This is as factual a post you will find anywhere on the internet¹ about ‘Amendment of Temporary 13A Residency Visa to Permanent,’ if you apply from within the Philippines.
60 CommentsStephen Bentley - Writer
Category: Bacolod Life
Bacolod Life is a category composed of posts all about my expat life in Bacolod, Negros Island and the Philippines in general. Bacolod City is where I live and write. I love it here.
With one exception! The road culture!
It inspired me to write my first book “How To Drive Like an Idiot in Bacolod” – An Expat’s Experiences of Driving in the Philippines and How To Survive.
It is available on Amazon and other online retail stores. Click on the image below to take a free preview before you buy.
The report below my comments is reproduced from the Visayan Daily Star Facebook page. Bacolod City embarks on clearing illegal structures and it’s long overdue. Some of these illegal structures cause danger on the highways as they restrict the free flow of traffic and pedestrians. While admiring the ingenuity of some of the people involved in expanding their businesses, it should not take precedence over public safety. The reference to river banks must involve squatters who choose to live near a source of running water. That is understandable but once again, it causes problems. Firstly to the people themselves in their makeshift homes perched on the river banks. They are often flooded out during rainy season. Plus, these squatters deposit trash in the rivers including…
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It has just been announced the LBC Shipping Cart now open in the UK. That’s great news for a number of reasons especially if, like me, you hail from the UK and want goods shipping to your door in the Philippines. Marks & Spencers’ bigger mens’ sizes anyone? 🙂 If you need to know the details of the LBC Shipping Cart system, I have written about it before here and here. The LBC system has always delivered for me. Safe in transit, insured goods, tracking, great communication by email – all of those things and the price you pay includes any relevant taxes. They take care of the Customs declaration so it isn’t impeded on arrival in Manila. At the moment I await delivery of an…
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The Expat in Bacolod monthly newsletter is to be cancelled from February 2019. The updates from my author website will continue as usual. The main reason behind this is I had combined my subscriber list from here and my author website. The newsletter went out with a combined RSS Feed* showing posts from both sites. Sadly, the January newsletter looked a mess owing to some glitch with the RSS Feed. I am unable to fix it. Here’s how it will affect you if you are an existing subscriber to the newsletter. If you see my posts via WordPress and/or WordPress Reader – nothing changes If you only follow this blog via the newsletter, there will be a link back to this site from the author…
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Crafty Fartsy? Good question. Who are they or what is it? And what does it/they do? Luckily I’m in a position to tell you. It specializes in, and I quote from the Facebook page, ‘Personalized Products Free Personalization! Make any celebration better with personalized party supplies, gifts & more!’ It’s operated by my wife Zabrina. She works closely with good friend Shar Mayne who operates Michs N More Events and Coordination. It specializes in party events and poses this question with the solution: Planning a party and need something unique? We can help you, we are your one stop solution to your events and party. Together, they provide a one-stop solution for all party needs whether a birthday, Christening, small corporate functions etc. They are…
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That’s a good question: will they work? I’m talking about the new Bacolod bicycle lanes project. I hope they do partly because they have cost P62M (about 1.1M USD). That’s a lot of money to spend on some yellow lines painted on the road. However, the main reason I hope they work is to make the roads here safer for all users including cyclists and there are many of them in this country. You see the serious ones every day of the week clad in Lycra furiously pedaling away on their top-end machines. Here is one reason why the good intentions are immediately dismantled by selfish car drivers. Take a look at the picture below. You can immediately see what the problem is and how…
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Okay, I admit it, “near death experience” is a tad exaggerated, but it was damn scary! As most of you know, the first book I wrote was about the abysmal driving standards here in the Philippines. It’s available here if you want to read it. And all my other books in digital format may be purchased here at Books2Read. The paperback and audio book versions are only available through Amazon. Plug over! 🙂 So here is the story of the carabou., a big heavy water buffalo type thingy. It all happened on a weekend away. A wonderful trip south to Hinobaan,then onward to Bayawan and Siaton. The last named town is the most southerly point of Negros Island. We meaning me, my wife Zabrina,…
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Many murders have an element of tragedy but this is truly a tragic slaying in Silay. Silay City is only a fee kilometers from Bacolod so the entire expat community and thousands of locals were saddened to hear about this tragedy, I reproduce the story below as reported by Lifestyle Bacolod, a Facebook page. Let’s help Erik… Your P50s can go a long way. Erik was shot dead as 5-year-old son waits in vehicle in Silay City. The victim identified as Erik Norman Hendrickson, 57, of Wisconsin, United States, was declared dead on arrival at the Teresita Lopez Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City, according to Supt. Noel Polines, officer-in-charge of the Silay City Police Station. Hendrickson, who was temporarily residing at Loney Burgos in…
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This post was intended to be about Guimaras. However, seeing ninety-nine percent of our time was spent at the wonderful California Coral Beach Resort at Nueva Valencia, Guimaras, then it seemed right to me to blog mainly about the resort. Firstly, a little about Guimaras. It’s a gem of a small island situated between the two larger islands of Negros and Panay. Here is what one Philippines website has to say about the island: ABOUT GUIMARAS PROVINCE Guimaras Island varies from level to steeply sloping, with land elevation ranging from 0 to nearly 300 meters above sea level. Mt. Dinulman, located in Millan, Sibunag, has the highest elevation of 267 meters above mean sea level. A great part of the island’s land area is above…
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I am re-blogging this post as to where to find the best eats in Bacolod. It was originally blogged by Sigrid Says, a very good local Negrense blogger. The original post is reproduced below. I hope you find it useful whether you are a local or a visitor to Bacolod, the City of Smiles. I love my food and it struck me as a good idea to share Sigrid’s post as it were “blind.” In other words I will reproduce it first before reading it then at the foot of this post I will make my own observations. One observation I will make now is that I firmly believe if you are an expat living in the Philippines it helps if you like at least…
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