Purpose

The information presented on this page captures the steps and events my wife and I took to acquire my Philippine's Immigrant Visa by Marriage (13A) visa.

I am not a lawyer or expert on the acquisition of a 13A visa. I wrote this to capture the steps my wife and I took.

With patience and time, it is possible to do this on your own.

Cost

To be determined.

Event Timeline

Date	Event
July 15, 2026	Arlyn and I drove to the NBI office in Mandaue City, Cebu (Google Maps). I carried with me the NBI Clearance that I received on July 21, 2025. I also took my passport and Philippine ACR-I card. Upon arriving, I had to fill out some forms. We then visited with a woman who took my form and entered the information onto a website. At that point, I had to pay ₱255 for her services. We returned into the NBI building, had my digital picture taken, digital finger prints and digital signature. Next, I had to have real fingerprints taken and have another picture taken. This cost an additional ₱36. Once done, I received a little slip of paper indicating my claim number. I was told to return in 3 to 4 weeks. Total spent was ₱291.
August 10, 2026	Arlyn and I drove to the NBI office in Mandaue City, Cebu (Google Maps) to pick up my NBI Clearance. I took the claim stub they gave me on July 15, 2026 and my passport in case they needed additional identification. The passport was not needed. After giving the attendent my claim stub, it took about two minutes for them to locate and give me my NBI Clearance. As expected, the NBI clearance indicated there were no derogatory records attached to me. There was no charge.
September 15, 2026	Remembering that last year, the processing of 13a visas occurred on a Tuesday, we returned to the Bureau of Immigration on a Tuesday. This turned out to be the correct thing to do. Arlyn and I arrived at the Bureau of Immigration office located on the fourth floor of the Gaisano Mall of Cebu (locally known as GMall) (Google Maps). We arrived at 10:30 AM. Once we arrived, we asked the guard where we needed to go to convert my 13a (probationary) visa converted to a 13a visa. We were told that we needed to fill out a form, have my picture taken and get fingerprinted. So we did this. There was no charge at this point. Once done, we needed to fill out some forms concerning my ACR-I card. We reviewed the list of required documents and realized we were missing our marriage certificate. We had to return home to fill out the forms and return with the necessary documents. It was a little after 12 noon, so this was a good excuse to head home, grab lunch and take care of the forms and documents. Using the forms that I filled out last year and updating some of the fields, I was able to complete the forms in a short amount of time. At 2 PM, we were back at BI office. We stopped in a business center located next door to the BI office. This business offers services, such as photographs, folders, and photocopies. After spending ₱300, we had a completed package of documents ready for the ACR-I processing. We returned to the BI office and had our package document package inspected for accuracy and completion, we submitted the package. We were told to sit down and wait for our name to be called. A few minutes later, our name was called and my yellow folder was handed back to me. When I asked what was next, they looked puzzled and realized I had not filled out the necessary forms for the visa conversion. So they sent me to the Visa Processing window. Once there, we were handed another checklist of required documents to submit for a new package. This included: joint letter request addressed to the Commissioner from the applicant and the petitioning Filipino spouse Duly accomplished CGAF (BI Form CGAF-001-Rev 2) copy of marriage certificate signed affidavit documenting our cohabitation for the last year form requesting BI Clearance Certificate Valid National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Clearance, if application is filed six (6) months or more from the date of first arrival in the Philippines Photocopy of passport bio-page, visa, and last entry stamp We were missing the letter and affidavit. We thought we were done for the day. Then I remembered the business center next door. Perhaps they had the services needed to generate these two documents. Sure enough, they did. We had everything needed to complete the visa conversion package. After spending about an hour there (and spending about ₱1,700), the package was complete. We returned to the BI office at around 4:00 PM. There were not very many people there, allowing us to move quickly through the next few steps. We submitted the visa conversion package. A few minutes later, I paid ₱12,395 for the visa conversion package. I received a receipt for the payment. We had to return to the business center and have copies of the receipt made. Back at the BI office, we turned in the copies of the receipt. We then received a slip of paper called Important Reminders. We now have an appointment on Wednesday, September 23, 2026 for an interview and next steps.