MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 27, 2014) – The Philippines Bureau of Immigration said the implementation of the use of the new and simplified Arrival and Departure Cards at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport is successful.
It said foreigners and returning overseas Filipino workers are now finding the experience of traveling to and from the Philippines more pleasant than before.
Immigration Commissioner Siegfred Mison said there is no need for too much paperwork on the part of the travelers since most of the basic information of the passengers is already indicated in their e-passports anyway.
Mison asaid with less red tape and towards a more traveler-friendly immigration service at the country’s air and seaports, “we are moving towards the direction of paperless (immigration) processing.”
The new approach have eased crowding of passengers waiting in line to get their paperwork done and their passports stamped which was commonplace over the years.
Under the new system, only foreigners and Filipinos with immigrant status abroad are required to accomplish a simplified form of Arrival Card. Filipino passport holders, who are either on temporary vacation or OFWs abroad, are no longer required to fill out the card, according to Mison.
On the other hand, Departure Cards are only required to be filled out by Filipino passport holders. Foreigners need not do the same. With the new Arrival and Departure Cards, travelers’ personal information such as date of birth and sex, among others, are already indicated in their passports and are therefore no longer required.
The simplified forms of the new Arrival and Departure Cards scheme have eliminated the cumbersome paperwork that had beset travelers arriving at and departing from Manila and other ports throughout the country.
The new passport sized Arrival and Departure Cards are color-coded, in blue for arrival and red for departure. The new system is expected to cut the almost 16 million sheets of paper that passengers used in 2013 by half.
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