MANILA, Philippines – Citing its purpose to “improve long-term operations,” the Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) has suspended the Philippine e-Visa system, which is being beta tested at Philippine foreign service posts in China.
In a statement on Friday, December 1, the DFA said it was conducting a “reassessment” of the system to introduce improvements, “including for its payment processing systems.”
A previous report by the DFA announced that “operations of the Philippines’ e-Visa formula in China are temporarily suspended until further notice. “Although this post is no longer on the DFA website, it is still cached on Google at the time of publication.
With the e-visa formula suspended, the FDFA said applicants in China contact the nearest Philippine embassy or consulate general in order to submit their visa application.
In a meeting with the tourism sector organization Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) in January, Marcos directed government agencies to work on e-visas for key markets: China, India, South Korea and Japan.
The PSAC, an advisory framework formed by the Philippines’ business elite, called for Indian nationals to be included in the visa-on-arrival program and for the e-visa formula to be extended to nationals of China, India, South Korea, and Japan. .
The e-visa formula was introduced in August 2023 at the Philippine Consulate General (PCG) in Shanghai and there are plans to implement it in other parts of China.
The tourism sector welcomed the move, raising the desire to attract more Chinese tourists to the country. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 1. 7 million Chinese visitors came to the Philippines. As of mid-2023, the Philippines had approximately 137,822 arrivals from China during the year. – Rappler. com