Philippines offers visa extension for international tourists stranded in airport incident

Foreign citizens affected by flight delays or cancellations from 1 January will be able to stay in the Philippines until 12 January. This is a new notice issued by the Philippine Immigration Service (BI) on 4 January to support passengers who missed their travel plans due to disruptions in the country's airport operations.

Philippine Immigration Director Norman Tansingco said that those whose visas and exit permits expire on or before New Year's Day will be extended until January 12 without additional fees and fines.

Many of the thousands of passengers stranded on Jan. 1 were foreigners due to the disruption of operations at Manila International Airport and other airports across the country, Chen said. The Manila International Airport Authority stated that the incident caused more than 280 international and domestic flights to be delayed, canceled or diverted to other airports in the region, affecting the travel of about 56000 passengers.

"Considering that many foreign citizens could not anticipate this during the scheduled flight, we issued this notice to help them reschedule their flights without worrying about overstaying," Chen said."

It is reported that foreign citizens only need to show their confirmed air tickets or boarding passes to show that their flight on January 1 was canceled, and they can be exempted from fines.