Journey to Samal » Cost of living

The Visa Question

Randy C — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:42:37 +0000

If there is one topic that every person moving to the Philippines will have to eventually research, it has to be “what to do about a visa”? There is so much information on this subject that I have no intention to try to tackle it again in this article. No, I have a good idea already which visa I would prefer to get.

I wish it was as simple as figuring out which one you want and/or qualify for. That is complicated in and of itself. The fun only begins when you begin to look into the options. As much as some will tell you not to be concerned about it, it does take some thought and planning if you don’t want to be scrambling later on.

After reading all the articles, checking the immigration website, and pondering my options, I concluded that I’d like to get a 13a Permanent Resident Visa when my time comes. Geez, that is easy, isn’t it? Well, no it isn’t.

I next need to decide whether I want to apply for that prior to moving, through the consulate in San Francisco (consulate that covers Washington State), or wait until I’ve already moved. I’ve read that it is a much easier and quicker process in the States, and you avoid the multiple trips to Manila, assuming you are not living in the area, which I do not intend to do.

Contrary to what I’ve also read, it is likely to cost me more to get the 13a here in the US, as the requirements are much different to do it here than in the Philippines. For one, I need to get medical tests done, Unfortunately, as much I’ve I’ve tried, I cannot get a complete answer as to what is required for the blood work. The definition of “complete” doesn’t mean anything to my clinic. They want to know specifically what they are testing for.

Additionally, there is a requirement for an “in person” interview, which would be quite expensive for me, as I would need to get to San Francisco, probably by plane. Some have said this isn’t required, you can do it over the phone, but I could not get the consulate to confirm that. They said they would schedule the interview after receiving the paperwork, leaving me to wonder if I could do it over the phone, even though I asked specifically.

The consulate does have a list of paperwork requirements. They are different than the Los Angeles consulate, and both are different than that of the Bureau of Immigration site. That also leaves me wondering if I’d be sending in everything needed.

If I decide to get the 13a after moving to the Philippines, it could cost me less (potentially) in dollars/peso but likely will take much longer. As I mentioned the requirements are much different, a lot more paperwork including a petition from my spouse, but the medical tests are also not needed. I’m not sure how many trips I’d need to make to Manila, but several is likely.

I’d really like to get it in advance, if I can work out the logistics and requirements. It would be great if I didn’t need to make a personal appearance in the San Francisco consulate, but I feel that I need to plan on that. If it’s not needed, then that will be a bonus.

I’m sure I’ll get this worked out, as many others have before me. I just wish I knew exactly what is required, but even that seems to change constantly. So, I’ll just have to plow through it and hope for the best. It’ll get done one way or another. I think that is a mantra I need to get used to.

No related posts.

Samal Households Receive Solar Power

Randy C — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 00:30:23 +0000

Some of you long time readers may remember some of my early articles referencing my desire to use solar power when I got a house built on Samal. I still have a lot of interest in solar power in the Philippines, but have done next to nothing in regards to doing anything about it. Partially because it will be so far off, but also because I was not having much luck with finding solutions that would work there.

The DOE (Department of Energy) didn’t wait for me to get my act together, they have already implemented solar power for some homes on Samal Island.

As part of a Philippine Energy Efficiency Project (PEEP) funded by a loan from the Asian Development Bank, households that were previously without electricity (off-grid) now enjoy solar power via a system that is composed of a solar panel, a storage battery and three lamps. Total cost is P28,800 of which is picked up by the DOE. The households are also given training as to the use and maintenance of the system. There is no on-going energy bill for these homes.

“Solar energy emitted by the panel and stored in the battery is enough to light up the household for the entire night,” said Rosalie Joan Sotelo, senior science research specialist of DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Division.

The article does not say how many homes in the Samal area are covered, but a total of 233 households are furnished within 4 areas in the Visayas and Mindanao – Samal Island, Davao; Pandan, Antique; Makato, Aklan; and Manalo, Palawan.

So, I guess this makes my plan clear. I just need to build in an area that is off grid, and I’ll get my solar, and not only that, but have it paid for by the DOE. Joke only!

Ref: DOE powers four off-grid areas through solar technology – PIA NEWS

HDTV Davao Region

Randy C — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 16:25:36 +0000

I don’t watch a lot of television. Some sports, an occasional movie, but mostly not very much. So what’s available in that regard there in the Davao region has never been a major concern of mine. That doesn’t mean I haven’t looked into it though.

When I do watch TV, I only watch High Def channels. One might say I’m spoiled. I’m not going to argue the fact, but after watching HDTV for the last 7 years or so, it actually gives me a headache to watch standard definition for any length of time. That’s why I found it encouraging to see that HDTV is available in Davao, and to some degree possibly Samal now.

I’ve owned a 50″ Samsung HDTV for those past seven years. That setup, along with the home theater system, is not coming with me to the Philippines. Too big, too old, too expensive to ship, wrong voltage, etc. No, I’ll get by with something much smaller, but still HDTV I suppose. I’ll look at my options for content based on our needs.

One company that caught my eye during my visit was Cignal Digital TV (complicated but they are part of PLDT). Cignal is very similar in function to DirecTV or Dish Network here in the States. They use a dish, pointed to the right location, and it just needs a clear line of site for reception. This is great for Samal Island, as that is the exact kind of set up you need in a remote location. I didn’t ask if they are installing on Samal, but if they aren’t I would have to guess they would be soon.

Cignal offers many different packages, with the basic one costing P250 (lang) per month. That one doesn’t include HD though, you need to move up to the P590 to get a couple of channels of HD thrown in. To get all nine of the HD channels they offer – HBO HD, STAR Movies HD, National Geographic Channel HD, History HD, Discovery HD, STAR World HD, Food Network Asia HD, ESPN HD, NBA Premium TV HD – you’ll need to put out P1290 a month. The upper two packages include free equipment, so that’s a bonus. They also have a tenth PPV HD channel, so you can watch Manny in HD if you are willing to pony up the additional fee.

Their main competition appears to be SKYCable. This is your standard cable offering, not a dish setup. The prices are pretty similar between the two. SKYCable has about three more HD channels – Discovery HD World, History Channel HD, National Geographic Channel HD, HBO HD, HBO Hits HD, STAR Movies HD, FOX Family Movies HD, STAR World HD, Fox Channel HD, Fox Crime HD, NBA Premium TV HD, ESPN HD, and the HD PPV, but they handle the packages differently. There are a few bundles of HD channels for various prices that are “add ons” to the normal packages. That’s what makes it somewhat difficult to compare pricing between them an Cignal. SKYCable standard (non HD) packages start at P280. Depending upon your wants and needs, you might be better served with one or the other.

I would imagine, much as the way it happened here, the number of HD channels will continue to increase whereas in the future virtually all channels will have a HD equivalent, if not just HD. Regardless, I feel that it’s a pretty good start. ESPN in HD is good enough for me, not that I really know how ESPN differs from what they show here. I’ll need to look into that sometime.

Comparatively you can get either product much cheaper than what you might pay here. The total number of channels is much less, but how many of the 200+ channels do people really watch? The most expensive Cignal package comes in about $30 US (at todays rate). I can only get the most basic package here for that price. No ESPN, and the only HD are the local channels.

For those television watchers around Davao (and Samal hopefully), things are looking pretty good.

Recycle Philippines Style

Randy C — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 02:57:42 +0000

It’s probably a matter of economics versus any environmental concerns, but I’m really impressed with the amount of recycling done in the Philippines. No, I’m not referring to trash, though I understand that may have recently become more prominent, also.

The recycling I’m referring to has to do with items that in my lifetime have become increasingly disposable here in the United States.

I know it wasn’t this way when I was a kid, at least I don’t remember it that way, but sometime in my lifetime almost all things electronic have become disposable. If they break down, you don’t get it fixed, you throw it out and buy a new one.

The cause of that is undoubtably the high cost of labor and parts, in conjunction with the low cost of mass produced items. It just doesn’t make sense to pay $50 or so per hour of labor, plus the cost for some difficult to get part, when the item, or similar, can be had for less new.

But it’s much different in the Philippines. Labor is inexpensive, and ingenuity is quite high there. I’ve been been surprised with what can be repaired, and at what cost.

A good example from my last visit was a friend’s CD player/stereo that was no longer working. There was a discussion going on about getting it repaired, and the first thing I said was, “buy a new one”. This was just a “no name”, inexpensive unit, and it certainly couldn’t be worth the time and trouble to have it repaired. Boy, was I wrong (again). They got it fixed within a couple of hours for a cost of less than P300 (around $7 USD). You’d be waiting a week or two here, and it would cost you as much in gas to get it to the repair shop and back (exaggerating only slightly).

I’m also very interested in getting some of my appliances and/or tools rewound to work with the 220v wiring there. I can, and will, use step up/step down transformers in some instances, at least initially, but for the longterm I’d like to get everything 220v. One of the big hangups for me in that regard is my Vitamix. I’ve researched, and frankly there isn’t anything available there that compares. So I’ll bring that, and try it on a transformer for awhile, but I’d like to see if I eventually can get that rewound. I understand the cost to do so can be quite reasonable, say well under P1000. If I can get that done, it would be well worth it to me for such an expensive and useful product.

I appreciate the repairing and reuse of still valid products that is part of the norm there. Again, the reason behind it may be of necessity, but it certainly has it’s benefits regardless. It always bothers me to throw out old electronic items, so I end up storing them or giving them to Goodwill. Neither of which really accomplishes anything, but to appease my conscious for a period. No, what they do in the Philppines is much better for all, including the landfills.

There are many things that will be difficult to adapt to, but this recycling of electronics is one that I’m all for and happy to participate in.

Trader Joe’s Spokane

Randy C — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 23:27:07 +0000

Trader Joe’s Spokane store opened last Friday, October 28th. It was, and still is, a mad house.

For those of you not familiar with Trader Joe’s (no it’s not run by “Hey Joe”), it’s a specialty grocery store that has a lot of unique items, quite a bit of organic, low prices and many items branded especially for them. Actually they are kind of difficult to explain, if you’ve not been to one. This is exactly the kind of place that I will miss when living in the Philippines.

Spokane waited many years for this store to open. Spokane is in the top 100 cities by population in the US, but often times is late to get the more desired stores, such as this and the Apple Store that opened here last year.

If the reception so far is any indication, I do not see how they could possibly do any better with sales than they have so far. The line goes out the door and you’re basically on a conveyor built (not really) going through the store. You can not move forward until the person in front of you does – that’s how crowded it is. Obviously it won’t stay this way, at least it better not. I do not enjoy these kinds of crowds. Reminds me of some of the malls I’ve visited in Manila, but this is in a much smaller space.

No, I will not find this kind of store in the Philippines. I will not find the kind of items they carry in many instances either. In some cases there are good and even better alternatives to be had in the Philippines. Other things will just be missed I’m afraid.

I wonder how many more years before this kind of place could be successful in the bigger cities such as Manila, Cebu and Davao? Is there enough foreign population and/or demand within the younger pilipinos to make such a place desirable and profitable? I know Davao has stores such as the Swiss Deli that specialize in imported and otherwise difficult to find products.

What do you think, is Davao is ready for this kind of yet?

ATM in the Philippines

Randy C — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 21:47:19 +0000

I’ve always been able to use my debit or credit card during my visits to the Philippines. Though it has always been a struggle to use an ATM, sometimes bordering on panic, when it appears that I may have been blocked out of using my cards.

Let me just say that the problems I encounter are, for the most part, due to not having lived in the regions that I’m visiting, and not yet experiencing what works and what doesn’t. I am sure that most expats have found reliable ATMs for their transactions on their US based cards. They have also learned the available limits and the required fees. Unfortunately, that doesn’t help the visiting tourist who doesn’t know these things. Even after many visits to the Philippines I still find myself in this later category.

In theory I should be able to use most ATMs in the Philippines and withdraw funds from my US bank accounts. It is important to note that before you leave on your trip that you should notify your issuing bank of the place and times of your visit. I learned that one early on, as one of my banks put my card on hold and I couldn’t even use it when I returned until I contacted them regarding the matter.

What I have encountered when trying to withdraw cash is a VERY mixed bag of results. More often than not, I have not been able to get any cash at all on a particular transaction. The percentage of success I’ve had is quite low. The extremely frustrating part of that is the notifications from the ATM rarely explain the reason I was not able to withdraw cash. Sometimes telling me to contact my US based bank. That’s really difficult to do on a weekend in the Philippines.

The reasons seem to be: wrong pin (yes I’ve gotten frustrated and entered the wrong pin on occasion), trying to withdraw more than that particular bank/ATM allows, the ATM or bank being offline, the ATM being out of cash, debit/credit card not compatible with the bank’s system, and the ATM not working with US debit/card cards.

In addition to the unknown of what machines might actually work with your card, there is the unknown of what charges you will incur. Evidently the ATMs there now charge anywhere from P150-200, depending upon the bank. That fee is listed on your receipt, assuming you get one and you can read it. Three of the receipts I got from the BDO ATM at NCCC Mall were completely blank. This fee is new to me, as I had not been charged it in the past.

The fee for BDO turned out to be P200, that is in addition to the fee that my bank charges. Upon returning I looked into my charges more closely (as I could never remember the exchange being so high before) and learned that I was charged the P200 by BDO, $2.50 by my bank, and 3% visa fee by my bank. There was also what appeared to be a small exchange rate difference, but it was not much. Effectively I had an exchange rate of about P39.5 to 1 on every transaction.

You know that wouldn’t have been too bad, that’s the price of not knowing but also having money for my vacation, but I used the ATM four times, as I did not know how much I could withdraw at one time. Many attempts, as I stated, were unsuccessful and it appeared that I was locked out of my cards. When I finally got it to work I took out a minimal amount, wondering if I had been trying to take out too much previously. I increased the amounts each time, but did not want to try too large a sum, as I needed the funds for the rest of my stay.

I’ve done a lot of research since that time, and that’s where I learned of the new ATM fees being charged by Philippine banks. I understand that HSBC may not charge those, and I will give them a try next time. I’ve also learned the percentage charged by your bank can vary anywhere from 0% to 3%. It would be wise to check with your bank(s) before you leave to find out about your charges. I certainly will from here on out, and it may effect how much physical cash I decide to bring.

Checklist for using ATM with US card:

Notify your bank of your trip so they don’t lock your card(s)
Bring as much cash as you can, but only what you feel comfortable with
Check your bank’s fees – both ATM use and visa percentage charge (here is a good source)
Bring at least two different bank’s cards, if you have them
Have a back up source, such as Remithome/Xoom to send emergency funds if all else fails
Contact other expats in the area you are visiting and find out which ATMs work for them
Have lots of patience – try other banks’s ATMs and other ATM locations for the same bank

This is another of those areas that I feel could be improved upon to help attract tourist and keep them coming back. I don’t know how the government would go about standardizing this, or even if they could, but if it could somehow make it more clear how to get your money and where, it would surely help increase the amount a tourist would spend while there.

It really seems to me that sometimes the big picture tourism push is missing the point and not paying attention to the basic necessities of their visitors.

photo: WN / Renzelle Mae Abasolo

Change is Inevitable

Randy C — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 02:06:53 +0000

Change is inevitable, or is it?

If referring to life changes, I think it goes without saying. Change is constant.

If you are looking to get money back from your Philippine Peso, it isn’t a given.

It is remarkable to me how difficult it can be to get change at times in the Philippines. It doesn’t seem to matter the cost of the item or service, or necessarily the amount you provide to pay. Unless you have exact change, there is a good chance you are going to receive a response ranging from dismay to disgust. Particularly if the amount you are trying to pay with exceeds the cost by a good amount. I have not been able to come up with that magic ratio yet, but there appears to be one.

When in the Philippines I find myself exchanging every bill over 20 pesos at every conceivable opportunity. If possible I carry a bulging pocket full of coins to cover all possible encounters. Those silly portions of a peso (centavo) really mess me up though. Unfortunately only a few transactions, and it’s likely I’ll be stressing about having enough change for the trike or jeepney again. Paying 500 pesos for a trike ride is really painful to me.

I find it difficult to adapt my thinking in this area, as at home I do just the opposite. I get rid of change every chance I get. More often than not I don’t even have any money on me whatsoever, as I use a debit card for practically all my transactions. It’s simpler for me and I have a record of it all, too.

I doubt in my lifetime that the trikes, jeepneys, palengke vendors, local bread shops, or virtually any other small businesses will be accepting debit cards in the Philippines. It’s a cash society and will stay that way for the foreseeable future.

At times I find myself tipping more, so I can keep my change. Other times, I don’t tip at all because they don’t have change or I need to keep what I have for the next transaction. It all takes a lot more thought than I’m used to giving to these matters.

What it means is I’ll be carrying a bulging pocket full of coins and a wallet of bills much thicker than would make reasonable sense on most excursions. That is at least until I can come up with a better strategy than I have thus far.

Work on Samal Island

Randy C — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 19:15:57 +0000

One of the things I have to determine by the time I retire is whether I will continue to try to earn some extra income, or just live off the pensions that I will receive. This isn’t as cut and dry and it used to be. These days you can easily (relatively of course) earn income online and from anywhere in the world. Samal Island is about as remote as you can get, being the tropical island it is.

I have interest in earning an online income, as well as you may, also. There are a lot of resources, online of course, to get you started in that direction. I don’t plan on going into them in this article. Instead I would like to explore what work is available for an expat in such a limited region and limited job market.

For the most part I believe one would need to consider running their own small business. A store, restaurant and service related are the types of things I’m thinking would work. Of course, these are not going to make you lots of money and could potentially require a great deal of work. That is the trade off, at least for me. How much work will I want to do?

Farming and agriculture offer some interesting possibilities. The Samal Dairy Farm is an example of a need that is being successfully met right there on the island. Raising cows for milk and cheese is not in my area of expertise, but it shows that there are possibilities for the right product.

I can see some coconuts, mangoes, bananas, and even coffee as items that could be grown and sold for profit. In some cases you might need to have a specialty, such as organic, to compete. Exporting of things like coconut oil could also be worthwhile, again if your product was specialized enough.

I’m sure there are a lot of possibilities. I suspect when it comes down to it, I and going to explore what I can do online. That’s where my interests are anyway. It’s a competitive world out there, but if you can find your niche you can can make a living even on a place as remote as Samal Island.

Note: another post from a blog that I haven’t maintained to this point.

I’m Going Home (Soon)

Randy C — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 00:42:13 +0000

The transients are out in full force where I live. There seems to have been a marked increase of them of them lately. I suppose it’s a combination of the poor economic conditions, the leniency of our city towards them in general, and the realization, finally, of decent weather. Every city I’ve ever been to has them, some more than others.

Quite a few of ours are street corner beggars. The ones that stand on busy intersections, with signs, and ask you for help in an ever fascinating variety of ways. Lost my job, evicted from my home, divorced and homeless, war vet, etc. Some have taken to being brutally honest and just asking for money for cigarettes, alcohol and other vices.

On at least two occasions lately I’ve seen older fellows with signs saying “going home” or “I’m going home soon”. I don’t know why, but on first seeing these two I could only wonder what they meant. It should be an obvious statement, but for some reason it didn’t seem so to me. It brought up a bunch of interpretations, the worst of which being the end of the line for them here on this earth.

I don’t know if it’s my age, or too much time on the internet, but my mind increasingly seems to work like a Google search results page. I went from thinking of how different our beggars (backpacks, sleeping bags, pets, etc) are to those that I see in the Philippines, to why would they be going home from Spokane at the first sight of good weather in six months? Was “I’m going home soon” really the same marketing strategy as “Going out of business”, to thinking some of them look better off than me and probably make more money, too.

I also wondered (wandered) if I would feel that I was going home soon when I finally leave for the Philippines, or will I feel like many of our transients and be “homeless”. I’ve lived in my current home over 20 years now. Will I feel like I have left my home? I don’t think so, but I wonder how long it will be, if ever, before I feel that my new home is really home.

Of course the way mind works, or doesn’t, it always starts playing a tune from yesterdays whenever I see or hear a title that fits. Ten Years After wasn’t a band I followed, but who could forget that famous Woodstock rendering of “I’m Going Home”?

Some of the signs are very clever, and some are just plain comical. I noted one person, drivng in their car, that stopped and give the beggar a Sharpie. Evidently he told him to re-do his sign as it was not readable. I had to laugh but does that even matter? Regardless of the message, clever or not, what they are asking for is the essentially the same.

At times I feel a little guilty because I am sure that some of these people are really in need, but I’m not that naive to think they all are. One lady, that worked the corners for almost two years with a sign saying “recently divorced and homeless”, I noted on several occasions leaving her home near my work. She was talking and laughing on her cell phone prior to manning her station with the most downtrodden look imaginable. I almost thought she was going to cry every time I saw her on the corner. Quite the actress. Tax free income, too.

I don’t know if I’m leaving or going home soon. A little of both maybe. Though I will be leaving my local beggars behind, I’ll have a whole new world where I can be pretty sure most of them are really in need.

Banking in the Philippines

Randy C — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 19:11:34 +0000

There’s already been a lot written on this subject by expats living in the Philippines. Don’t expect that I’ll add anything new here, as I’m just more or less thinking out loud. I’m not really sure how I got to thinking about this, maybe I read one of their articles, but when you start to examine the situation it’s not really as cut and dry as one might assume.

It certainly isn’t a requirement to have a bank account in the Philippines, even if you are living there. From what I understand, many expats don’t. They use various money transfers and ATMs withdrawals for access to their overseas money. I’ve visited the Philippines many times now, and it hasn’t been too much of a problem to get to my money – yet. Even still, I want to have one or more local bank accounts when I retire there.

Opening an account

It may not be a simple matter of walking into a bank, and depositing my cash. Evidently all most of the banks will require that a foreigner have an ACR- ICard (Alien Certificate of Registration). Depending upon the type of visa I start out with, that could be a bit of a problem. Knowing this matter probably steers me towards acquiring a 13a visa prior to leaving the US (more on that some other day).

Before I looked into to it I figured that the Philippine banks would be happy to take my funds, especially since it’s possible I may need to bring a fair amount with me. Another one of those contradictory “retirement haven” items that I seem to keep running into.

Deposit insurance

If I am able to secure an account, the amount that I deposit will also need to be carefully considered. The PDIC (Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation) only insures up to P500,000 person. Currently that’s about $11,500 USD. For reasons that I will not go into, I expect that initially I may want to keep more than that on hand locally.

This really may not be an issue, especially if I choose to bank with one of the larger, established banks. I also could divide funds up to multiple banks to cover the insured amounts. Also, if I understand correctly, if it is a joint account each person is covered up to that amount.

Partially because of the deposit insurance, I believe I will keep the funds from the sale of my home in US based accounts. Most likely the credit union that I’m currently using. They offer checking, savings, MMA, CDs, etc. and it should be a simple matter to consolidate all my US funds there.

Peso versus US Dollar account

This is where it gets a little more complicated, at least to me. I imagined that I could have a Philippine peso or a US dollar account and could just bank from one or the other. That does not appear like it will work very well.

Since I will be pulling funds from my US based account each month, I will need a US dollar account to deposit that into. It seems the simplest way to do this is to just write myself a check. It will take up to 45 days for that check to clear (probably less than a month in actuality), and I will just need to plan for that. I’ll keep at least a month buffer in there.

I can then pull funds from the US dollar account, get it exchanged, and deposit into the Philippine peso account. In my case it may be even a little more complicated, as I believe I will also have a Philippine peso savings accounts. So, I expect to pull some from that account each month also.

I suppose that I will use cash for the most part, but will see if I can have a debit card attached to the Philippine peso checking account. This will be much simpler if I can do this all at one bank, but because of the deposit insurance I’m not sure I’m willing to do that.

US to Philippines money transfer

As I stated, I’m going to try the check writing method to get my monthly funds to the Philippines. Initially I’ll need to get the the bulk of my local money over quickly, and I believe that a straight bank to bank money transfer will be the best method. I will have to pay for that, and make sure that the exchange rate isn’t too bad. I haven’t come up with a better plan for this.

I also expect that I will keep a debit card and a credit card on my US based credit union accounts. I can move easily move money online between the various accounts at the credit union, so I should have a good back up for any local problems that arise.

There are also methods for smaller sums, like Remithome, that I use on a regular basis now. I wouldn’t hesitate to do that, if all else fails.

So this is my plan as of now. I plan to start visiting some banks on my upcoming trips to the Philippines. I want to see what they offer, how difficult it will be to set up the account(s), and the availability of locations. As I’ve mentioned before, ONB has a nice, new branch on Samal Island, and they are certainly one of the banks I’ll look at. They have many branches throughout Mindanao, and the appeals to me.