Philippines foreign investors now have a new visa option. President Arroyo signed on November 17, 2007 Executive Order No. 758 which liberalizes the rules on non-immigrant visas to foreign investors.
E.O. No. 758 was issued to help generate employment in the country. According to the National Statistics Office there were 2.9 million Filipinos who were unemployed as of April 2008.
The new visa is called Special Visa for Employment Generation (SVEG).This visa will be issued to non-immigrant foreigners who will employ at least ten Filipinos. Under this visa program the foreign investor will be considered special non-immigrants with multiply entry privileges and conditional extended stay, without need of prior departure from the Philippines. These privileges are extended to the investors spouse and unmarried children below the age of 18 years.
To facilitate the issuance of Special Visa for Employment Generation (SVEG) the order also includes that the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) shall provide for the establishment of a One-Stop-SVEG Facility within the Bureau of Immigration with the participation of the departments Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Finance (DOF), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the National Intelligence Coordination Agency (NICA).
To see which businesses a foreign investor may open read Philippine Foreign Ownership of Corporation
