Sending $ to my gf in the Philippines

Banks in many countries report suspicious activity as part of a drive to make life difficult for a wide variety of criminals but sending money for a wedding is apparently quite common so your chances of a problem are limited.
This might be a handy site for you

http://www.lovevisalife.com/2018/03/ave … ding-cost/

Thanks for your comment.  I read that there was a $6k a year limit for money leaving the US.
Is 8000,000 a close figure for a Philippine wedding?

The link I posted seems to be a well thought out piece that gives you likely costs

To answer your question you should not get in trouble, you MAY get a please explain, and be asked to show how the money was made by you and for what purpose and to whom you are sending the money.

The reporting guidelines and laws around this are there for a good reason to stop the funding of illegal activities and prevent money laundering.

If you are sending the money to your GF via bank transfer amounts of $2,000 USD in regular payments, she MAY need to produce a signed letter from you stating all the obvious things:  What is the source of the money, what is your relationship, the purpose of the money for her (and you), how did you make the money, your name and a photo copy of your passport, address in America, her name and address, her ID, etc etc


You can transfer (and fly with and bring in) any amount to the Philippines.   However it is for good reason tracked (it is based around preventing money laundering and preventing the funding of  illegal activities).

However when bring with you in person amounts greater than $10,000USD (total of all currencies) there is paper work to be done for the Philippines and you will need to complete a:  "Foreign Currency and Other Foreign Exchange-Denominated Bearer Monetary Instruments Declaration Form"  (For transportation of such currency or monetary instruments in excess of US$10,000 or its equivalent)

For and Australian leaving Australia we can take out of Australia any amount of currency, but when we taking out more than $10,000 AUD we are required to complete some government paper work.  (I just noticed the US Government has the same requirement for over $10,000 USD), this is for each trip.

Remember the reporting guidelines and laws around this are there for a good reason to stop the funding of illegal activities and prevent money laundering.

No.  However many places limit the amount you can send in a day.   I hope you have a lovely wedding.  We did back in 2012 in Cebu.

No problem, I send over $12K/yr to my gf to fund our rent and other living expenses here. I just  never felt like opening a bank account. Its never been an issue. Keep in mind the IRS requires you to report more than the maximum gift exclusion amount which coincidentally is $15K for 2018.

On another note.. you are aware there's no divorce in the Philippines, right? I hope you know her really well.. that's a lot of money for a wedding here, and you're taking on a lot of long term responsibility.

Kenworthman18 wrote:

I have a question.  I recently met a lady in the Philippines.  We eventually became engaged.  We want the wedding in the phillipines so her family can attend.
My fiancee has a wedding planner girlfriend so I want to start sending money to her for the wedding. I've been sending about $300 a month to help support her and her 3 kids.  My question is: can I get in trouble with the US government for sending $15000.00 in $2000 incraments until the wedding is funded?

Hello Kenworthman, I don't want to come across negative about your plans. But i see a lot of red flags in your post. I know nothing about you, your gf, your age, your financials  etc. You stated you "recently " met a lady in the Phil. and suddenly you are engaged.  Have you  met her in person and spent time with her and her 3 kids to get a feel for your future with her i presume? You are already sending her 300 per month to support her and her 3 kids. Depending on your age and finances, you are looking at a lot of baggage early on in your relationship. 15,000 is a lot for a wedding here. Interesting that your fiance has a "wedding planner" friend already. I would never send 15,000 to any woman in this country unless i spent years living or married to her.  I am just speaking from experience  reading a number of posts from expats on this site and personally that got burned from their Phil. gf or fiance. Its your life, money and broken heart if it does not work out. Why not just bring the 15,000 with you when you come to be with your fiance? Plan the wedding together so you see where your money is spent. When i leave the States, i always bring 15-20,000 with me.  I have a special leather carrier i keep under my shirt strapped securely to my belt. Just report it to US Customs before  you leave by filling out the proper form they give you and report it when you go through Phil. Customs and fill out their form.  If you dont report you are carrying more than 10,000 dollars coming here or leaving the States they will confiscate it all. Always get receipts from both agency's . Open a bank  account when you get here in dollars and pesos. Personally i am a retired expat 65 yrs. old from the States and have spent the better part of 4 years here and love it.  I live a comfortable life on 1,100 dollars per month. One rule i have is that i dont date Filipinas that have kids, not at my age. I chose not to get married here  because i have a great  social and dating life with a number of single Filipinas. So good luck with your relationship and i hope it works out for you. But use your head and think it through or you and your money will part ways quickly here. Remember also, you will probably be expected to help other members of her family financially. I have yet to meet a Filipina that was not broke.

Hi, did it ver come in your mind to just going there and take the money with you instead of sending it?

You should also be aware that sending money there for a wedding is also not the most clever thing to do.
And in my opinion is a wedding there never 15.000 $ I would never do this but is off course all up to you and your own judgement.

I am also married in the Philippines and my wedding was about 300 people and was costing me around 4.500 Euro so do not know or even understand where you got this amount from that it is so freaking expensive suddenly???

I only warn you with respect for your fiancée but be aware and bring the money with you when you going there, that is the only wise thing you can do and customs will not even bother you when you have so much cash money with you.

Hi

I have never reply here to anyone yet. But your post concerned me, since there are a lot of women using love to scam in the Philippines. I have a fiancée in the Philippines that I know for 2 years and we are planning to get married in Summer 2019. I visit my fiancé every 3 months from the states and she lives in my 3 bedroom condo. We have met several wedding planners and we decided to do our own wedding planning. All the information is on the internet and all hotels have packages based on number people for fixed price depending on the features you want. For example for like 100 people all included  the average price was 100,000 pesos GOOGLE IT YOU BEING TAKEN FOR RIDE - 800,000 pesos are you kidding me. On living expenses, it cost me $200 per including helping her family of 9 people.  Why with so many beautiful single Filipinas you want to married a women with 3 kids.

Oh my the way since there is no divorce in the Philippines, we will married in Hong Kong and do the reception in the Philippines. Oh and we decided to purchase her wedding dress in EBay for $99usd,

Please google all the ways Filipinas scam foreigners using love.

Love but don't trust until you living there. Put up Video cameras livingroom, bedroom, etc. in the home you paying for and get access to all her social media and emails account.  With FB messenger you can call her everyday. I talk to my fiancé 3 times a day everyday via video chat.

Good luck but use your head and don't get scammed.

Eight Hundred Thousand Pesos, sounds a lot for a Wedding?

Hi,
Can you clarify on the amount that you are planning on spending on your wedding.  I think you typed it in wrong.  if you remove the comma, it could be translated as 8 million and i know that isn't right so I am guessing the 800k is wrong.  Anyway.  I just had a huge party for my sons first Birthday and we had 3 pigs, 2 lechion and the 3rd cut up for other dishes.  A goat.  30 kilos of scallops, fresh crabs and Shrimp.  25 cases of beer.  Ice cream, Coke, a case of Brandy and much more.  My total cost was less than 100,000.00 pesos or less than 2,000.00  dollars.  I hope this can give you an idea of some real costs.  You might want to spend a bit more for a wedding reception but i certainly would be surprised spending more than 4k or 200,000 pesos.  But once again, I don't have all the details such as the number of people attending and what is being purchased.  You should ask for a budget breakdown from your fiance and planner on what they are planning to purchase and the associated costs.  This would really help to clarify if you are getting scammed or not.  On a further note.  I don't know where her family is from but regardless don't spend what you cant afford.  But 15k US would be a wedding for royalty there in the Philippines.  My suggestion would be to cut that amount by 2/3rds.  If you are in fact planning on spending 15k US.  Anyway, goodluck.

be careful man, she might be scamming you. most filipinos take advantage of foreigners like you. just be careful.

I would get my feet on the ground before I would even consider $2,000 for a wedding
I have been living with my Philippine woman for 6 years it is costing us $5,000 (p250, 000) for her annulment and that may take a year to process, and that is so she is free to make a legal (wedding) commitment to me. She wouldn't dream of spending $15,000 on a wedding. You don't have to pay for the wedding until you are here. My woman thinks you are in trouble with your wife to be. Bring money with you, there is no hurry. I hope you know what you are doing, best of luck.

I have to agree with the statements here.
15k dollars is far too expensive.
Why do you have to send all this money in advance?
I have personally been scammed trusting too much.
Not all filopina are bad but the ones that are will take you for every dollar.
A french man here was conned out of 12 million pesos as the gf had an agent friend so he gave the agent friend the money to deal with the purchase.
Personaly i would not send all this money.
Find a gf without big ideas of grandeur.
If she's like this now what will the future hold.

Hi sir! How lucky your girlfriend is? Have you met her in person? Sending money especially big amount was not a good idea nowadays! There are lot of scammers, users, fake and so on to make you believe that marrying a filipina was the proof sending big amount of money. First you have to met her in person then go to the legal counsel which can give you an advice to how to get in a wedding without giving you pressure how much you need to spend for the wedding make sure your girlfriend had no affair to another man before sending money. I am just a filipina concern about your kindness. Be aware what's in her and her background. God bless!

Not to be insensitive or anything but, I would seriously, seriously, SERIOUSLY reconsider sending even remotely that amount of money. I could be wrong but there is no way that I would risk that amount of cash as you will have zero recourse for getting any of it back once it's used to build a house for her family. 🙄🙄🙄🙄

Read all the horror stories of doing this on this forum and others.

I do however hope that I am wrong and that you have a wonderful wedding and a wonderful life together. Err on the side of caution though, I hate to hear of good people being taken advantage of.

Jesus man, even reading this thread has my blood boiling... 😔😞

Tim_L wrote:

Jesus man, even reading this thread has my blood boiling... 😔😞

In what way Tim? We are all unique individuals and choose our path, the OP has not contributed further to this topic, he asked the questions and is possibly sitting back now thinking f*rk, what am I doing? Or simply "I am in looovee (perhaps lust) and will take the risk.
I wish the OP all the best but ringing in my head as always with this type of post are the simple words "a fool and his money are easily departed".

Cheers, Steve.

I hope that's exactly what he's doing Steve!!!  Just gets to me sometimes how bad folks are targeted. Not that he is but, my bet is, he has better odds of hitting the lottery for 300 Mil then "not" getting ripped in that deal.