Disclaimer: All information below is based on our personal experience and it is still best to do more research depending on your case to ensure you have everything you need.
There are tons of different and misleading information on the internet, and we struggled big time figuring it out before we were able to leave the country for the first time after he got his TRV.
Let me tell you our situation so you can see if this post has what you are looking for before you move forward so I won’t waste your time.
- He is staying the Philippines for over 6 months and he just got his TRV
- We are leaving the country for the first time using his TRV visa
- He has visa order and I-card
After our first departure here, we had flown more flights and I will tell you about that also so if you have TRV visa and you want to depart the Philippines even if you are not staying for over 6 months, this post will be suitable for you also.
Requirements for Departure under TRV Visa
Make sure to bring all your regular travel documents plus your TRV I-card and your visa order. The visa order is the paper that shows you were approved on an I-card. You will need this to get the SRC & ECC from immigration before departure.
SRC & ECC & Travel Tax
SRC means Special Return Certificate while ECC means Emigration Clearance Certificate. They said it is different but, in our case, we just paid for ECC and listed on the receipt is SRC as well so both are being paid together. Crazy coz we roam around the whole airport looking for where to get this paper, turns out it is just inside the immigration hall. When you enter immigration, there is a small booth on the right side of the entrance inside and you just have to pay for the ECC and then you can proceed regular departure clearance in the immigration.
Every time you leave the country, you have to pay ECC. This is kind of ridiculous because we paid ECC Mar 2025 when we went to Hong Kong which is our first travel after getting his TRV visa. We return after 2 weeks, and then, a week later, Apr 2025, we travel again to Malaysia, and he paid another ECC for a little lesser cost, then we return a week later and then we have our travel to Bali by May 2025 and yes, you guessed it, he paid again!
Basically, every time you leave the country, you have to pay ECC.
Also, it is worth mentioning that he is also not spared with Ph Travel tax anymore. He was asked to pay as well since he is holding TRV visa.
How Much is ECC & Travel Tax?
1st departure ECC Fee – Php 2,880
2nd departure ECC Fee – Php 2,170
3rd departure ECC Fee – Php 2,170
And the travel tax is Php 1,620
The first departure is the most expensive and then it got lesser on your next travels.
Returning back to the Philippines
So, it’s just worth adding here but returning to the Philippines is not really complicated, its just like you’re returning to your home country, not much questions, just always keep your TRV I-card ready and the ECC handy just in case they look for it.
Anyway, that’s all I have for this topic. Just some information for you because this is one of the most misleading information in the internet so, here you go!