boarding pass, and completed immigration form. Here, fingerprints of the index fingers are also scanned. After passing passport control, you can collect your baggage from the carousel and proceed through the green or red customs channel.

Visa-free entry and passport validity requirements

Citizens of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan can enter the Philippines without a visa through any border checkpoint at an airport or international seaport. Upon arrival, a stamp for 30 days is simply placed in the passport; no payment or additional forms are required. Some websites on the Internet mention a 21-day stay, but this is outdated information.

For visa-free entry, the following requirements apply:

• Passport validity of at least 6 months after the departure date*;
• Possession of return tickets or tickets to a third country (checked selectively, and if you don't have tickets, entry may be denied).
• QR code obtained after filling out the online eTravel form

Currently (2025), according to forum reports, there are no practical problems when entering with a passport valid for at least 6 months after the entry date, not the exit date. Airlines also adhere to this rule, and it is stated in the TIMATIC rules for airlines. But it's better not to take risks on this matter and plan ahead to renew your passport and purchase tickets to the Philippines based on the passport expiry date being no earlier than 6 months after the return ticket date.

Simultaneously, there is another rule that if less than 60 days of passport validity remain on the departure date according to your return tickets, entry will be permitted at the discretion of the border officer.

Are return tickets needed when entering the Philippines?

Officially, there is a requirement to have return tickets or tickets to any other country when entering the Philippines, and it is checked. The check is not universal but selective, and if you don't have a ticket, you will most likely be denied entry. Moreover, the presence of a return ticket is checked during check-in for the flight to the Philippines, and if you don't have one, boarding may be denied.

The date of the return flight is not precisely specified in the rules, but in practice it must fall within the visa-free stay period or visa validity. That is, for example, if you arrive in the Philippines without a visa, you must present a ticket to leave the country with a date no more than 30 days from the entry date.

If you plan to stay in the country longer by extending your stay, you can proceed in one of the following ways:

• Book any ticket with a departure within these dates, which can later be refunded without penalties or with minimal penalties, or the cheapest non-refundable ticket to any neighboring country, which can then simply be discarded.
• Present the border officer with a return ticket outside this period and explain that you intend to extend your stay. Then, whether to let you in or not will be up to the specific officer.
• Try your luck to "get through" without a return ticket, and if it doesn't work, buy a ticket right at the airport via the internet before the passport control area, and go to passport control again with this ticket.
• Create an electronic version of a "fake" ticket in a graphic editor and present it at passport control. According to reports, border officers don't "bother" checking the reservation's validity, so this option is considered workable, though risky.

Do they check hotel reservations when entering the Philippines?

We have not encountered any official information stating a mandatory hotel reservation requirement for entry to the Philippines. Also, based on our own experience, we have entered the Philippines multiple times without any reservation, both before the pandemic and after all restrictions were lifted, and the question of its presence has never even come up at border control. However, some guidebooks do indeed mention the opinion that a hotel reservation is mandatory, and without it, you won't be allowed in. We repeat, we cannot confirm the existence of this requirement; perhaps this information remains from the pandemic times when entry to the Philippines indeed had complex requirements and you needed to book hotels. Nevertheless, it still makes sense to book a hotel in the Philippines in advance, as it is more convenient and sometimes even cheaper than finding accommodation on the spot. We have explained in detail how and where to book hotels abroad with payment from Russia here.

Is insurance needed when entering the Philippines?

Mandatory insurance for entry to the Philippines was temporarily introduced during the peak of the pandemic; currently, insurance is not required for entry to the Philippines. Some websites mention that insurance is mandatory, but this is outdated information.

Nevertheless, it's better to get insurance, especially since it's inexpensive:

• ☂ Travel insurance on VisitorsCoverage
• ☂ Travel insurance on Insubuy

Extending your stay

If a stay longer than the 30 visa-free days is needed, you can get an extension for another 29 days, i.e., a total of 59 days. This can be done while already in the country. The extension is paid, from 4060 pesos (53.42 USD, )see Philippine currency and exchange rate). You can extend at any immigration office, which are available in major cities and resorts, as well as at Manila and Cebu airports. The latter is especially convenient, as you can get the extension immediately upon arrival, and then you'll have 59 days of stay.

But important! You must apply for the extension no later than 7 days before the current visa expires or no later than 14 days before the visa-free stamp expires, otherwise you will have to pay an additional fine.

According to various information, you can extend your stay continuously for up to 1 year or up to 2 years. However, for the second and subsequent extensions, you'll have to pay from 4800 (77.7 USD). If you extend your stay for more than 59 days, you will also need to get an ID-card for 500 pesos (8.09 USD).

You can also extend your stay for half a year at once, this is called LSVVE (LONG-STAY VISITOR VISA EXTENSION). But such an extension will cost from 10500 pesos (170 USD). This can only be done at the main office in Manila at Magallanes Dr, Intramuros, Manila, 1002 Metro Manila.

You should also know that if you stay in the country for more than 1 year, you must pay a special exit tax at the airport upon departure, just like local residents. It is 1620 pesos when flying economy class, and 2700 for first-class passengers.

For more details on extensions, required documents, addresses of immigration offices, and application forms, the Bureau of Immigration website has exhaustive information - http://immigration.gov.ph/.

Important requirement for children entering

For the entry of children under 15 years old unaccompanied by parents (with a grandmother, grandfather, guardians, etc.), a special permit called Waiver of Exclusion Ground (WEG) must be obtained. For information on how to obtain this permit, see here.

Embassy addresses and websites

Embassy of the Philippines in Moscow

• Address: Karmanitsky pereulok, 6/8, 121099. Metro «Smolenskaya»;
• Telephones: +7499241-0563; +7499 241-0564; +7499 241-0565;
• Website: https://moscowpe.dfa.gov.ph/.

Consular Department in St. Petersburg

• Address: Vasilievsky Island, 103, 199106;
• Telephones: +753812 3261355; +753812 3212845.

Consular Department in Vladivostok

• Address: Ulitsa Admiral Fokina, 20, 5th floor, 690091;
• Telephone: +74232 221351.

Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Philippines

• Address: 105 Rada St., Macati City, Metro Manila;
• Emergency telephone: +63-917-860-94-90;
• Website: https://philippines.mid.ru/kontakty.