Visa Free Travel for Pinoys

Before, I thought only the ASEAN countries, Hong Kong, Macau, and maybe a few others provide visa free travel for Pinoys.  My curiosity of these few other countries was ignited from what seems to be an increasing number of Brazilian models working in the Philippines that I came to the conclusion that there must be some from of reciprocal visa free travel between the two countries.  Then TV news reports of Pinoy drug couriers going to Brazil to pick up the packages came.

Last month, on my trip to Hong Kong, I had a conversation with the Immigration officer in Cebu about this and he mentioned to me a website to get more of this information.  I did not write it and tried to memorize it but when I came back from my trip, I could not recall what the website was.  A couple of days ago, I decided to try to search for it and came upon a Wikipedia.org page about it.

I was surprised that there were a lot more countries that provide visa free travel for Pinoys, including European country Kosovo, Israel + Palestine, and several Pacific, Caribbean and Indian Ocean islands (Maldives and Seychelles).  These island countries look like good places to visit in addition of course to Brazil with its famous Rio Carnival, considered the World’s biggest.  And as most Pinoys are Christians, Israel + Palestine would be an attractive place to visit being the birthplace of Christianity.  

I also found out that there are certain countries that offer Pinoys visa free travel if one has a US visa, including Taiwan and Mexico.  As China Airlines (CAL) allows free stopover (no additional costs except for airport fees) and its fares to the USA generally lower than Philippine Airlines (PAL) from Manila, taking CAL and having a stopover at Taipei is a good side trip for sightseeing and shopping.    Kaohsiung, Taiwan’s second largest city, is also only 96 or so minutes from Taipei through Taiwan’s high speed rail system.

Mexico is also interesting because one can walk to the Mexican border city of Tijuana from San Diego, California.  San Diego has a good public transportation system including a light rail trolley system that as I remember has a station at or near the border crossing.  I have always wanted to do this but have not been able to.  A cousin who lives in Orange county (next to San Diego county) told me when I stayed with them one time that Tijuana is similar to Cebu in terms of stage of development.  I am sure one can stay a night or two at a Tijuana hotel as it should costs lower and explore the sights and sounds of the two cities.

Anyway, I summarized below what I obtained from Wikipedia.com classifying it from the easiest where one can go to without paying for a visa to one where a fee have to be paid to another that requires prior notice to those that offers visa free visits if one has a US or another country’s visa to those available to overseas Pinoys residing in certain countries. 

I hope you’ll find one interesting to go to.

Visa free or available on	No. of
arrival and no fees	days	R e m a r k s
Asia-Pacific
Brunei	14 days
Cambodia	21 days
Cook Islands	31 days
Indonesia	30 days
Hong Kong	14 days
Laos	30 days
Macau	30 days
Maldives	30 days
Malaysia	1 month
Marshall Islands	30 days
Micronesia	31 days
Mongolia	21 days
Niue	30 days
Palau	30 days
Samoa	60 days
Singapore	30 days
South Korea (Jeju Island only)	30 days
Sri Lanka	30 days
Tajikistan	45 days
Thailand	30 days
Tuvalu	30 days
Vanuatu	30 days
Vietnam	21 days
Europe and the  Americas
Bolivia	90 days
Brazil	90 days
Colombia	90 days
Costa Rica	30 days
Dominica	21 days
Ecuador	90 days
Haiti	3 months
Kosovo	90 days
Monserrat	3 months
Peru	183 days
Samoa	60 days
St Kitts and Nevis	14 days
St Vincent and the Greanadines	1 month
Suriname	90 days
Turks and Caicos Island	30 days
Middle East and Africa
Egypt (South Sinai only)	15 days
Eritrea	1 month	one passport photo required
Israel	3 months
Morocco	3 months
Palestine	no data
St Helena	no data
Seychelles	1 month	visitor's permit will be issued

Visa free or available upon	No. of
arrival with a fee	days	Fee	R e m a r k s
Asia-Pacific
Armenia	120 days	AMD15,000
Bhutan	15 days	USD20	with conditions
India	30 days	USD60
Nepal	15 days	USD25
	30 days	USD 40
	90 days	USD 100
Papua New Guinea	60 days	PGK100
Timor	30 days	USD30
Europe and the  Americas
Georgia	90 days	USD10-200
Sta Lucia	6 weeks	USD50
Middle East and Africa
Burundi	1 month	USD90
Cape Verde	no data	EUR25
Central African Republic	7 days	XAF30,000
Comoros	no data	no data
Djibouti	1 month	DJF10,000
Gambia	1 month	no data	at port of entry, 24-72 hrs transit visa is issued
			and need to be converted to 1 month visa at
			Immigration Dept at Bangul
Kenya	3 months	USD50
Madagascar	90 days	MGA140,000
Mozambique	30 days	USD82
Tanzania	no data	USD50
Togo	7 days	no data
Uganda	no data	USD50
Zambia	90 days	USD50

Prior notice for visa on arrival	No. of days	Fee	R e m a r k s
Middle East and Africa
Iran	15 days	no data	e-visa pre-approval code from www.mfa.gov.ir
Liberia	no data	no data	telex message is needed for station mgr in
			Morovia with the ff details:  carrier, name,
			nationality, no. of travel document, flight no,
			arrival date, name and address in Liberia, and
			other relevant details
Sao Tome and Principe	1 month	USD100	prior notice from transporting carrier requesting
			visa upon arrival needed

Visa free for those with visa from		No. of
certain countries	Visa from	days	Fee	R e m a r k s
Asia-Pacific
Northern Marianas	US	no data	none
Taiwan	AU, CA, EU, JP,	no data	none
	NZ, UK, US
Europe and the  Americas
Anguilla	UK	no data	none
Dominican Republic	CA, EU, US	30 days	USD10
El Salvador	CA, EU, US	no data	none
Gibraltar	UK	no data	none
Guatemala	CA, EU, US	90 days	none
Mexico	US	180 days	none
Montenegro	EU, US	7 days	none
Nicaragua	CA, EU, US	no data	none
Panama	AU, CA, CH, EU,	no data	no data
	IS, UK, US
Puerto Rico	US	no data	none	if arriving from USA and its territories
US Virgin Islands	US	no data	none	if arriving from USA and its territories
Middle East and Africa
Ethiopia	AU, CA,EU, JP,	30 days	USD20
	UK, US	90 days	USD30
		180 days	USD40

Visa free for overseas Pinoys	Residents of	No. of days	Fee
Europe and the  Americas
Aruba	CA, EU, UK, US	30 days	none
Bahamas	CA, US	30 days	none
Jamaica	CA, US	180 days	none
Mexico	CA, EU, JP, UK	180 days	none

_____________

AU           Australia

CA           Canada

CH           Switzerland

EU           Schengen countries

JP            Japan

IS             Iceland

UK           United Kingdom

US           United States