5,000 Japanese participate in 2017 annual report of aliens

March 9, 2017

A total of 5,133 Japanese nationals participated in the 2017 annual report of aliens that was implemented by the Bureau of Immigration (BI).

In a statement on Thursday, the BI said Japanese comprised the fifth largest number of aliens which took part in the annual report which ended last March 3.

"Most of these Japanese nationals are either holders of permanent visa due to their marriage to Filipinos or are expatriates employed by multinational firms operating in the Philippines," said an employee from the BI alien registration division which is in-charge of the annual project.

According to BI Commissioner Jaime Morente, this year's annual report drew a record high turnout of more than 106,000 foreign nationals.

Morente said at the close of office hours last March 3, a total of 106,036 foreigners appeared at various field offices of the bureau in compliance with their annual reportorial obligation.

The annual report of aliens is implemented yearly by the BI pursuant to the 1950 Alien Registration Act that requires all foreigners registered with the bureau to appear in person at the nearest immigration field office and pay their annual report fees.

According to Morente, this year’s turnout exceeded by more than 11.61 percent the 95,007 aliens who turned out for last year’s annual report.

Morente attributed the high number of registrants to the introduction of an online system in 2015 where alien registrants could file their application for annual report via the Internet.

As expected, 28,189 Chinese nationals topped the list of the registrants, followed by 10,980 Americans, 8,799 Koreans, 6, 680 Taiwanese, and 5,133 Japanese.

They were followed in the top 10 list by 2,886 Britons, 1,929 Germans, 1,615 Australians, and 1,332 Indonesians.

Statistics also showed bulk of registrants are holders of pre-arranged working visas who numbered 24,514 and native-born aliens who totaled 18,301.

The third highest registrants were 15,765 foreign students who were issued study visas, followed by 14,060 aliens who became permanent residents here by reason of their marriage to Philippine citizens.

Also in the list are 7,329 former illegal aliens who applied for amnesty under the 1995 alien social integration act and 4,094 former Filipinos who applied for permanent residence in the land of their birth.

Nearly half of the registrants reported to the BI main office in Intramuros, Manila while the others appeared in other immigration field offices such as those in Cebu, Makati, SM-North Edsa, SM Aura mall, Davao, Clark, Baguio, Subic, and Dagupan. DMS