(This is a continuation of my last post regarding spousal sponsorship in the PHILIPPINES. This concerns leaving the Philippines AFTER you get your Visa).
Commission on Filipinos Overseas
Yup so in addition to getting unloaded from our flight, we also went home to a flood that was about 3 ft inside our house, which included power outage and lack of internet at a time when we were trying to connect with CFO to get the GCP and Sticker... Thankfully, the CFO was crazy efficient and things there moved pretty quickly, too. Here are the relevant dates (and times! Just to show how efficient they were...).
Just today, - what prompted me writing this long piece in the first place - I heard from my aunt in the Philippines that my wife's permanent CFO sticker and GCP Certificate arrived at our home in Cainta. Obviously she will be holding on to it until we see her next. The Sticker is as you expect it. The GCP was interesting though.. they don't ask for your photo in any of the document requests (at least they didn't ask us), but it seems they copied and pasted my wife's photo from her passport and printed it right on the GCP certificate in Black and White.
Lessons Learned
Throughout this process, I had a bit more of a unique perspective than most folks who do sponsorship, namely that I was able to live with my wife in the Philippines. It was just really good timing for me, having completed a work contract in Japan and having an online source of income. So I am really glad that I was there in the Philippines as we struggled through these things - I can't even imagine how my wife could have handled what we went through on her own. At the very least, it would have probably taken her twice as long with her own resources. Not that she's not smart or anything like that.. But she does things the Filipino way. For example, something like going to PSA Main, she would have taken Public Transit, while she took a Grab when she was with me. Also the trip to Puerto Princessa expedited things by at least a month, which would have pushed our arrival to Canada by at least that much, maybe a little longer, after COVID restrictions eased up in the Philippines.
Anyway, the main lesson I learned about this is how fortunate we are in Canada to have a well functioning, non-corrupt bureaucracy. Obviously every bureaucracy has its idiosyncratic stupidity. Once we arrived in Canada for example, I found it ridiculously stupid that the Ontario government required a Mailed Bank Statement (as opposed to printed from online) before we could get our health cards. But now, every time I feel myself getting angry at something stupid like that, I remind myself of the Bureau of Immigration and the PSA in the Philippines.
On that note, there are some good government agencies in the Philippines. And I consider the CFO to be one of them. I know the debate out there about how it's a money grab. And yeah, fine I acknowledge that... but that's on the legislature to change it. The CFO itself for what it has to do, I found to be very efficient, professional, and just straight up friendly.. Just a stark contrast with BI, which is very impersonal, and overall treats you like sh*t, as if it's a privilege to be in the Philippines... or to leave the Philippines for that matter. As pissed as I was with the CFO after we were unloaded, I have calmed down quite a bit, and even appreciate a little of why they exist... at its core to prevent human trafficking of Filipinos... which seems like it is really present in their corporate culture. For example, despite the lofty title "Emigration Officer" that the people we dealt with, what they were, are basically Social Workers... Shout out to Officer Ventura, btw. She kept answering our questions even after my wife got her GCP.. obviously with less urgency as when we first connected, but still took that time with us despite her obviously busy schedule.
Finally, I just want to mention something about Immigration Consultants. Because this after all is their page. As you can probably tell from my narrative, I went at this alone. And I have actually been weighing the cost of having gone to a consultant rather than doing it. Hindsight of course is 20/20, so now I can say this... after losing $300 USD for getting unloaded from our flight, the 10 or so days of mental anguish after being unloaded, and generally the hours of personal research I had to do to make sure things were done correctly. Anyway, I really wish now that I had just gone to an immigration consultant rather than going on my own. You can accept that declaration however you want.. Obviously we did go through a pandemic, and a whole bunch of other headaches. So this is how I feel now. Just get an expert. The headache is not worth it.
Hope this helps. I'll try to watch this thread for the next few weeks if anyone has any questions. Just keep in mind, I'm not an expert and this is my experience in the PHILIPPINES, so I don't know how well I can answer questions about other countries.
Commission on Filipinos Overseas
Yup so in addition to getting unloaded from our flight, we also went home to a flood that was about 3 ft inside our house, which included power outage and lack of internet at a time when we were trying to connect with CFO to get the GCP and Sticker... Thankfully, the CFO was crazy efficient and things there moved pretty quickly, too. Here are the relevant dates (and times! Just to show how efficient they were...).
- 11 Nov @ 12:07pm, after some research I figured out the OF-CORS sign up process
- 11 Nov @ 12:17pm, assigned an Emigration Officer and instructed to send relevant documents via email. Accomplished within 5 minutes or so.
- 11 Nov @ 1:20pm, initial response from Emigration Officer, based on my documents I signed up under the WRONG banner (it was the sign up for PDOS not for GCP), so told to sing up again, did of course immediately.
- 11 Nov @ 1:30pm, assigned new Emigration Officer under correct system now (PS it is important to sign up to the correct server or else you will end up with the wrong certificate, our officer was very clear about this multiple times).
- (More exchanges of emails and documents mainly because I needed to get a Canadian Police Background check, which is what took so long, despite the website claiming it will only take "minutes"...)
- 15 Nov @ 6:00am, Emigration Officer requests call for 4:00pm that same day (I had sent the background check at like 2:00am as soon as I received it from Canada, via email)
- 15 Nov @ 4:00pm, call turned out to be the Guidance and Counselling already. It lasted for just under 90 minutes. We were returned to the OF-CORS system once it was completed.
- 15 Nov @ 6:00pm, payment complete, temporary certificate in lieu of Sticker/GCP certificate downloaded
Just today, - what prompted me writing this long piece in the first place - I heard from my aunt in the Philippines that my wife's permanent CFO sticker and GCP Certificate arrived at our home in Cainta. Obviously she will be holding on to it until we see her next. The Sticker is as you expect it. The GCP was interesting though.. they don't ask for your photo in any of the document requests (at least they didn't ask us), but it seems they copied and pasted my wife's photo from her passport and printed it right on the GCP certificate in Black and White.
Lessons Learned
Throughout this process, I had a bit more of a unique perspective than most folks who do sponsorship, namely that I was able to live with my wife in the Philippines. It was just really good timing for me, having completed a work contract in Japan and having an online source of income. So I am really glad that I was there in the Philippines as we struggled through these things - I can't even imagine how my wife could have handled what we went through on her own. At the very least, it would have probably taken her twice as long with her own resources. Not that she's not smart or anything like that.. But she does things the Filipino way. For example, something like going to PSA Main, she would have taken Public Transit, while she took a Grab when she was with me. Also the trip to Puerto Princessa expedited things by at least a month, which would have pushed our arrival to Canada by at least that much, maybe a little longer, after COVID restrictions eased up in the Philippines.
Anyway, the main lesson I learned about this is how fortunate we are in Canada to have a well functioning, non-corrupt bureaucracy. Obviously every bureaucracy has its idiosyncratic stupidity. Once we arrived in Canada for example, I found it ridiculously stupid that the Ontario government required a Mailed Bank Statement (as opposed to printed from online) before we could get our health cards. But now, every time I feel myself getting angry at something stupid like that, I remind myself of the Bureau of Immigration and the PSA in the Philippines.
On that note, there are some good government agencies in the Philippines. And I consider the CFO to be one of them. I know the debate out there about how it's a money grab. And yeah, fine I acknowledge that... but that's on the legislature to change it. The CFO itself for what it has to do, I found to be very efficient, professional, and just straight up friendly.. Just a stark contrast with BI, which is very impersonal, and overall treats you like sh*t, as if it's a privilege to be in the Philippines... or to leave the Philippines for that matter. As pissed as I was with the CFO after we were unloaded, I have calmed down quite a bit, and even appreciate a little of why they exist... at its core to prevent human trafficking of Filipinos... which seems like it is really present in their corporate culture. For example, despite the lofty title "Emigration Officer" that the people we dealt with, what they were, are basically Social Workers... Shout out to Officer Ventura, btw. She kept answering our questions even after my wife got her GCP.. obviously with less urgency as when we first connected, but still took that time with us despite her obviously busy schedule.
Finally, I just want to mention something about Immigration Consultants. Because this after all is their page. As you can probably tell from my narrative, I went at this alone. And I have actually been weighing the cost of having gone to a consultant rather than doing it. Hindsight of course is 20/20, so now I can say this... after losing $300 USD for getting unloaded from our flight, the 10 or so days of mental anguish after being unloaded, and generally the hours of personal research I had to do to make sure things were done correctly. Anyway, I really wish now that I had just gone to an immigration consultant rather than going on my own. You can accept that declaration however you want.. Obviously we did go through a pandemic, and a whole bunch of other headaches. So this is how I feel now. Just get an expert. The headache is not worth it.
Hope this helps. I'll try to watch this thread for the next few weeks if anyone has any questions. Just keep in mind, I'm not an expert and this is my experience in the PHILIPPINES, so I don't know how well I can answer questions about other countries.
