Work permit required?

As far as you are here in the Phils, with Tourist Visa and you can continue to renew the tourist visa when due. you can live in the country for 3 years by renewing your tourist visa and when you get married, you can covert to spouse visa.

According to my knowledge, you dont need AEP for the job you are doing online in as much you are not working with a physical company.

Cheers!!

generalProf wrote:

Hi all, I'm new to the forum, but have been a long time lurker.

I'm currently living here in Manila and i was wondering if I need to apply for a work permit, since i have a friend in Australia who wants me to do work for him on his website. This would be a long term contract over a couple of years.

I'm currently just running off savings for the moment but would like to take this opportunity. I have seen other foreigners who said they didn't need to leave to apply for work permits, they just applied for there AEP, TIN and some other things.

My main reason for asking is, all the foreigners i read about was working for companies in the Philippines, but my friend and his company is based in Australia, so does the same process apply for me having to get a AEP?

some info that my be of use:
Here on tourist visa.
Getting married to a local next year.

Thank you to anyone who can shine some light on this matter

You cannot work legally on a 9a tourist visa unless you have received a PWP (provisional work permit) authorization to do so while waiting on the issuance of you 9g visa.

Regardless of how you see it, the BI may see it differently. So if you are online doing business for an Australian company and your pay is deposited in your Aussie account you should be ok as long as you don't advertise what you're doing and that your being paid for it.

Regards

supremejoseph wrote:

As far as you are here in the Phils, with Tourist Visa and you can continue to renew the tourist visa when due. you can live in the country for 3 years by renewing your tourist visa and when you get married, you can covert to spouse visa.

According to my knowledge, you dont need AEP for the job you are doing online in as much you are not working with a physical company.

Cheers!!

I have been here in PH for a while now, traveling and also sorting out wedding arrangements. Using the extensions as needed for now.

TeeJay4103 wrote:

You cannot work legally on a 9a tourist visa unless you have received a PWP (provisional work permit) authorization to do so while waiting on the issuance of you 9g visa.

Regardless of how you see it, the BI may see it differently. So if you are online doing business for an Australian company and your pay is deposited in your Aussie account you should be ok as long as you don't advertise what you're doing and that your being paid for it.

Regards

Interesting, so you're saying even though it's not a local company, me working even just from here required me to have a work permit?

Also i was thinking, perhaps it's possible for me to do exactly what you're suggesting, having pay be sent to my local account back home, then just sending my savings to my local PH bank account.

One question though, wouldn't me sending money from my savings back home to a local account here be seen as a income? because i already paid taxes back home for it.....

generalProf wrote:

TeeJay4103 wrote:

You cannot work legally on a 9a tourist visa unless you have received a PWP (provisional work permit) authorization to do so while waiting on the issuance of you 9g visa.

Regardless of how you see it, the BI may see it differently. So if you are online doing business for an Australian company and your pay is deposited in your Aussie account you should be ok as long as you don't advertise what you're doing and that your being paid for it.

Regards

Interesting, so you're saying even though it's not a local company, me working even just from here required me to have a work permit?

Also i was thinking, perhaps it's possible for me to do exactly what you're suggesting, having pay be sent to my local account back home, then just sending my savings to my local PH bank account.

One question though, wouldn't me sending money from my savings back home to a local account here be seen as a income? because i already paid taxes back home for it.....

I am saying that there seems to be no definitive legal answer that I can find regarding your situation. I do not work for the BI nor am I a qualified Philippine tax attorney.  It seems to be a gray area and if so, is open to interpretation and I doubt that the interpretation would favor the expat.

Another expat doing similar working online for a foreign company while living in the RP stated that it was his understanding that if the job was not one that could be done by a Filipino and part of any Philippine business, there was no problem.  His pay is direct deposited in his US account as a matter of choice. 

If you are truly concerned about possible repercussions, contact a tax attorney in the RP and ask.

Regards.

Thank you for the reply, yeah I'm currently contacting some CPA's and people back home as well regarding what would be the right thing to do.

It seems like if I have the money sent to my local account back home and then send it to a bank here local as my savings from back home, it wouldn't through up any red flags......But before i do anything I will first consult with some legal people who can give me a more clear picture.

Main reason for asking on here is if someone perhaps has some experience with this type of case.

The Phils is interesting re. any kind of work. I understand that most expats who do online work don't much bother with any formal documentation. Just get a reliable inet connection somewhere (Globe at Home tends to be super) and start work.
If you work with a company that is fully documented in the Phils, usually you will work with them for up to 5 months with little running around formalizing things required. At that time you may have your contract changed, cancelled and restarted, because seems it takes the system that long to get you in the system, and, after all, if you don't like your set-up, you might quit and not bother with all the papers. For example, I was a training consultant with a foreign publishing firm, and they laid me off after 5 months so that they would not have to pay benefits. Later, they asked me to work for them again, but I turned them down.
If you are from a western nation, pls. know that things are loosey-goosey here, and little is formalized. You might start a small business of any kind or an offshore online thing, and never get the docs with the govt because things can be dicey once you are in the system, that, incidentally, tends to be corrupt. Hence that you can fly below the radar for as long as you want, until, of course, they get it together to start chasing down people who are working here incognito.
Thus if I were you, and as weird as it sounds, I'd have little concern toward formalizing things until such time as you choose to change that or someone lights a fire under you to get documented. If you have a paypal account, seems for many to be enough, and some have been doing that kind of thing for a decade or more....

Hi.just do your online work and dont advertise it to everyone.!!.

Just know that there are foreigners being detained indefinitely in BI detention centers... Their crime... Working without the correct visa.

Munchie wrote:

Just know that there are foreigners being detained indefinitely in BI detention centers... Their crime... Working without the correct visa.

Yeah no, that's why i'm asking what the right procedure is, because ending up in one of those detention centers is that last thing i want. So for now i think sticking to my savings till i get married is the best option, once i'm married I will talk to a local office here regarding what the best course of action is to get permission to work here.

If you have an employer, please ask your employer to secure your working visa

do the 1000s of filipinos sending money from abroad pay tax on the money they send ?
Just have it sent by remit and collect

just hire a fixer its much easier they just grease the palms of the right people