Expat Community > Philippines

lblampman
Joined 2016
Posts: 266

Oh, that pesky CFO certification and sticker

7 years ago

Hi all,

As many of you might know, if a Filipino marries a foreigner, before they can renew their passport (or apply for one for the first time) or emigrate to their spouse's home country they must attend the CFO classes in Manila or Cebu.

Typically this situation comes about for a Filipina when she wants to renew her passport in her new married name. Even if you don't intend to go back to the husband's home country this is a requirement for her in order to obtain her new passport (this was our situation).

When she attends the class and successfully completes it, she'll receive her certificate but not the CFO sticker since this is affixed to her passport, which she hasn't gotten yet (that's why she's taking the class).

This CFO requirement catches out a lot of couples who get a nasty surprise when they want to leave the Philippines. And it can be rather a pain since the classes are only given in two places in the country (but do check as this is subject to change).

If you read the CFO website it says that the Filipino must return to the office to have the CFO sticker affixed to their new passport before flying out. Your wife will be told in the class that she must obtain the sticker before the will be allowed to leave the Philippines. Unfortunately, this isn't true, or at least isn't the complete truth. They don't bother (on the website or in the class) to fill in the details, which my wife and I just found out after scheduling a day in Manila before our flight to Kuala Lumpur in order to get her sticker.

We showed up with all the paperwork and the front desk guy asked for my wife's visa. We told him that we were flying to Malaysia and they don't require a visa for Filipino citizens. He asked if we were traveling for pleasure and we told him we were. He then told us that the CFO sticker is not required for pleasure travel. End result, a rather wasted day in Manila.

I didn't really trust what he told us but some Internet research seemed to support what he said. I was still nervous about my wife being denied boarding at the airport but it turns out that the CFO sticker was not needed, despite what is written on the website and told to the classes. We had no issues except the ridiculously long line at immigration for Philippine passport holders; the line for foreign passport holders was nonexistent, I walked right up to the counter and was through in minutes, then I waited about 40 minutes for my wife (remember to factor this into your airport schedule).

Just some FYI for folks in similar situations, hope it helps.

Les

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