AEP or 9G First? The Correct Order for a Philippine Work Visa

AEP or 9G first: apply for the AEP first, then the 9G

The AEP always comes first, and the reason is jurisdictional rather than customary. DOLE answers one question — should this job be given to a foreign national at all? BI answers a different one — should this particular person be granted residence status in order to hold it? You cannot answer the second question before the first is closed.

• DOLE issues the AEP and reviews the position. Is there a Filipino candidate who could fill it, is the employer a legitimately operating entity, does the declared salary match the declared role.
• BI issues the 9G and reviews the person. Passport validity, medical clearance, police clearance, the employer corporate file, and finally the visa implementing order plus the ACR I-Card.

The chain therefore runs: employer corporate file assembled, position advertised for the labour market test, AEP filed, AEP card released, 9G petition filed, biometrics and interview, approval and visa stamping, ACR I-Card issued. Skipping straight from the corporate file to the 9G petition gets you a refusal to accept at the window, not even a docket number.

Application mechanics for the permit itself are covered separately in the AEP guide, and the combined framework in 9G work visa and AEP overview.

The complete 9G route, from the AEP through to the visa, is laid out on Yixing’s Philippines 9G work visa page.

AEP vs 9G: what is the difference between the two

In one line: the AEP says you may do this job in the Philippines, the 9G says you may live here in order to do it. One is an employment permit, the other is a residence visa. Holding only one of them is not lawful employment.

• Issuing authority. The AEP is released by the DOLE Regional Office with jurisdiction over the employer. The 9G is approved by BI head office in Intramuros, Manila. The two systems are separately numbered and do not cross-validate each other automatically.
• Physical form. The AEP is a photo card. The 9G is an implementing order stamped into the passport, accompanied by an ACR I-Card.
• Validity. An AEP is normally issued to match the employment contract — commonly one year, up to a maximum of a few years. A first 9G is typically shorter and, on renewal, is tied to the remaining AEP validity. In practice the AEP validity governs how long a 9G can be granted for, which many employers only discover at renewal time.
• Binding. Both documents are tied to a specific employer and a specific position. Changing companies means moving both, covered in changing employers on a 9G.
• Who files. The AEP applicant is legally the employer. The 9G is filed by the employer as petitioner with the employee as beneficiary. An individual cannot self-file either one.

A third document is frequently confused with these two. The Special Work Permit and the Provisional Work Permit are short-term BI work authorisations. Neither is a visa and neither replaces the AEP — see SWP and provisional work permit.

Philippine work visa process: the full eight-step order

Eight steps, the first four at DOLE and the last four at BI, with no legitimate way to jump the middle. Work down the list and you will not double back.

• Step 1 — employer corporate file. SEC registration or DTI certificate, latest General Information Sheet, Mayor's Permit, BIR Certificate of Registration, and recent financial statements or tax returns. Neither agency will engage without these.
• Step 2 — labour market test. Current AEP rules require the employer to advertise the position locally and allow a window in which Filipino nationals may object. This is dead time that cannot be bought down. The exact format and duration follow the current DOLE issuance and the practice of your regional office.
• Step 3 — file the AEP. Submitted to the DOLE Regional Office covering the employer address, with the employment contract, passport copy, corporate documents, job description and fees.
• Step 4 — release of the AEP card. Only now do you meet the threshold for filing a 9G.
• Step 5 — file the 9G petition. Employer as petitioner, filed at BI with the AEP, passport, medical clearance, corporate documents, BI forms and fees.
• Step 6 — biometrics and interview. The employee appears in person for fingerprints and photograph; a short interview may be scheduled.
• Step 7 — approval and stamping. The BI board approves and the implementing order is stamped into the passport.
• Step 8 — ACR I-Card. Collect the alien registration card, then complete the annual report every year between January and March, explained in the BI annual report guide.

Two sequencing details are worth planning around. First, the employer file in step 1 is used twice, by two agencies with different tolerances, so assemble one clean master set at the start rather than chasing documents twice. Second, the employee only needs to be physically present from step 6 onward, which means an overseas hire does not have to sit in the country burning tourist visa extensions through the whole DOLE phase. Companies that plan the travel around step 6 rather than step 1 routinely save the employee several weeks of unproductive waiting and several rounds of extension fees.

Total elapsed time is not the sum of the parts — holidays, queues and document corrections all stretch it. The 9G segment is broken down in how long a 9G takes.

2026 update: Steps 2 and 3 above still describe the old regional-office practice. Under DOLE Department Order No. 248-B, Series of 2026, AEP functions are centralized at the Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) in the DOLE Central Office, which also runs the publication and labour market test directly; the regional offices stopped accepting new and renewal applications from 9 June 2026. From 3 September 2026, applications are accepted only through DOLE's official online portal, and email, hard-copy and walk-in filings are refused. The order itself has not changed: AEP first, then 9G. What changed is how step 3 is filed and how you follow up. Under a zero-contact policy, status questions go only to the email address named in the advisory, and only applicants with a confirmed card-release schedule or an official notice to submit additional documents are let into the office. See AEP online filing in 2026.

Do I need an AEP before a 9G visa? What BI actually checks at intake

Yes. The AEP is on the no-document-no-filing tier of the 9G checklist, not the tier you can supplement later. Intake is a formal completeness check; a missing item is refused at the counter and no case number is generated.

HR managers ask three variants of the same question, and the answer does not change:

• Can we file the 9G while the AEP is still pending, just to hold a place in the queue? No. Without a released AEP card the filing fails the completeness check.
• Will the AEP official receipt or acknowledgement stub do? Counter practice varies by office and by period, but treating this as a normal route is a poor bet — if it is refused you lose an entire queue cycle. The safe approach remains: card in hand, then file. Whether any accommodation exists on a given day is a matter of BI current intake practice.
• Our role is AEP-exempt, so we can skip it? Exemption is not the same as filing nothing. Common exclusion and exemption categories — permanent residents, personnel seconded by foreign governments or international organisations, directors who do not participate in day-to-day management, and others — still require you to obtain a Certificate of Exclusion or Certificate of Exemption from DOLE first. That certificate is the document you hand BI in place of the AEP. The applicable list is whatever DOLE currently publishes; do not rely on second-hand summaries.

One more common misreading: holding the AEP does not mean the employee may start work. The AEP resolves the position, not the person's status. Until the 9G is approved the employee is still on a tourist or temporary status, and the legitimate way to start early is a Provisional Work Permit — not simply beginning work because the permit came through.

Can you apply for the AEP and 9G at the same time?

The filings cannot overlap, but the preparation can — and that is the only real place to compress the timeline.

Work that can be completed while the AEP is pending:

• Medical clearance at a BI-accredited clinic. The report has a shelf life, so do not do it too early either.
• Police clearance from the home country, plus consular legalisation or an apostille. This chain alone runs for weeks and should be started first, not last. See apostille and consular authentication.
• Passport renewal if remaining validity is short, since it directly limits how long a visa can be granted.
• Refreshing corporate documents. GIS, Mayor's Permit and financial statements all renew annually and are the usual cause of last-minute delay.
• The Provisional Work Permit, which can be started around the 9G filing rather than after approval.

Only two hard serial points exist: the labour market test window, and the moment the AEP card is physically released. The first is a legal waiting period, the second is BI's intake threshold. Any provider promising simultaneous processing is either relabelling preparation work as parallel adjudication, or promising something they do not control. No agency can guarantee an approval or an approval date.

A note on expectations: Philippine agency timelines quoted to you are almost always the best case. Building a start date around the best case will fail more often than not; build in slack and treat the AEP release as your midpoint, not your finish line.

Employee still abroad vs already in the Philippines: two different sequences

The order of the two permits never changes. What changes is the status the employee holds while waiting, and whether they can lawfully start. Decide this before anything else.

• Case A — employee still overseas. The company runs steps 1 to 4 in the Philippines while the employee handles medicals, police clearance legalisation and passport renewal at home. The employee flies in once the AEP is secured and goes straight into the BI phase. This minimises dead time in-country but pushes back the start date.
• Case B — employee already here on a tourist visa. Convenient for biometrics and counter appearances, but the tourist visa must be extended continuously until the 9G is approved, and a single lapse becomes an overstay. Extension mechanics are in 9A tourist visa extension, and the full conversion route in converting a tourist visa to a work visa.

Case B carries two costs people forget to model:

• When work may lawfully begin. Providing substantive services to a Philippine employer on a tourist visa before the 9G is approved carries exposure for both sides. Either obtain a Provisional Work Permit or move the start date.
• Downgrade and exit. If the plan is abandoned mid-way, or the 9G is later cancelled, you deal with visa downgrading and the exit clearance certificate — see downgrading before departure and ECC exit clearance.

Five ways employers get the order wrong, and how to recover

The cost of a wrong sequence is almost entirely time, and the time is paid by the employee who is waiting. These five account for most of it.

• Filed the 9G first and got refused. There is no shortcut back — you return to DOLE and start from the labour market test. The lesson is to have your provider tick off the checklist item by item in writing before filing, not verbally.
• Job title on the AEP does not match the 9G paperwork. Operations Manager on one and General Manager on the other will draw a query or a correction order. Position, company name and salary must be identical across both files, which means fixing the wording at the employment contract stage.
• AEP secured but the tourist visa lapsed while waiting. Overstay penalties accrue and can complicate later filings; see overstay fines and penalties.
• Filed the 9G with only a few months left on the AEP. The visa grant is tied to the remaining permit validity, so you receive a short visa and immediately face a renewal. File the 9G as soon as the AEP is released.
• Employee already working with no 9G and no PWP. Both employer and employee are exposed if checked. The fix is to obtain the provisional permit and adjust the arrangement immediately, not to keep going.

A softer failure mode: outsourcing the whole thing to the cheapest quote and discovering mid-way that the provider only covers one segment. Before engaging anyone, confirm which of the eight steps are included, whether government fees are collected separately, and what happens if a filing is refused — see how to read visa agency pricing.

Two wasted filings to the wrong order already? → AEP and 9G processed back-to-back

How long the whole thing takes and where the money goes

From assembling the employer file to a stamped 9G, plan in months rather than weeks, and treat the AEP release as roughly the midpoint. Actual duration swings widely with regional office queues, the advertising window, correction orders and public holidays, so do not copy any fixed figure you read online — including from providers.

The cost structure, unlike the amounts, is stable:

• DOLE side. AEP filing fee scaled by the number of years granted, publication-related costs, card production fee.
• BI side. Petition fee, implementing order fee, visa issuance fee, ACR I-Card fee, express lane and courier charges where applicable.
• Medical and clearances. Accredited clinic examination, home-country police clearance plus apostille or consular legalisation, and translation.
• Professional fees. Agency or law firm service fees, which are separate money from government charges. Always ask for the two to be itemised apart.
• Hidden costs. Tourist visa extensions during the wait, accommodation and salary for an employee who cannot yet work, and the business impact of a delayed start. This bucket is often larger than the official fees.

Statutory fees are revised by circular, so the current published DOLE and BI schedules govern. Any quotation containing the words guaranteed approval or guaranteed release date should be discarded on sight — the decision belongs to the agencies and no third party can underwrite it. To model the full cost of an expatriate hire, see total cost of employing someone in the Philippines.