Foreign investors, workers in ecozones to get 2-year visas

Charito Plaza —contributed photo

The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) will soon issue 2-year visas to foreign investors and workers, while also cutting the time for the application process from a month to just 10 days starting this December.

Peza said in a statement on Friday it has signed a memorandum of agreement with the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to lengthen the validity period of the Peza visa (PV) to two years. Holders used to get the 47(a)(2) visa, which is valid for a year.

One-stop shop

In tweaking the validity of the visa, Peza Director General Charito Plaza said investors usually hold two to five years’ office in the Philippines before transferring to another country.

A one-stop shop will be put up at Peza’s head office in Pasay City to expedite the process.

“This [would now] allow Peza to issue working visas to our foreign investors, nonresident foreign employees of Peza-registered ecozone enterprises, and their respective qualified dependents,” Plaza said.

“Starting this Dec. 1, Peza and the BI are finally reducing the processing of visa facilitation and approval from one month to 10 days, which will greatly improve government processes,” she added.

Dependents included

The visas will be valid inside and outside economic zones. Qualified dependents of foreign national employees in ecozones can also avail of the PV, Peza said. Peza-registered firms can submit their foreign employees’ PV applications with their complete requirements to their Peza Zone administrator or manager.

Meanwhile, IT-BPO companies in Metro Manila and tourism and medical-tourism ecozone enterprises can submit their PV applications at the Peza head office.