BI: 344 foreign investors received job visas

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Immigration (BI) yesterday reported that 344 foreign investors from 39 countries availed themselves of the agency’s job visa program since April last year.

In a statement, BI Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said majority or 141 of the foreign investors who applied for the Special Visa for Employment Generation (SVEG) program were Korean nationals.

From the SVEG program, the foreign investors through 234 companies hired a total of 34,446 full-time and regular workers. The BI earned P6.7 million in immigration fees.

BI Spokesman Floro Balato Jr. said the other SVEG applicants were 43 Chinese, 27 Americans, 19 Taiwanese, 16 Britons, 15 Indians, 11 Japanese, 11 Australians, eight Malaysians, six Singaporeans, and four Germans.

Other nationalities who availed themselves of the job visa were Austrian, Bangladeshi, Belgian, Danish, Dutch, Egyptian, El Salvadorian, Finnish, Greek, Hong Kong nationals, Indonesian, Iranian, Israeli, Italian, Jordanian, Lebanese, New Zealander, Pakistani, Polish, Sudanese, Swedish, Swiss, Syrian, Thailander and a Yemen.

Under the rules, the SVEG is issued to a foreign businessman or expatriate who has investments or is employed in a business enterprise that employs 10 or more regular, full-time Filipino workers.

The visa entitles the holder to indefinitely stay in the Philippines so long as his investment or employment in enterprise subsists.