Philippines Suspends Visa Upon Arrival Service for Chinese Nationals

Philippines' Bureau of Immigration (BI) has confirmed that the visa upon arrival (VUA) service has been temporarily suspended for Chinese nationals.

The decision, made over concerns of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), follows the lockdown of several cities in China in an effort to contain the virus.

“The Civil Aeronautics Board has already suspended direct flights from Wuhan province,” said BI Commissioner, Jaime Morente. “We are now temporarily suspending the issuance of VUA for Chinese nationals to slow down the influx of group tours.”

The VUA service is often used by Chinese tour groups, and many other nationalities, visiting Philippines as it saves the hassle of having to get a visa before travelling.

A similar move was done by Taiwan Immigration authorities, who, according to an article by the Taipei Times, cancelled permits for 429 people in 24 tour groups from Wuhan, China.

orente has however clarified that there is no order barring Chinese nationals from entering the country.

“We have not received any directive imposing policy changes on Chinese nationals,” said Morente. “But we are taking this proactive measure to slow down travel, and possibly help prevent the entry of the 2019-nCov into the country.”

“It is the Bureau of Quarantine who conducts monitoring of arriving passengers to see if they are manifesting symptoms of the corona virus. They have put up measures in place to strictly check arriving passengers,” Morente added. “They have been very active in giving out information to frontline port personnel on how to prevent the transmission of the virus, given the risk of direct contact with possible carriers.”

At press time, 106 people had died of the virus in China and there were 4,535 confirmed nCoV cases in the country and 52 outside of China.

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