Hi, my boyfriend has been stuck Philippines for 18 years.
He is half filipino by his mother but was born in Japan and never became a "citizen" of the Philippines.
The story is his parents went there from Japan to visit for a little when he was 5 and some things went down.
They ran out of money.
They became stranded.
He's now telling me that there's like a $10k+ fee on him but that's against his human rights because he never had free choice and was a minor at the time of departure from Japan.
He has a Japanese passport and is a citizen of Japan. He hasn't been in school since he was 12, has no education whatsoever and no means of paying the bill, nor does he have the means of even working to get the money. It was not his fault.
What the hell can we possibly do? This is an infringement of his human rights.
Boyfriend stuck in PH for 18 years as a minor
$10,000.00 fee for what?
apparently an overstay fee
Just a few questions:
1. How well do you know your boyfriend? How long have you been in this relationship?
2. From your profile, you mentioned that you're an Australian citizen (I'm assuming you currently live in Australia). Have you been to the Philippines? Have you met your boyfriend personally?
3. Is he hinting that you give him $10k so he can be "free"?
No offense, but your boyfriend's story sounds like a scam. Be careful. You or your friends or family should never give him any money for things like plane tickets, accommodation, living expenses, bills, etc., and especially not that $10k.
If he has been there illegally for 18 years then surely his passport must have expired?
This story is total nonsense.... Tell your "boyfriend" to find a better story :-)
As he is a Japanese citizen, he has to see his consulate. Japanese embassy will not let its citizen stranded like that ! Where are his parents ? still in the Philippines ?
I met him through my brother who met him on a holiday to PH at a gaming event 6 years ago. They stayed in contact through penpals online and then I started playing the game last year and got close.
My brother has visited him twice since then but doesn't know the EXACT situation of him.
He is not asking me for the money. He wants to avoid the fees and go back to Japan.
My father is Japanese and I have family in JP, moving there for me has been an option since I was young but I never chose to.
I would not send money forthright to him, if I did actually help him in this way, I'd be calling embassies without his knowledge anyway to make sure.
I actually called the JP embassy about this today after struggling online to find all the numbers. It took three tries before I found the correct place and according to them the situation is 100% fixable.
All he needs to do is go there and voluntarily ask for repatriation.
He will be blacklisted from the country however he is okay with this and not be forced to pay his overstay fines unless he wants re-entry.
I'm organizing with my father who is a Japanese citizen for my boyfriend to stay in my apartment in Tokyo until I finish my university studies in Aus and then will move back there for good. Thank-you all for your contributions to my thread!
I actually called the JP embassy about his situation using his name and it checks out.
His situation was actually very real and we are now in the process of organising for repatriation.
Please read my update.
Good luck to you both...
Ok, good luck... But it is not a question of human rights. If an alien is overstaying in Australia, Japan or anywhere else, he is in an illegal situation. In many countries he would be throwned into jail before being expelled. In the Philippines you have to pay but no jail, so maybe it is better !
If he is still a Japanese citizen, best bet that he should seek help from the Japan Embassy's and get protective rights
See below
Since he has a Filipina mother he is Filipino by birth. He needs to get his mother's NSO birth certificate and his Japanese birth certificate and then apply for recognition as beng a Filipino at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila.
Hi,
I have been through this process many years ago with my daughter who was born in Norway and had entered the Philippines as a Norwegian citizen written into my passport. She was then 3 months old. 11 years later the Bureau of Immigration (BOI) demanded P200K in fine for allowing her to leave the Philippines. I argued that since her mother was still a Filipino citizen my daughter was also a Filipino citizen by birth in spite of the fact that she now had a Norwegian passport.
Through the help of the Norwegian Embassy we were allowed to leave for Norway without paying the fine since we already had filed an application to the BOI for certification of Filipino citizenship. It was filed in April 2001 and was finally approved in September 2008 by the BOI! I had to send a lawyer to BOI in Manila to finally get the matter resolved. (It is BOI that handles such applications, not the Foreign Affairs Department.)
It is important though to remember that the mother must be a Filipino citizen at the time of the birth of the child. If she has surrendered her Filipino citizenship and acquired citizenship in the country of her husband the child will not be a Filipino citizen, even if born in the Philippines. At least, that was what I was told by my lawyer at the time.
Thank you for the correction.
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