How to extend your Philippine visa in Puerto Princesa?

A lot of people on the internet mentioned that the immigration office at Manila is one of the toughest places to extend your visa, but I still went ahead and visited them while I was exploring the Intra Muros area of Manila. I did not even get through their front door as I was wearing a pair of shorts. Who carries pants while traveling tropical Asia. I know some of you do, but for me, I had to find another immigration office and thankfully for me, I found one at Puerto Princesa that allowed me in shorts and helped me extend my visa in less than 15 minutes. The below account is how I extended my visa today.



The immigration office at Puerto Princesa is located near the airport and on Rizal Avenue. It is situated on the 2nd floor of a green building that is next to the EdGuardo’s restaurant. The office is open Monday through Friday from 8 AM to 4:30 pm, excluding public holidays. It is a short 15 minute walk from most of the hotels in down town Puerto Princesa. All you need to extend your visa is your passport and photocopies of your passport front photo page and the Philippine entry stamp.

The cost for a normal 38 day extension is 3,030 PHP, but in my case, since I am on an Indian passport and can get extension of only 7 additional days, I ended up paying 2,330 pisos. The lady at the immigration counter gave me a form to fill and once I had filled the form, she went up printing the receipt, put a new immigration stamp on my passport with the extended date and boom everything was over in less than 15 minutes. This is the easiest visa extension I have ever had, but the cost is a bit on the higher side. But, upon evaluating my other travel costs and the cost of coming to Palawan and not staying long, I decided to pay and get the extension done. If you are looking for a place to do your extension, I would recommend that you look at Puerto Princesa as the immigration formalities is a breeze here.

p.s. while I was getting my visa extended, an Australian enquired about the penalty of leaving a day late. The immigration officer told that generally this depends on the officer on duty at your airport, but generally they charge the visa extension fees of 3,030 PHP and 1,000 PHP as penalty for not extending on time.