ECO-Friendly client Lourdes Savilleno and British hubby Richard Bagwell after their grand wedding in the UK in 2018! Stay safe guys!!! Manila, Philippines - The number of Filipinas marrying foreigners is on the rise.
This according to the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), which disclosed that in 2022 alone, the government agency recorded a drastic increase of around 30% in the number of Filipinas who registered for the compulsory seminar.
According to the CFO data, majority of the 6,500 applicants for the CFO seminar in 2020 were women. Of this figure, about 6,000 or 90 percent were women while the rest were men.
The CFO is the country’s premier institution tasked to protect the welfare of Filipinos planning to settle abroad by promoting policies, programs, and projects with migration and development as a framework for the strengthening and empowerment of the community of Filipinos overseas.
It mainly aims to protect the interests and rights of Filipinos who marry foreigners by informing and educating them of the culture, lifestyles and other details they need to know in order to have a safe, productive and comfortable life abroad with their foreign partners. Thus, a Filipina planning to get married with a foreigner and settle with him in his country of nationality to start a family of their own will need to undergo a seminar from the CFO.
The seminar aims to educate the applicant of the customs, traditions, values as well as the applicable laws and policies that might affect her in the country where she intends to settle and raise her family. These issues are discussed to them by qualified personnel professionally trained to talk about the respective countries where the applicant plans to live for good.
After the seminar, a CFO certificate is affixed on the applicant’s passport and this will be her ticket out of the country. There is a strict rule of “NO CFO STICKER, NO EXIT PASS” from the immigration officers manning the international airport.
ECO-Friendly explains that even if the Filipina planning to settle abroad has been issued a visa by the embassy of her partner’s country, either as a fiancée to marry her foreign partner or as a spouse to live and settle with her partner, she will not be allowed to leave the country without the CFO sticker.
As an example, a Filipina who plans to marry and settle with her British boyfriend in the United Kingdom (UK) is required under British laws, to file for a UK Fiancée Visa in order for her to celebrate their wedding in the UK. So she goes through the long and arduous task of filing for a UK Fiancée Visa.
This process can take as short as 90 days or as long as six months to one year, depending on whether the documents required to be filed are easily retrieved by the applicant.
After the long and stressful process of filing for a UK Fiancée Visa with the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) here in the Philippines, and the application is eventually approved, despite receiving a favourable decision and a UK Fiancée Visa is stamped on her Philippine passport, the applicant still needs to take the seminar with the CFO in order to obtain a clearance for her departure going to the UK. The same process is provided for those who applied for and successfully obtained the UK Spouse Visa and other UK Settlement Visa.
“She will be bumped off at our international airports if the CFO certificate is not affixed in her passport,” CFO Chairperson Romulo Arugay said in a television interview. He added, however, that this rule does not apply to Filipinas exiting the Philippines with a visit visa.
According to the CFO, the surge in the number of Filipinas marrying foreigners can be attributed to easy access to social media where dating sites abound. Other modes of meeting foreign partners according to the CFO data, is through matching, letters and introduction by family and friends.
There are a lot of international dating sites on the internet and another mandate of the CFO is to protect the Filipinas from possible offenders posing as legitimate bachelors looking for a Filipina partner.
To protect our kababayans from these wrongdoers, the CFO, in coordination with other Philippine government agencies maintains a database of delinquents with past records of crimes related to abuse and other similar dastardly acts.
In relation to this issue, the CFO conducts a one-on-one talk/interview with each applicant to ensure that the applicant’s partner is not an offender or a possible delinquent capable of carrying out felonious deeds or criminal acts.
Thus, the CFO, in coordination with our other government agencies such as the Bureau of Immigration (BI), Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) as well as the Philippine embassies abroad are truly the government’s partner in ensuring that our kababayans who settle in other countries such as the United Kingdom and other nations are safe, comfortable and will lead productive lives.
For more details and information on how ECO Immigration Consultancy can help make your dream of living and settling abroad a reality, please do not hesitate to contact us by clicking our contact box below.
This according to the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), which disclosed that in 2022 alone, the government agency recorded a drastic increase of around 30% in the number of Filipinas who registered for the compulsory seminar.
According to the CFO data, majority of the 6,500 applicants for the CFO seminar in 2020 were women. Of this figure, about 6,000 or 90 percent were women while the rest were men.
The CFO is the country’s premier institution tasked to protect the welfare of Filipinos planning to settle abroad by promoting policies, programs, and projects with migration and development as a framework for the strengthening and empowerment of the community of Filipinos overseas.
It mainly aims to protect the interests and rights of Filipinos who marry foreigners by informing and educating them of the culture, lifestyles and other details they need to know in order to have a safe, productive and comfortable life abroad with their foreign partners. Thus, a Filipina planning to get married with a foreigner and settle with him in his country of nationality to start a family of their own will need to undergo a seminar from the CFO.
The seminar aims to educate the applicant of the customs, traditions, values as well as the applicable laws and policies that might affect her in the country where she intends to settle and raise her family. These issues are discussed to them by qualified personnel professionally trained to talk about the respective countries where the applicant plans to live for good.
After the seminar, a CFO certificate is affixed on the applicant’s passport and this will be her ticket out of the country. There is a strict rule of “NO CFO STICKER, NO EXIT PASS” from the immigration officers manning the international airport.
ECO-Friendly explains that even if the Filipina planning to settle abroad has been issued a visa by the embassy of her partner’s country, either as a fiancée to marry her foreign partner or as a spouse to live and settle with her partner, she will not be allowed to leave the country without the CFO sticker.
As an example, a Filipina who plans to marry and settle with her British boyfriend in the United Kingdom (UK) is required under British laws, to file for a UK Fiancée Visa in order for her to celebrate their wedding in the UK. So she goes through the long and arduous task of filing for a UK Fiancée Visa.
This process can take as short as 90 days or as long as six months to one year, depending on whether the documents required to be filed are easily retrieved by the applicant.
After the long and stressful process of filing for a UK Fiancée Visa with the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) here in the Philippines, and the application is eventually approved, despite receiving a favourable decision and a UK Fiancée Visa is stamped on her Philippine passport, the applicant still needs to take the seminar with the CFO in order to obtain a clearance for her departure going to the UK. The same process is provided for those who applied for and successfully obtained the UK Spouse Visa and other UK Settlement Visa.
“She will be bumped off at our international airports if the CFO certificate is not affixed in her passport,” CFO Chairperson Romulo Arugay said in a television interview. He added, however, that this rule does not apply to Filipinas exiting the Philippines with a visit visa.
According to the CFO, the surge in the number of Filipinas marrying foreigners can be attributed to easy access to social media where dating sites abound. Other modes of meeting foreign partners according to the CFO data, is through matching, letters and introduction by family and friends.
There are a lot of international dating sites on the internet and another mandate of the CFO is to protect the Filipinas from possible offenders posing as legitimate bachelors looking for a Filipina partner.
To protect our kababayans from these wrongdoers, the CFO, in coordination with other Philippine government agencies maintains a database of delinquents with past records of crimes related to abuse and other similar dastardly acts.
In relation to this issue, the CFO conducts a one-on-one talk/interview with each applicant to ensure that the applicant’s partner is not an offender or a possible delinquent capable of carrying out felonious deeds or criminal acts.
Thus, the CFO, in coordination with our other government agencies such as the Bureau of Immigration (BI), Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) as well as the Philippine embassies abroad are truly the government’s partner in ensuring that our kababayans who settle in other countries such as the United Kingdom and other nations are safe, comfortable and will lead productive lives.
For more details and information on how ECO Immigration Consultancy can help make your dream of living and settling abroad a reality, please do not hesitate to contact us by clicking our contact box below.
Click this ECO-Friendly contact box for your queries
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