BI Memo Circular on Blacklisting Overstay Foreigners

Commonwealth Act No. 613, as amended (the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940), vests the Bureau of Immigration with responsibility for the administration and enforcement of immigration laws.
The Bureau’s mandate includes enforcement of alien registration laws, exclusion, deportation, and repatriation of aliens.
The Bureau also supervises aliens’ immigration into and emigration from the Philippines.
The circular is issued in view of continued noncompliance revealed through the Bureau’s monitoring and surveillance activities.

Overstaying foreign temporary visitors who fail to comply with basic immigration requirements are treated as violations that must not be condoned.
Temporary foreign visitors who overstay in the Philippines for no valid reason are deemed undesirable.
Such undesirable overstay behavior triggers placement in a Bureau blacklist and an order to leave within a fixed period.

The circular covers temporary foreign visitors who are overstaying in the Philippines.
Overstaying temporary foreign visitors are allowed to update their stay upon payment of all necessary fees, fines and penalties.
Overstaying temporary foreign visitors must be ordered to leave within ten (10) calendar days from the point they are allowed to update their stay.
The overstaying foreign visitors’ names must be included in the Bureau’s blacklist.

The required departure period is ten (10) calendar days.
The order to leave operates after the foreign visitor is allowed to update the stay through payment of all necessary fees, fines and penalties.
Names are included in the Bureau’s blacklist as a consequence of the overstay covered by the circular.

Allowing stay update and ordering departure under the circular does not preclude the Bureau from exercising other legal actions and remedies against overstaying foreigners.
Other legal actions and remedies must be pursued pursuant to law, rules and regulations.

Copies of the circular must be immediately published in a newspaper of general circulation.
Copies must be filed with the Office of the National Administrative Register (ONAR), U.P. Law Center, U.P. Complex, Diliman, Quezon City.
Copies must be furnished to all concerned.

The circular is issued despite the Bureau’s existing program “Visa Issuance Made Simple (VIMS)” designed to simplify tourist visa extension requirements.
The continued existence of temporary visitors who fail to extend and update their tourist visa and who overstay supports enforcement through blacklisting and a departure order.