April 2014 is turning out to be a pretty good month!!

Has anyone noticed how, especially in the provinces (i.e. outside Metro Manila) the majority of the people marshalling traffic, whether well meaning amateurs (and these guys can be comical) or officially employed traffic enforcers are often to be found directing said traffic in a most inappropriate place. I have noticed them standing along a straight piece of road, with no junctions waving cars, jeeps, tricycles etc on and getting quite irate if you don’t drive fast enough to keep up the flow, regardless of pedestrians or obstructions along the road.. Likewise traffic enforcers are often to be found some 10 or 20m away from a junction, sometimes in pairs or more trying to control the junction when they are unsighted of the traffic there. I do have to admit that sometimes they are trying to carry out their jobs whilst sheltering from the unforgiving sun, but come on guys, you need to try harder.

Another thing, what is with traffic enforcers, security guards and car park attendants and all the whistle blowing, I have not managed to decode the meaning of the frequency of peeps, it all seems the same whether I am reversing and they are telling me that there is plenty of space, or to slow down or I am about to hit something. All I know is I am grateful my car has a reversing camera and sensors attached so I can ignore the shrill whistles!!

Anyway, enough bitching for now…..

The period March to April this year has been an exciting time for both myself and Kat. The first thing was the application for my residency visa. We started the paperwork sometime before Christmas, using the information on the Bureau of Immigration website to guide us regarding the documentary requirements. This however wasn't quite as simple as it may have seemed. It turns out that requirements are subject to change without notice, and sometimes even if they haven't formally been changed, staff members at the Bureau can and do make up their own interpretations of the rules. To cut a long story short, we obtained a number of documents, had them authenticated by the British Embassy and then verified by the Dept. of Foreign Affairs also known as red ribboning. All of this took something like 4 months, after which time my tourist visa was a little over a month from expiring at the end of March.

We got the application submitted a little before the end of February, all the requirements had been met according to the website; the officer at the enquiries desk just inside the main doors checked them through and told us to make the first of many sets of copies of the whole set, which we did.

After this, we went to the first of the windows, only to find out that I needed to get the visa from my old passport transferred to my new one, I was asked to go up to the 4^th floor to expedite this; typically the elevators didn't work... After slogging up to the 4^th floor, I was given a small piece of paper and told to take this to a window back on the ground floor, we queued up and the BI Officer took it and asked me to wait for 30 minutes, after which he returned the paper to me, with a signature on it and said to return to the 4^th floor, and no the elevators still weren't working. After another wait I was issued with my new passport containing the transferred visa, all at no cost!!

We returned to the ground floor to start the submission process all over again with both copies of my documents, queueing up for a document check, which once completed we were directed to another window where my passport was checked for validity, both of them! Anyway, after a lot of windows and many checks to the documents I was directed to pay for the application, I queried the cost as it seemed a bit high but you can never tell if any changes had been made. I noticed on the bill an entry for the 'double express lane' which despite searching for I have not yet found. After paying I was offered the choice of two dates for our interview with an immigration attorney the following week.

A couple of days later, I received a phone call informing me that despite all of the checking that had been done by almost every single officer we dealt with, each one pouring over the documents to spot any errors, they had in fact made an error and charged me too much and they had me down for the wrong type of visa, but this had been noticed and rectified, changing the date of our interview, they would also refund the extra money. There was only one small problem with this, I had booked an hotel for the original date since the appointment was for 9am and Manila traffic is a bit tight early in the morning. I rebooked the hotel, cursing the error that had wasted the cost of the original booking.

On the appointed morning we arrived at the BI for our interview, I think we were both a little nervous as we waited outside the lawyer's office, but we needn't have been. Although the interview was scheduled for 30 minutes, we were able to satisfy the lawyer in under 20. She handed me a copy of my file and instructed me to get my finger prints and photos taken on the ground floor. 

The police report, which took so long to obtain and then to get authenticated and verified by the DFA, yeah, we didn’t need that in the end, the lawyer handed it back incase it came in useful somewhere else!!

We proceeded downstairs thinking it was almost done, however, after having my prints and photo taken digitally, it transpired that I needed to also have it done the old fashioned way using ink and paper, also two additional 2”photos of myself. Fortunately, I had a couple of spare copies, but if I hadn't there was someone available to take photos. We also needed to make more photocopies of the remaining paperwork in the file; once we had done this, I had to return to the original window to hand in the final paperwork. We were told to check on the BI website in about 3 weeks to see whether my application had been successful.

The next few weeks passed slowly, the BI website was not updated regularly, so I frequently returned to check whether the new list had been published. Eventually the first 3 week's lists after my application had been published, but my name had not yet appeared, this was both good and bad news, my name would be there whether approved or not, so not appearing was good in that respect. Four weeks after the interview, the list with my name was published for the week of 27^th March, the application was approved. I now was eligible for a probationary resident visa. The timing couldn't have been better as Kat was to attend the Philippine Pediatric Society Annual Convention in Manila, whilst she was there, I could visit the BI and get my visa and new Alien Certificate of Registration (ACR) ID card. 

Come the Monday morning, somewhat naively I thought that I could just walk in and get the visa and ACR-I card, but no, this was not to be the case. I needed a copy of the receipt for the last visa extension, which was apparently online, so why the officer couldn't look it up is beyond me. This necessitated a visit to the 4^th floor (again) and no the elevators weren't working (again). Once I had this receipt, I queued up again for the officer to yet again check through the documents in the file, fortunately no errors (I mean at this stage, really still checking....) He took my passport for verification of suitability, which took a bit over 30 minutes. I then had to retrieve my passport and take it to another window (two down) and complete another small form to ask for the visa. 

Since I was in the double express lane (still haven't found it) the processing time for the visa was 4 hours, sadly I had an appointment later, so I had to return the next day to get my passport back with the residency visa.

The next morning, I went straight to the visa issuing window, I didn't hold out a lot of hope for a quick resolution, I had brought the newspaper and some other bits to work on as I waited, however I was early and 2^nd in the queue, issued my passport and visa almost immediately, and then to my surprise pointed to window 4 to collect my ACR-I card, that was it, done. I was now legally allowed to stay for the next 12 months with a multi entry visa!!

The appointment on the Monday afternoon was arranged through a contact I had met through an Ex-Pat forum for professionals, there are bulletin boards in a number of countries and a thriving support network as well as social events going on all over the place. The guy I had made contact with is one of the main drivers here in the Philippines and he had seen my profile and passed on some of my details to a friend who was looking for people with management systems experience and specifically audit knowledge too. After swapping a number of emails and text messages over the previous week and weekend I found myself invited to what was effectively a job interview on the Monday afternoon.
Kat insisted on coming with me, and suggested that we get a driver to ensure that we made our appointment on time and in the right place. We arrived a few minutes early, which was useful as the company has strict security procedures in place. The interview went very well, although at the time of writing this I have not had formal confirmation of an actual job, the indications are that I have the necessary skills and background to be able to function as one of the consultancy / training team that the company are setting up. There are some potentially interesting clients on the horizon too and with the opportunities that exist in the Philippines for effective management system implementation there should be quite a lot of possible work out there.

As I mentioned last month, we suffered a break in at our former house, this has caused a lot of upset and we moved out and are currently living in Kat’s parents’ house. Although this is a bit tight for space, and not an ideal situation, I am most grateful that the family has made us welcome. This has provided us with an opportunity to keep an eye on the house construction as it is just around the corner. The house itself is getting there, it seems to be an interminable wait for the completion, but we know that rushing at this stage would probably ruin what has taken quite a long time to get to this stage. As of the 25th April, the windows have been fitted, all the lights have been installed. The stair treads, kitchen cabinets, bedroom and bathroom cabinets and the bathroom fittings are yet to be completed and the laundry area out back is currently under construction (sink area, hard stand for washing machine and drains etc.). The list is quite short, but there is some other detail work to be completed too. One of the major items yet to be sorted is the electrical power supply; it seems that we have to apply for a meter and connection to the local (pretty much monopoly) supplier Meralco; whilst in essence this is a simple procedure, since the development is not yet finished there are permissions to be sought to allow this to happen. Until we do the aircon cannot be fully tested amongst other things and none of the appliances will work either. Optimistically we can expect the earliest completion next weekend (the 1st or 2nd May) I would love that, but I am prepared for this date to be missed, who knows, I might be pleasantly surprised if it can all be done by then.

Update Friday afternoon April 25:-

We popped around to drop of the last of the light fittings, interestingly with something like 60 or 62 fittings in and around the house, plus a further 13 for the wall lights, the total power output using LED lamps is less than 400W if they are all on at the same time!!! I used to use more than that back in Haslemere in the living room of a small flat......
Anyway, when we arrived our project manager, Architect Ernesto Nolledo, the brother of our designer, Architect Edwin Nolledo, was just passing the house on his way to purchase the stainless steel sink unit and seeing us asked a couple of questions regarding the placement of the oven, we were able to see that progress is rapidly being made and all the appliances should be in place in a day or two, after that a bit more painting and finishing off and hopefully complete!!!