Fresh Expat. Need ACR Card for Apartment?

Hobbit112 wrote:

It's going to be interesting when all the expats on tourist visas have to renew their drivers licenses and find out then that they can't!  Probably be a glut in the used car and scooter market for years.  For me I will save a couple thousand dollars and have peace of mind that I can't be sued for causing an accident.

The ACR 1 card is needed ONLY for a new, first time drivers license. It is NOT required to renew. I grandfathered in getting my first license back in 1999. Renewed each time including when the new law went into effect so no need for the ACR. I have mine renewed at SM mall Clark, Angeles. Here, the follow they law to the letter.
Had my latest license renewed in March this year and is good for 5 years. If no violations the next license will be valid for 10 years! We have our choice of what LTO office to go to since there are so many but always chose SM Clark as they are good at what they do, are friendly and courteous. They are also pretty fast and can usually get it done in one hour or less.

I checked with LTO in Davao they told me you need a resident visa to obtain a drivers license, if you have a current license and no resident visa you can use it but cannot be renewed

Good grief, this whole drivers license thing is getting pretty convoluted.

So we can drive using our US license for 3 months. Wonder how they'd feel about a quick flight out and back in every three months?  And catch a free 30 day Visa on the way back in as well.

Okieboy wrote:

I checked with LTO in Davao they told me you need a resident visa to obtain a drivers license, if you have a current license and no resident visa you can use it but cannot be renewed

Too bad they do things that way there. I guess it's like most everything else here. Managers either get the wrong information or they are just determined to do things their way. There is no reason for them to deny a renewal for not having the ACR. Would help I guess where you are to find the legal ruling and present the LTO office there a copy. Too bad things get so messed up in different parts of the country..

Tim_L wrote:

Good grief, this whole drivers license thing is getting pretty convoluted.

So we can drive using our US license for 3 months. Wonder how they'd feel about a quick flight out and back in every three months?  And catch a free 30 day Visa on the way back in as well.

You got that right. Here's another one for fun. Suppose I have just my US license and I get stopped six months after arrival here. So I tell them I arrived on Tuesday of last week? Police (PNP) are not immigration officers and would have no way of knowing OR checking when I arrived. Screwy system. Kinda like as of 2018 we now have to give electronic fingerprints when renewing a drivers license. I did that in March of this year. Okay good idea -but- the electronic finger print data base is not usable for anything as it is not attached to any law enforcement agencies at all. Again--screwy. Nothing is connected here whatsoever.

Navajo52 wrote:

Tim_L wrote:

Good grief, this whole drivers license thing is getting pretty convoluted.

So we can drive using our US license for 3 months. Wonder how they'd feel about a quick flight out and back in every three months?  And catch a free 30 day Visa on the way back in as well.

You got that right. Here's another one for fun. Suppose I have just my US license and I get stopped six months after arrival here. So I tell them I arrived on Tuesday of last week? Police (PNP) are not immigration officers and would have no way of knowing OR checking when I arrived. Screwy system. Kinda like as of 2018 we now have to give electronic fingerprints when renewing a drivers license. I did that in March of this year. Okay good idea -but- the electronic finger print data base is not usable for anything as it is not attached to any law enforcement agencies at all. Again--screwy. Nothing is connected here whatsoever.

Yes having fingerprints but not in the database that can be shared seems rather pointless.
I guess you have to start somewhere. Maybe at some point, they will get everything connected.
Until then, I kind of like your idea.  LOL
As long as it doesn't get me jailed or thrown out of the country, I can handle paying a fine.

Tim_L wrote:

Navajo52 wrote:

Tim_L wrote:

Good grief, this whole drivers license thing is getting pretty convoluted.

So we can drive using our US license for 3 months. Wonder how they'd feel about a quick flight out and back in every three months?  And catch a free 30 day Visa on the way back in as well.

You got that right. Here's another one for fun. Suppose I have just my US license and I get stopped six months after arrival here. So I tell them I arrived on Tuesday of last week? Police (PNP) are not immigration officers and would have no way of knowing OR checking when I arrived. Screwy system. Kinda like as of 2018 we now have to give electronic fingerprints when renewing a drivers license. I did that in March of this year. Okay good idea -but- the electronic finger print data base is not usable for anything as it is not attached to any law enforcement agencies at all. Again--screwy. Nothing is connected here whatsoever.

Yes having fingerprints but not in the database that can be shared seems rather pointless.
I guess you have to start somewhere. Maybe at some point, they will get everything connected.
Until then, I kind of like your idea.  LOL
As long as it doesn't get me jailed or thrown out of the country, I can handle paying a fine.

Fines are usually paid at the roadside to the officer as he makes up just about anything he likes as he goes along. Mind you, this has never happened to me in all the years I've lived here but it does happen. If at all possible it's simply better to stay within the laws here. Marriage has its advantages with getting a permanent residency visa, employment, and medical insurance. Definitely an interesting place to live and always keeps you guessing.

Navajo52 wrote:

Fines are usually paid at the roadside to the officer as he makes up just about anything he likes as he goes along. Mind you, this has never happened to me in all the years I've lived here but it does happen. If at all possible it's simply better to stay within the laws here. Marriage has its advantages with getting a permanent residency visa, employment, and medical insurance. Definitely an interesting place to live and always keeps you guessing.

Yes, I've read that.  I would much prefer to simply fly under the radar and stay out of any and all hassles.
Marriage seems to definitely have it's advantages but, I'm not even close to being to the point of marriage yet. I will end up going the SRRV route once I am positive that life there is the right move for me. Until then, I'll just renew my Visa for a while. I already took out a health insurance policy with CignaGlobal so I should be good to go should any major issues arise. I can swing minor medical out of pocket. The biggest issue for me will be the slowness at which things get done there.
I have been self-employed for the past 30 years so, time is money for me and I am a go getter.
Shifting my life into granny gear is definately going to be a battle that I will have to overcome. 🙄🙄🙄

Tim_L wrote:

Navajo52 wrote:

Fines are usually paid at the roadside to the officer as he makes up just about anything he likes as he goes along. Mind you, this has never happened to me in all the years I've lived here but it does happen. If at all possible it's simply better to stay within the laws here. Marriage has its advantages with getting a permanent residency visa, employment, and medical insurance. Definitely an interesting place to live and always keeps you guessing.

Yes, I've read that.  I would much prefer to simply fly under the radar and stay out of any and all hassles.
Marriage seems to definitely have it's advantages but, I'm not even close to being to the point of marriage yet. I will end up going the SRRV route once I am positive that life there is the right move for me. Until then, I'll just renew my Visa for a while. I already took out a health insurance policy with CignaGlobal so I should be good to go should any major issues arise. I can swing minor medical out of pocket. The biggest issue for me will be the slowness at which things get done there.
I have been self-employed for the past 30 years so, time is money for me and I am a go getter.
Shifting my life into granny gear is definitely going to be a battle that I will have to overcome. 🙄🙄🙄

Hi Tim and sorry for the delay in a reply. I post mostly on another forum so don't get in here too often.
Have you spent much time here in country checking out life and how things work -- or don't work? I'm just curious as you mentioned that you have medical insurance lined up for use here. A very good number of hospitals and most all doctors offices are not prepared or set up to accept insurance other than the low cost Philhealth. Most will want cash on the barrelhead within 24 hours of being admitted.

Also, you sound to be far too young to just pull the plug on working and just retire. Back in the States there is always something to do Something to get involved with that is fun to help pass the time when retired. Not so here for the long term. I'm 66yrs old and STILL get awful tired of being retired. If not for my wife and children life here would become unbearably boring very fast.



Regards
Navajo

Navajo52 wrote:

Hi Tim and sorry for the delay in a reply. I post mostly on another forum so don't get in here too often.
Have you spent much time here in country checking out life and how things work -- or don't work? I'm just curious as you mentioned that you have medical insurance lined up for use here. A very good number of hospitals and most all doctors offices are not prepared or set up to accept insurance other than the low cost Philhealth. Most will want cash on the barrelhead within 24 hours of being admitted.

Also, you sound to be far too young to just pull the plug on working and just retire. Back in the States there is always something to do Something to get involved with that is fun to help pass the time when retired. Not so here for the long term. I'm 66yrs old and STILL get awful tired of being retired. If not for my wife and children life here would become unbearably boring very fast.

Regards
Navajo

Hi Navajo! No worries, I am on several other forums as well, same screen name on all of them.

I have spent a total of about 10 weeks there over the past 11 months. Certainly not long enough to get totally familiar but, I am a quick study and spend a disgusting amount of time reading PH forums. haha..

I have already researched what hospitals and what doctors have direct bill agreements with CignaGlobal and have a list of them printed out. My plan also covers repatriation coverage if need be. Cebu has several direct bill locations but it seems as though everything in the Angeles area are closer to Manila.
I'll grab PhilHealth once I get there. It's cheap enough and should make most providers there feel semi warm and fuzzy just in case.

I am 54 and I am most definitely am not retiring yet. I have a Corp. in the US and can do what I need to do from anywhere so long as I have a solid internet connection and power.
And yes, I already know how lame the internet can be there and I'm aware that power can be just as bad sometimes. That's the main reason I want to be in a good infrastructure area.

Each time I have been there in the past, I have made sure to only rent places with whole building generator backup power to keep me up and running in the event of outages. So far, that has worked well. I also use an APC to connect my laptop and modem to in order to keep those up and running til the generators fires up and takes over.

In the event my internet goes down, I can always piggyback on my international data and work off of that until things recover.
I never get myself far enough away from a city that my international goes down at least not on days that I need to deal with anything in the US. I also have Globe and Smart pocket wi-fi's just in case. I learned that valuable lesson on my first trip. Never rely on a single provider for anything.

Once I find a house to rent, wherever that might be, I will grab a sine wave inverter for the house to power the essentials in the event of an extended power outage. I have a Kipor KGE 6000 here at home that works really well for that. I have already researched and I can get one there from Lazada as well as several other places for not much more then it cost me to get it here, which was quite surprising.

I can use PH as a bounce point to other Asian Countries to look around in case I get bored. There are several on my list that I would like to see at some point. My GF has her Passport so a trip or two a year should help quell any major boredom.

I have tried to cover my bases as much as possible. I'm sure that there will be some things that pop up that I hadn't planned for but, I guess you'll have that any time you leave your familiar home base to go somewhere else. And yes, I have my "get the hell out of dodge" contingency plan in place also. Hahaha...

Anyway, sorry for the novel.

Tim_L wrote:

Navajo52 wrote:

Hi Tim and sorry for the delay in a reply. I post mostly on another forum so don't get in here too often.
Have you spent much time here in country checking out life and how things work -- or don't work? I'm just curious as you mentioned that you have medical insurance lined up for use here. A very good number of hospitals and most all doctors offices are not prepared or set up to accept insurance other than the low cost Philhealth. Most will want cash on the barrelhead within 24 hours of being admitted.

Also, you sound to be far too young to just pull the plug on working and just retire. Back in the States there is always something to do Something to get involved with that is fun to help pass the time when retired. Not so here for the long term. I'm 66yrs old and STILL get awful tired of being retired. If not for my wife and children life here would become unbearably boring very fast.

Regards
Navajo

Hi Navajo! No worries, I am on several other forums as well, same screen name on all of them.

I have spent a total of about 10 weeks there over the past 11 months. Certainly not long enough to get totally familiar but, I am a quick study and spend a disgusting amount of time reading PH forums. haha..

I have already researched what hospitals and what doctors have direct bill agreements with CignaGlobal and have a list of them printed out. My plan also covers repatriation coverage if need be. Cebu has several direct bill locations but it seems as though everything in the Angeles area are closer to Manila.
I'll grab PhilHealth once I get there. It's cheap enough and should make most providers there feel semi warm and fuzzy just in case.

I am 54 and I am most definitely am not retiring yet. I have a Corp. in the US and can do what I need to do from anywhere so long as I have a solid internet connection and power.
And yes, I already know how lame the internet can be there and I'm aware that power can be just as bad sometimes. That's the main reason I want to be in a good infrastructure area.

Each time I have been there in the past, I have made sure to only rent places with whole building generator backup power to keep me up and running in the event of outages. So far, that has worked well. I also use an APC to connect my laptop and modem to in order to keep those up and running til the generators fires up and takes over.

In the event my internet goes down, I can always piggyback on my international data and work off of that until things recover.
I never get myself far enough away from a city that my international goes down at least not on days that I need to deal with anything in the US. I also have Globe and Smart pocket wi-fi's just in case. I learned that valuable lesson on my first trip. Never rely on a single provider for anything.

Once I find a house to rent, wherever that might be, I will grab a sine wave inverter for the house to power the essentials in the event of an extended power outage. I have a Kipor KGE 6000 here at home that works really well for that. I have already researched and I can get one there from Lazada as well as several other places for not much more then it cost me to get it here, which was quite surprising.

I can use PH as a bounce point to other Asian Countries to look around in case I get bored. There are several on my list that I would like to see at some point. My GF has her Passport so a trip or two a year should help quell any major boredom.

I have tried to cover my bases as much as possible. I'm sure that there will be some things that pop up that I hadn't planned for but, I guess you'll have that any time you leave your familiar home base to go somewhere else. And yes, I have my "get the hell out of dodge" contingency plan in place also. Hahaha...

Anyway, sorry for the novel.

Hi Tim,

Good post and looks like you have done some homework for the move with insurance etc and that's good. It will help iron out the kinks once you're here full time. For areas to live you mentioned the Angeles Area. We live about a 30 minute ride from Clark Air Base and Angeles proper.

There is a large new hospital in Clark that is supposed to be pretty good. I've not been there but would be a good one to check out. For my family and I we have found this to be a pretty good area to live. One  hour to Tarlac City to the North, two hours getting to Manila to the South, and Subic Bay is about a 45 minute ride using the new expressway. If money was no issue we would probably live in Subic but our area does nicely.

Subic (SBMA) and some parts of Manila are the only places I've seen or experienced that have really reliable Internet and power supply. Other than that, If a person has the available finances satellite internet using a provider that is NOT in the Philippines would be a very good option. My understanding though is that it does cost a bit.

Like anywhere in the world, the Philippines can be a difficult place to find the “right” gal to marry. Even though you feel not ready for marriage living in a foreign country, especially here, marriage is an ideal way of life. There is always that one person to be with you to share life good or bad and is the one person always on your side no matter what. In a 3rd world country such as this a wife is irreplaceable. I've lived here for fifteen years and married the entire time and would not change a thing. I use one other expat site but a different user name and serve as a moderator there. Great fun--at times.
You said you like to travel. Vietnam is clsose and I understand is low cost compaired to other places. That's a place I intend to see if we ever hit the lottery.

Regards
Navajo

Navajo52 wrote:

Hi Tim,

Good post and looks like you have done some homework for the move with insurance etc and that's good. It will help iron out the kinks once you're here full time. For areas to live you mentioned the Angeles Area. We live about a 30 minute ride from Clark Air Base and Angeles proper.

There is a large new hospital in Clark that is supposed to be pretty good. I've not been there but would be a good one to check out. For my family and I we have found this to be a pretty good area to live. One  hour to Tarlac City to the North, two hours getting to Manila to the South, and Subic Bay is about a 45 minute ride using the new expressway. If money was no issue we would probably live in Subic but our area does nicely.

Subic (SBMA) and some parts of Manila are the only places I've seen or experienced that have really reliable Internet and power supply. Other than that, If a person has the available finances satellite internet using a provider that is NOT in the Philippines would be a very good option. My understanding though is that it does cost a bit.

Like anywhere in the world, the Philippines can be a difficult place to find the “right” gal to marry. Even though you feel not ready for marriage living in a foreign country, especially here, marriage is an ideal way of life. There is always that one person to be with you to share life good or bad and is the one person always on your side no matter what. In a 3rd world country such as this a wife is irreplaceable. I've lived here for fifteen years and married the entire time and would not change a thing. I use one other expat site but a different user name and serve as a moderator there. Great fun--at times.
You said you like to travel. Vietnam is clsose and I understand is low cost compaired to other places. That's a place I intend to see if we ever hit the lottery.

Regards
Navajo

Thank you for the info.   I checked into Sat. internet and yes, it's quite pricey. Hopefully, I won't need to resort to that.  Subic is also on my list of places to check out. I saw it's set to become a cruise ship port so, that sounds as though it could get a bit touristy. It's not like Angeles isn't also I guess. hahaha

I definitely want to check other parts of Asia. Not because I want to settle anywhere else but, makes sense since I will actually be on that side of the World. I'm getting to the point now where I need life to slow down a bit. As we all know, tomorrow isn't promised to any of us. My Father died @ 63, his brother @ 43 both of cancer and I just turned 54 yesterday so I've been feeling a bit on edge lately. 

Yes, marriage may be the way to go. I just don't want to rush into anything. Take things nice and easy. Been there, done that. 

Tim