Lets talk about a visa extensions past 21 days.

I just back from the Philippines last month. I planned to stayed past the normal 21 day normal tourist visa and needed to extend my visa. A week later while I was as Manila airport at terminal 3 waiting for a flight to Boracay, I stopped in at the pass desk to get clearance to go inside a secured area to visit the immigration office to extend my visa. The woman called immigration and we were told I don't need to extend my visa in advance. All I would have to do is pay 4090p at the airport when I finally departed Manila. The woman wrote down on a card the cost, the persons name and number of whom she spoke to in immigration. A couple of days later in Boracay, I wasn't all that confident about the advice I had received so I went to the immigration office in Boracay. I paid 3030p for the extension there. While I was there I spoke to the person in charge and asked her about extending my visa when I departed the Philippines. She told me that the advice I received was correct and the fee would be $1,060 higher because of the overstay penalty. Just to be sure, while I was leaving the country I asked the immigration officer that cleared me out if there is any problem overstaying one's visa. He told me that it's just fine so long as you pay the penalty and its perfectly acceptable. Also if you have the time before your trip you can apply for a 90 day single entry visa from the Philippine Embassy in the USA, the cost is $30 (1,200p).


I knew people that flew off to HK for the weekend to reset their visa, that or a long unnecessary trip to a immigration office. It looks like all you have to do is pay an extra 1,060p and you are fine.

I extended my 21 day visa on a trip to the Philippines earlier this year and it was my understanding that neither the visa extension or visa extension plus overstay penalty was really not to be done at the airport, only at offsite locations such as the one I visited in Cebu. If you went to the airport expecting it to be done, you'd run the risk of someone telling you it's really supposed to be done elsewhere and redirecting you there--that officially it's not supposed to be done at the airport but it might be done IF they are willing to help you. This would be especially unfortunate if you had overstayed and expected just to pay the fine at the airport upon departure--likely missing your flight, etc. This is what I was told every time I asked, but there was so much conflicting information on this that I think it'd be a mistake to just trust it will be "ok" at the airport either if you need to extend your visa or have overstayed.

Kenr the last time I obtained a Visa in advance from the Philippine Consulate it was for 59 days which is the max they are authorized to do. Maybe that has changed and you will have to research it. That Visa takes up an entire page in your passport versus the 21 day stamp on entry followed by the next stamp to extend you up to the 59 days provided you are in an area where there is an immigration office or authorized travel agent that wiill do it for you.
Check out the thread about the new 6 month extension only currently available in the Manila Immigration Office

I'll draw your attention to this recent thread:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ph...w-long-stay-visitor-visa-extension-lsvve.html

There's plenty of B.I. sub-offices scattered around. They make it easy to get a swift tourist visa extension. The office in Subic, for instance, does it in under 30 minutes. There's absolutely no need for anyone to leave the country to 'refresh', if on a tourist visa (until the 16 month point comes along).