Philippine Visa Guide for Living in Davao: Tourist Extension, SRRV & 13(a)
Most people planning a move to Davao price the rent, the electricity, and the flights, then treat the visa as a footnote. It is not a footnote. Twelve months of legal stay on a tourist stamp runs ₱29,000 to ₱43,000, the six-month extension that would cut that bill cannot be filed anywhere in Mindanao, and the single most-repeated fact about the Davao immigration office on the English-language web is wrong.
This guide prices each route from the Bureau of Immigration’s own published schedule rather than from forum recall, and it says plainly which transactions you can finish in Davao and which force a trip to Manila or Makati. For the tenancy side of an expat move, the expat guide to renting in Davao covers leases, deposits, and what landlords ask a foreigner for.
Where You Actually Go in Davao
Two offices matter. Both sit inside the city.
The Davao Immigration District Office occupies the 2nd floor of NCCC-Victoria Plaza on J.P. Laurel Avenue in Barangay 19-B, the Bajada stretch, open 8 AM to 5 PM Monday to Friday. Reach it at (082) 228-6488 or davao.do@immigration.gov.ph (BI office directory, accessed August 2026). BI’s own 2023 Citizen’s Charter directory lists the same street. It is a full district office running 35 separate services, not a satellite window.
The Philippine Retirement Authority Mindanao Satellite Office sits at A3, G/F Plaza de Luisa Building on Ramon Magsaysay Avenue, contactable at (082) 224-5691, +63 917 566 1985, or davao@pra.gov.ph (PRA contact page, accessed August 2026). It handles SRRV enquiries and document submission for the whole island.
What BI Davao can do: tourist visa extensions, ACR I-Card issuance and renewal, Alien Registration Program, amendment of admission, annual report, change of address, 13(a) probationary and the amendment to permanent, 13(g), 9(g) work visas commercial and non-commercial, 9(f) student visas, TRV conversions, downgrading, Emigration Clearance Certificate Series A, grace period, special work and study permits, and the RA 9225 citizenship re-acquisition petition.
What it cannot do: the Long-Stay Visitor Visa Extension, which is a BI Main Office transaction only. Final approval of a 13(a) also rests with the Board of Commissioners in Manila even when you file every page in Davao.
The Tourist Extension Ladder and What a Year Costs
Arrive on a non-visa-required passport and you get 30 days. From there the ladder is a fixed sequence of paid steps, and BI publishes the price of every rung (BI, Temporary Visitor 9(A) Visa Waiver, accessed August 2026). Adult rates below, meaning 16 and over.
| Step | Extension granted | Fee, non-visa-required | Fee, visa-required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visa waiver (first extension) | 29 days, to day 59 | ₱3,030 | ₱3,030 |
| First extension past day 59 | 1 month | ₱4,400 | ₱4,400 |
| First extension past day 59 | 2 months | ₱4,900 | ₱5,700 |
| After a 2-month extension | 1 month | ₱2,430 | ₱2,430 |
| After a 2-month extension | 2 months | ₱2,930 | ₱3,730 |
| Once past 6 months of stay | 1 month | ₱3,840 | ₱3,840 |
| Once past 6 months of stay | 2 months | ₱4,340 | ₱5,140 |
| ACR I-Card, required past day 59 | 1 year | USD 50 + ₱500 express | USD 50 + ₱500 express |
| Overstay fine | per month | ₱500 | ₱500 |
Two things fall out of that table. First, the cheapest legal path is always the longest available step: two months at a time, never one. Second, the price per month is not flat. It drops after your first two-month extension, then rises again once you cross six months of continuous stay.
Walk a full year in two-month steps and the extensions come to ₱23,880: ₱3,030 for the waiver, ₱4,900 to reach roughly day 119, ₱2,930 to day 179, then ₱4,340 three times to close out the twelfth month. Take the same year one month at a time and you pay several thousand pesos more for exactly the same stay.
| Category | Range (PHP) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Visa waiver + extensions, months 2-12 | 23,880–28,600 | Low figure assumes 2-month steps; high assumes 1-month steps |
| ACR I-Card (USD 50 at BSP rate + express lane) | 3,300–3,600 | Required past 59 days, valid 1 year. USD 50 at roughly ₱61 to the dollar, August 2026 |
| Exit paperwork: ECC-A + CRTV | 2,100–2,200 | Certificate of Residence applies once you have stayed 6 months or more |
| Optional agency or fixer, per visit | 0–9,000 | Not required; the counter process is straightforward in Davao |
| Total | 29,280–43,400 |
Estimates as of August 2026. Actual costs vary by building, usage, and lifestyle.
Reaching the ceiling ends the ladder. Continuous stay is capped at 36 months for non-visa-required nationals and 24 months for visa-required nationals, counted from your latest recorded arrival. After that you leave and re-enter, or you convert to something else.
Why the Six-Month Extension Is a Manila Problem
The Long-Stay Visitor Visa Extension bundles six months of stay, the ACR, head tax, ECC, and the I-Card into one transaction: ₱11,500 for a non-visa-required national, ₱13,900 for a visa-required one. Compare that with six months bought in two-month steps past the half-year mark, which is ₱4,340 three times, or ₱13,020.
So the LSVVE saves a Davao-based non-visa-required national about ₱1,500 per six months. Call it ₱250 a month. BI files it at the Main Office in Intramuros only. A Davao-Manila round trip booked a few weeks out runs PHP 3,000–7,000 (August 2026) before a night’s accommodation, which erases the saving and then some.
The practical answer for most people living in Davao: stay on two-month extensions locally and treat the LSVVE as something you file opportunistically, on a Manila trip you were making anyway. It is worth knowing the option exists, and worth not flying for it.
SRRV After the September 2025 Reform
The Philippine Retirement Authority restructured the SRRV effective 1 September 2025. The low-deposit Smile and Human Touch options were abolished outright, and the minimum age moved from 35 to 40. Any guide quoting a USD 10,000 or USD 20,000 entry point is describing a product that no longer exists.
| SRRV Classic applicant | Age band | Required time deposit |
|---|---|---|
| Pensioner | 50 and above | USD 15,000 |
| Non-pensioner | 50 and above | USD 30,000 |
| Pensioner | 40 to 49 | USD 25,000 |
| Non-pensioner | 40 to 49 | USD 50,000 |
On top of the deposit: an application fee of USD 1,500 for the principal plus USD 300 per dependent, and an annual fee of USD 360 on Classic. Applicants now also need a BI Clearance Certificate. A narrower Courtesy tier still exists at USD 1,500 to USD 6,000 for former Filipino citizens and a small set of qualifying foreign nationals, with annual fees of USD 50 to USD 100; ask the Davao satellite office whether you fall inside it rather than assuming.
What the SRRV buys is the end of the ladder above. Indefinite residence, multiple entry, no more two-month queues, no exit clearance, no annual report. For someone who has already decided on Davao for the long run, the arithmetic against three years of extensions is genuinely close. The deposit comes back if you surrender the visa.
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One caveat on the deposit specifically, because it is the mistake that costs weeks. The PRA time deposit is held in US dollars at an accredited Philippine bank, which normally means a USD inward remittance rather than a peso-delivery service. Ask your accredited bank exactly what form it will accept before you send anything, and keep a service like Wise for the fees, rent, and daily spending. Our guide to receiving money in Davao compares the delivery routes in more detail.
The 13(a) Marriage Visa at BI Davao
Married to a Philippine citizen? Then the whole process stays in Davao. Section 13(a) of Commonwealth Act 613 grants a non-quota immigrant visa to the spouse or the unmarried under-21 child of a Filipino, issued first for a one-year probationary period, then amended to permanent.
Fees at BI Davao, from the 2025 Citizen’s Charter: ₱11,470 in visa fees for the principal, ₱8,370 for a dependent below 16, ₱7,870 for one below 14, plus a USD 50 ACR I-Card charged at the BSP rate on the day fees are assessed. Total processing time the office commits to is 2 to 3 months.
That timeline is not counter inefficiency. You file on the 2nd floor in Davao, the Legal Section evaluates there, and then the Board of Commissioners at BI Main Office grants final approval on an agenda that meets every other week. The ACR I-Card is released downstairs on the ground floor once approval lands.
What you need to have in hand:
- The Consolidated General Application Form, capitals only, signed by both applicant and Filipino petitioner
- Your passport with at least 20 days of authorised stay left at fee assessment
- PSA marriage certificate, or the foreign equivalent authenticated by the Philippine Foreign Service Post or apostilled, with English translation
- The petitioner’s PSA birth certificate plus valid ID, or a BI-issued Identification Certificate as a Filipino citizen
- Questionnaire and Answer Form with a 2x2 photo, white background
- A joint affidavit that the marriage is genuine and the documents are authentic
- NBI clearance, if you file six months or more after your first arrival in the Philippines
- BI Clearance Certificate, issued on the ground floor of the Davao office
You must be physically inside the Philippines when you file. That single line has stranded more applications than any document on the list.
The Digital Nomad Visa: Authorised, Not Available
Executive Order 86, signed 24 April 2025, directs the DFA to issue a Philippine Digital Nomad Visa valid for one year and renewable for the same period (full text, LawPhil). Conditions in the order: age 18 or above, remote work performed through digital technology for an employer or clients outside the Philippines, sufficient income earned abroad, health insurance covering the visa period, no criminal record, no security threat, and citizenship of a country that both offers a comparable visa to Filipinos and hosts a Philippine Foreign Service Post. Holders may not take employment inside the country.
Note what the order does not contain. There is no income threshold in the text, so the USD 24,000 figure repeated across nomad blogs has no basis in the EO itself. The order gave the DFA, DOJ, DOT, BI, and BIR 30 days to issue implementing guidelines.
As of August 2026 the DFA e-visa portal still does not list the Digital Nomad Visa as a selectable category. Treat it as authorised rather than available: budget for the tourist ladder, and if applications open mid-stay, convert. The remote worker guide to Davao works through the cost side of that stay.
What Your Visa Status Changes for Renting
Landlords in Davao read your visa as a proxy for how long you will stay. A 12-month lease signed by someone on a 59-day stamp gets more scrutiny, occasionally an extra month of deposit, and sometimes a request for a Filipino co-signer. None of that is legally required, and the statutory cap of two months deposit plus one month advance under RA 9653 applies to foreign tenants exactly as it does to Filipinos.
The document that changes the conversation is the ACR I-Card. It is mandatory past 59 days anyway, and it is what banks want for an account, what telcos want for SIM registration, and what property managers in Lanang and Bajada recognise as a settled-resident signal. Get it early rather than at day 58. The expat renting guide covers the banking and SIM paperwork that hangs off it, and condos for rent in Davao for expats covers the buildings that handle foreign tenants routinely.
Picking Your Route
Three questions settle it. Are you married to a Filipino citizen? Then 13(a) at BI Davao is cheaper than one year of extensions and ends the queue for good. Are you 40 or over with capital you can park in a dollar time deposit? Then run the SRRV numbers against three years of ladder payments, because the gap is smaller than the deposit headline suggests. Neither? Then budget the tourist route honestly, file in two-month steps, get the ACR I-Card early, and re-check the DNV portal every few months.
What none of the routes reward is improvising at the counter. Fees are assessed against the stay you still hold, the Board of Commissioners meets fortnightly, and the six-month extension is 1,500 kilometres away. Plan around those three facts and the Davao office is one of the easier ones in the country to deal with. For the rest of the move, start with the complete guide to renting in Davao and, if you are coming down from the capital, moving to Davao from Manila.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Where is the Bureau of Immigration office in Davao City?
- The Davao Immigration District Office sits on the 2nd floor of NCCC-Victoria Plaza along J.P. Laurel Avenue in Barangay 19-B, Bajada, open 8 AM to 5 PM on weekdays. Contact numbers are (082) 228-6488 and davao.do@immigration.gov.ph. Several expat blogs still place it on Quimpo Boulevard, C.M. Recto Street, or at Gaisano Mall. Check the BI office directory at immigration.gov.ph before you travel.
- How much does it cost to stay in Davao for a year on a tourist visa?
- Roughly PHP 29,000 to PHP 43,000 for the first 12 months if you extend in two-month steps at BI Davao. That covers the PHP 3,030 visa waiver to day 59, about PHP 23,880 in extensions across the rest of the year, the USD 50 ACR I-Card, and exit paperwork. Extending one month at a time costs several thousand pesos more over the same period.
- Can I get the six-month visa extension at BI Davao?
- No. The Long-Stay Visitor Visa Extension, which costs PHP 11,500 for non-visa-required nationals and covers six months in one transaction, is filed only at the BI Main Office in Intramuros, Manila. From Davao you either fly to Manila for it or keep paying the two-month rate locally, which works out a few thousand pesos more expensive per six months.
- Do I have to go to Makati to apply for an SRRV?
- Not for the paperwork. The Philippine Retirement Authority runs a Mindanao satellite office at A3 G/F Plaza de Luisa Building on Ramon Magsaysay Avenue in Davao City, reachable at (082) 224-5691 or davao@pra.gov.ph, which handles enquiries and document submission. Card issuance and oath-taking are still handled by the Makati head office.
- What does the 13(a) marriage visa cost at BI Davao?
- PHP 11,470 in visa fees for the principal applicant, PHP 8,370 for a dependent below 16 and PHP 7,870 for one below 14, plus a USD 50 ACR I-Card charged at the BSP rate on the day fees are assessed. The Davao office quotes 2 to 3 months end to end, because the Board of Commissioners in Manila approves the probationary visa and its agenda runs every other week.
