Philippines Investor Visa

The threshold is USD 75,000, and that figure is not a one-off payment but a level that must be held throughout: among the grounds for cancelling the visa the authority states outright failure to meet the minimum qualification requirement, which is the maintenance of the minimum USD 75,000 investment at all times.

The money must be remitted inward, held in a time deposit account at one of the four accredited depository banks (the Development Bank of the Philippines, Buendia branch; Landbank of the Philippines, Buendia branch; EastWest Bank, Gil Puyat Metrohouse branch; or Security Bank, Reposo JP Rizal branch); where it arrives through a non-accredited correspondent bank it must be transferred immediately to the accredited one.

Someone who has already invested may still apply on proof of having remitted the full USD 75,000 within the twelve months before filing, and reinvested income or dividends that could otherwise have been remitted home count as inward remittances provided the reinvestment fell in those twelve months.

The permitted forms are tightly drawn: only shares in existing, new or proposed corporations in four groups.

Publicly listed companies; companies in areas listed in the Board of Investments' Strategic Investment Priorities Plan (SIPP); companies in the manufacturing and services sectors, with twelve service sub-groups listed against the UN Central Product Classification; and government securities, with a minimum holding period of one year.

Two things are excluded, and this is where applicants trip: shares in wholesale trading companies, and condominium units — formerly allowed, no longer.

A restaurant does not qualify either, being treated as retail trading and subject to the Retail Trade Law. Two personal conditions attach: the applicant must be at least twenty-one and must hold a 9(a) tourist visa with at least one month's validity — so current Board of Investments guidance describes filing with the Board itself while the applicant is in the Philippines on a tourist visa. Rule XXI, section 1, of the implementing rules still permits filing at a Philippine embassy or consulate in the applicant's home country, but no page of the Philippine Embassy in Hanoi has been found offering this visa.

Indefinite residence is what is received, but it comes with a lock placed on the investment itself, and neither of the two points below appears in any other cell of this table.

First, not everyone has to pass through the probationary stage: an investor who has already invested — the remittance condition is set out in the capital threshold cell — may be issued the indefinite visa right away instead of the probationary one, subject to approval by the Board.

The same route therefore has two entrances, and the second skips both the 180-day mark and the penalty attached to it, which are recorded in the timing cell. Second, what is received carries a restriction on the asset.

Annotation of the stock certificates issued to visa holders is mandatory under Section 5 of Rule XXII of the implementing rules of Book V of Executive Order 226, and the annotation states that those shares shall not be sold, transferred or conveyed without prior approval of the Board of Investments.

For condominium units held under the old rules the annotation is optional.

Nor does the money pass through the hands of the holder: the accredited bank may issue a cheque payable only to the corporation in which the investment is made or to the stockbrokerage firm, never to the person named on the visa.

And on how the status ends: not automatically. The agency is explicit that non-compliance does not cause the visa to expire of itself — the holder is formally notified and given the opportunity to address the findings, and only continued non-response to those letters leads to cancellation.

In the other direction, an applicant who decides not to proceed still has an exit: a request for withdrawal of the inward remittance, filed with a copy of the passport.

Three clocks run at once, and the first fines you for missing it. The visa issues in two stages: probationary, then indefinite. The probationary stage is valid for six months, that is 180 days, within which the holder must convert the peso time deposit into actual investments.

The authority advises doing so at least thirty days before expiry to allow time to prepare the conversion documents. Investing after the 180-day mark incurs a daily-accruing penalty of PHP 1,000 plus a further PHP 100 for each day of delay, under item 12(e) of the Deed of Undertaking.

The second clock is processing time, counted in working days across two bodies rather than one: for the probationary visa, the Board of Investments takes 7 working days and the Bureau of Immigration a minimum of 10 working days; on conversion from probationary to indefinite, the same two figures repeat.

With it comes advice that reads as a practical constraint: the applicant and dependants should not leave the country until the SIRV is implemented in the passport, or the visa may require revalidation.

The third clock is the SIRV identification card, which has two levels: one year by default, renewable yearly; or three years, renewable every three years.

The three-year level applies where the investment sits in a company registered with the Board of Investments, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, the Clark Development Authority or another economic zone.

It also applies to condominiums under the old rules and to shares in publicly listed corporations bearing an annotated lien on the certificates.

There is no residency obligation, and the authority answers that question in a single word worth quoting: asked whether any residency obligation exists — a requisite period of physical presence in the Philippines to maintain the indefinite status — the authority answers none.

That separates this route from most permanent residence routes in the table, which tie status to presence.

In exchange comes a different obligation, repeating every year:

The holder must submit annual reports to the Board of Investments, personally or through an authorised representative, and the authority writes that they will not be deprived of the privilege to stay indefinitely as long as the investments subsist and the annual reports remain up to date.

The reporting file differs by investment type and is substantial: for corporate investments it includes audited financial statements, the latest income tax return with the official receipt, the general information sheet filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the current year's business permit, and lease or title documents.

For a condominium it includes the certificate of title and the current year's real property tax.

The SIRV identification card carries a travel function worth knowing: it is the basis for exemption from the Special Return Certificate and the Emigration Clearance Certificate when travelling abroad, and is presented in place of the Bureau of Immigration's Alien Certificate of Registration.

In return, that card must be presented to immigration officials both on exit and on entry.

The definition of a dependant is narrow and carries a hard age cut-off. The authority writes that only the spouse and the unmarried children under 21 of the applicant count as qualified dependants and may therefore also apply for this visa. No parents, no married children, no other relatives.

Dependants do not come free: each pays a separate application fee of USD 300, and PHP 2,000 for the SIRV identification card. Documents apply individually too: a dependant over 14 must complete their own Personal History Statement Form for the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency.

The birth certificate, family registry or household registry must be authenticated through the Philippine consulate or embassy in the applicant's home country or through that country's embassy in the Philippines.

A child born in the Philippines uses the original issued by the National Statistics Office. Where relevant, the marriage contract must be authenticated the same way. That is the requirement in Board of Investments documents written before 11 September 2026. From that date the Apostille Convention applies between Viet Nam and the Philippines, since the Philippines raised no objection to Viet Nam's accession, and the general rule of the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs is that apostilled public documents from a Convention state need no further authentication by a Philippine embassy or consulate; the Board of Investments has not yet confirmed this in writing for Vietnamese documents.

The part most worth reading is what happens as a child grows up, because it requires action in advance rather than resolving itself: a child over 21 is no longer a valid dependant and their visa will no longer be honoured.

The authority recommends that the principal holder request cancellation of the child's visa if the child is outside the country, or downgrading if inside, at least one month before the child's 21st birthday.

To remain, the child must obtain a visa independent of the principal — a study visa, an employment visa, or this same route in their own right.

Rule XXVI, section 2, of the implementing rules goes further than the question-and-answer document: a dependant's visa is co-terminous with the principal's and is automatically cancelled when the dependant reaches 21 or marries.

The status this programme grants, whether a visa or a residence permit, does not replace the holder's passport. The holder still travels on the passport of their own country, so the figure below belongs to the Philippines passport and becomes the holder's only once they are issued a Philippines passport.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Philippines passport reaches 59 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

This document sets out no tax regime for the visa holder, but tax appears in two other roles and both bind in practice.

The first is withholding on deposit interest: the authority writes that the applicant's time deposit earns interest at rates approved by the accredited depository bank, less the appropriate tax thereof.

So even while the money sits in the bank awaiting conversion into investments, the interest is taxed.

The second role is larger and repeats annually: the tax return is a condition of keeping the visa, not a separate obligation living elsewhere.

On renewing the SIRV identification card the holder must file a sworn report attaching a copy of the latest income tax return filed with the Bureau of Internal Revenue, together with the official receipt evidencing payment of the tax.

Audited financial statements also filed with the Bureau are added, and where applicable the SIRV holder's own individual tax return with its receipt.

For those invested in a condominium, the current year's real property tax receipt takes its place.

And the consequence of filing late does not stop at money: the authority lists failure to file on time among the grounds for cancelling the visa, together with possible inclusion on the Bureau of Immigration's blacklist or watchlist, and the identification card will not be renewed.

The rates sit in the National Internal Revenue Code as amended by Republic Act 12214, in force from 1 July 2025: interest on bank deposits bears a 20% final tax under section 24(B)(1), while a nonresident alien not engaged in trade or business in the Philippines bears a 25% final tax on income such as interest under section 25(B); no text yet states which category the Bureau of Internal Revenue applies to a probationary visa holder.

The charges fall across the two visa stages, and the last in the table arises only on missing a deadline, so it is avoidable. Amounts are in US dollars or pesos, with the unit given in each cell:

Because the application fee is charged per person, a family of four pays four times, not once. The penalty is charged by the day, under item 12(e) of the Deed of Undertaking.

One further item is not a fee but is a real cost the document spells out. The file must be submitted in three sets.

It includes a police clearance from the applicant's country or place of residence duly authenticated by the Philippine embassy, or a certification of no criminal liability from the Interpol Division of the National Bureau of Investigation.

It also includes a medical certificate that must be validated by the Bureau of Quarantine before the application is filed, and civil registry documents all requiring authentication. For Vietnamese documents, from 11 September 2026 an Apostille issued by Viet Nam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs applies between the two countries under the Convention, although the Board of Investments has not confirmed this in writing; the details are in the dependants cell.

Against that, there is one cost the holder does not bear: the SIRV identification card exempts the holder, on each trip abroad, from both the Emigration Clearance Certificate and the Special Return Certificate — two items other foreign nationals in the Philippines must still obtain and pay for.