Philippines 13C Visa: Which Children Qualify, the BI Checklist, and What Happens When a Parent's Immigrant Visa Ends

What the Philippines 13C visa is: the Section 13(c) non-quota immigrant status for children

The 13C visa is the non-quota immigrant visa under Section 13(c) of the Philippine Immigration Act, granted to a child born after a parent received an immigrant visa. Section 13 of Commonwealth Act No. 613, the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940, lists several classes of "non-quota immigrants" who may be admitted without regard to the annual numerical limit per nationality. Paragraph (c) reads: "A child born subsequent to the issuance of the immigration visa of the accompanying parent, the visa not having expired." You can read the full text in the CA 613 PDF on the Bureau of Immigration website.

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) calls the transaction "Conversion to non-quota immigrant visa of a child born subsequent to the issuance of immigrant visa of the accompanying parent" and has a dedicated 13C page. Three points frame everything else:

• It is a conversion. The child is already in the Philippines under some other status and applies to convert to 13(c). The 2026 Citizen's Charter states that the applicant must be inside the country when the application is filed.
• It is filed at the BI main office. The main office is in Intramuros, Manila. The Legal Division handles the case, a hearing officer reviews it, and the Board of Commissioners approves or denies it.
• It sits beside the other Section 13 categories. 13(a) covers the spouse and unmarried children under 21 of a Philippine citizen; 13(b) covers a child born abroad during a temporary trip by a mother who is a permanent resident; 13(e) covers a permanent resident returning from a temporary visit abroad. Each letter is a different group of people.

Is 13C permanent residence? The Act treats Section 13 entrants as immigrants, as opposed to the nonimmigrants of Section 9, such as temporary visitors, students and pre-arranged employees. So 13(c) is an immigrant visa, not a temporary one. We could not find anything on the official pages that sets out, specifically for 13(c), how long the status lasts, how many years the ACR I-Card is issued for, or what the child must do to keep it. Go by the BI's approval order and current rules. Do not assume the one-year probationary period of 13A applies: the 2026 Charter labels only the 13(A) entry "Probationary For One Year," and the 13(C) entry carries no such label.

People searching for what a 13C visa is "for" sometimes confuse it with a work or student visa. It deals with the child's right to reside. What the child needs later for work or university is a separate question; see what dependent children can switch to before age 21. For the parent's own marriage-based status, see the 13A marriage visa guide.

Which children qualify: three conditions, and why a Filipino parent changes everything

The child must be born after a parent's immigrant visa was issued, that visa must not have expired, and that parent must be a foreign national. Broken down, the law and the BI's wording give three conditions:

1. Born afterwards. The 13C page describes the applicant as "a child who was born after the issuance of an immigrant visa to the accompanying parent." The parent's immigrant visa comes first, then the child. A child born before the parent's visa was granted does not fall under this paragraph.
2. The parent's visa has not expired. The statute says "the visa not having expired." The BI checklist also asks for a copy of the accompanying parent's passport bio page and latest admission showing a valid authorized stay.
3. The accompanying parent is a foreigner. The "Who may avail" line in the 2026 Charter refers to a child born after the issuance of an immigrant visa of an accompanying parent who is a foreign national.

If one parent is a Filipino citizen, 13C is usually beside the point. Article IV, Section 1(2) of the 1987 Constitution makes citizens of "those whose fathers or mothers are citizens of the Philippines" (Article IV text). Such a child is Filipino by blood and needs no foreigner's visa at all. The reverse is also true: being born in the Philippines does not make a child Filipino, so a child of two foreign parents stays a foreign national, which is exactly why categories like 13C exist. See what nationality a child born in the Philippines has.

The Charter also attaches a nationality list, and you should ask about it. Under the 13(C) entry, the 2026 Citizen's Charter says "Applicants must be a national of the following countries," followed by a list laid out like the reciprocity list in the 13(A) entry. When we checked in September 2026, the list included Hong Kong SAR and Macau SAR but not mainland China. The Charter does not explain how the list operates for 13(C). Whether a child holding a mainland Chinese passport can use 13C is a question for the BI Legal Division; do not rely on someone else's experience.

Also confirm that the parent's visa really is an immigrant visa. Mainland Chinese nationals married to Filipinos receive a TRV (often called MCL in the trade), not 13A; see why some spouses get 13A and others only a TRV. Where a parent holds a TRV or another long-term visa, the official pages do not say whether it can serve as the "immigration visa" that Section 13(c) refers to, so get the BI's answer first.

13C, native-born registration or 13B: where the child was born and whether they have travelled

For a foreign child of permanent-resident parents, the BI has at least three different routes, so match your child to the right one before gathering documents. All three appear in the 2026 Citizen's Charter:

The native-born documents tell you who that route is for. A "No Travel Record" stamp and an affidavit of no previous travel abroad point to a child born in the Philippines who has never left the country and is no older than five. If the child has already travelled, is older than five, or was born abroad, look at 13(B) or 13(C) instead. Which one fits depends on the child's place and date of birth, travel history and the date the parent's visa was issued, and the BI counter has the final say.

Three things are worth doing soon after the birth. First, get the PSA birth certificate early, because a late registration holds up every later step; see how to fix a late birth registration. Second, get the child a passport from your own country. Third, register the child for an ACR I-Card, since the registration duty applies regardless of age; see ACR I-Cards for children and dependents. For the full chain of documents around a birth in the Philippines, see having a baby in the Philippines as a foreigner.

If the child is a Chinese national, household registration back in China runs through the Chinese embassy or consulates and is a separate track from BI status. Run the two in parallel; the order of steps is in registering a Philippine-born child in China. Families from other countries should likewise check their own embassy's registration rules early, because a child's foreign passport is usually a precondition for any BI filing.

13C visa requirements: the six items on the BI checklist and how foreign documents must be prepared

BI Form V-I-009 lists six required items, built around the parent's valid status, the child's birth certificate and the child's BI clearance. This is the checklist linked from the 13C page, as checked in September 2026:

1. A letter request addressed to the Commissioner from the accompanying parent;
2. The completed Consolidated General Application Form (CGAF, BI Form CGAF-001-Rev 2);
3. A photocopy of the accompanying parent's passport bio page and latest admission with valid authorized stay;
4. The child's birth certificate;
5. A BI Clearance Certificate;
6. An original or certified true copy of a Bureau of Quarantine medical clearance, if the child is a national of a country listed in Annex A of Operations Order No. SBM-14-059-A and arrived in the Philippines on or after June 2014.

The general instructions printed above the checklist matter just as much. Fill in everything in capital letters using English characters and write N/A rather than leaving a blank. Prepare the CGAF in two originals: one goes with the application, the second goes in a separate folder for the ACR I-Card. Affidavits must be notarized originals. Philippine civil registry documents, such as birth certificates, must be PSA-issued originals. Foreign documents must be authenticated by the Philippine foreign service post with jurisdiction, with an English translation if they are in another language. Everything goes, in checklist order, into a legal-size (8½ x 14 inch) folder. The 2026 Charter now also accepts foreign birth certificates that are apostilled by the issuing country's authorities; see how apostille works. For PSA copies, see getting PSA documents.

The Charter adds a few more details. The 13C page links an "Additional Information on Applicant's children" form to use if needed. The file should include the passport bio page, visa implementation page and latest admission of the petitioner or immigrant mother, as the Charter words it. At fee assessment the child must have at least 20 days of valid authorized stay left. Children aged 4 and above have their photo and fingerprints captured. If a representative files, attach a copy of their BI accreditation ID, or an original special power of attorney for each applicant with a copy of the attorney-in-fact's valid government ID. The original passport is scanned at the receiving counter and handed back, and both applicant and parent should bring original passports to any evaluation or interview.

The BI clearance has to be in hand before you file; see how to get a BI clearance certificate. The checklist notes that the BI may ask for further documents, so check the version on the website on the day you file.

How the application runs: filing at the main office, hearing, Board approval, visa implementation and the ACR I-Card

A 13C application goes through pre-screening, payment, a hearing and a Board of Commissioners decision at the BI main office in Manila, followed by visa implementation and the ACR I-Card. The BI's 13C page lists ten steps:

1. Get the CGAF from the Public Information and Assistance Unit on the ground floor of the main office, or download it from the BI website;
2. Submit the documents for pre-screening to the Central Receiving Unit, or to the frontline staff of another BI office able to process this transaction;
3. Get the Order of Payment Slip;
4. Pay the fees;
5. Submit a copy of the official receipt;
6. Attend the hearing on the date and at the venue shown on the receipt, along with image and fingerprint capture;
7. Go to the image and fingerprint counter of the Alien Registration Division and submit the ACR I-Card requirements;
8. Check the BI website to see whether the application has been approved;
9. If approved, submit the passport for visa implementation;
10. Once the ACR I-Card is approved, claim it.

The 2026 Charter fills in the internal steps. The Central Receiving Unit forwards the file to the Legal Division's visa supervising officer, who assigns it by raffle to a hearing officer. The hearing officer checks compliance with documentary and procedural requirements, assesses the applicant's qualification, verifies documents with other BI offices and government agencies, and drafts an order recommending approval or denial. The order goes through the Chief of the Legal Division to the Board of Commissioners, made up of the Commissioner and 3 Deputy Commissioners, and the result is published by the Management Information Systems Division. The Charter assigns an internal processing time to each step; treat the total as whatever the current Charter says, and expect requests for more documents, rescheduled hearings and the Board's meeting calendar to stretch it. Fees for the visa and the ACR I-Card are whatever the BI currently publishes, so we do not list figures here.

Two things cause most scheduling trouble. First, the child's status must not lapse while you wait. The Charter requires at least 20 days of valid stay at fee assessment, so extend the child's current temporary status first; our visa extension service can help with that. Second, the hearing officer may ask for more. The Charter notes that the Legal Division may require additional supporting documents whenever it considers them necessary, so someone in the family needs to be able to respond quickly.

A few weeks left on the child's temporary stay, and the parents' papers are split between two countries? Send Yixing your family's documents and get a filing timeline first →

Yixing is a private consultancy registered in the Philippines and has no affiliation with the BI. We can check documents, plan the timeline, accompany you to filing and the hearing, and follow the order through to the card. Approval is for the Board of Commissioners to decide, and we do not promise outcomes. Reach us through our visa and residency service.

If the parent's 13A is cancelled, downgraded or the family leaves: what happens to the child's 13C

The official pages do not say what happens to a 13C child when the parent's status ends, so confirm it case by case with the BI, ideally before the parent's status changes. We went through the 13C page, the checklist, the 2026 Charter and the text of CA 613 and found no rule stating that a child's 13(c) status automatically ends, or automatically survives, when the parent's immigrant visa is cancelled. Two things are clear: the statute builds "the visa not having expired" into the definition of 13(c), and the BI checks the accompanying parent's valid authorized stay when it accepts the application. The child's status is assessed together with the parent's, so a change on the parent's side means the child's position needs checking again.

Common situations and what to do:

• Divorce or annulment affecting the parent's 13A. For the parent, see 13A status after divorce or annulment. For the child, write to the BI Legal Division asking how the child's status will be treated, then decide whether the child needs a separate status.
• The parent's visa is cancelled or downgraded. Get the actual order issued against the parent and see whether it mentions dependants. Then check the child's ACR I-Card and annual report status separately. If the parent's name has also been placed on a BI list, that affects travel in and out of the country; see the difference between an ALO and a BLO.
• The whole family is leaving. Foreigners usually need to deal with downgrading and exit clearance before departure, and the child's paperwork is easy to miss; see whether to downgrade before leaving. If the family is moving to China, the child's Chinese visa is covered in applying for China Q1 and Q2 family visas from the Philippines.
• The child wants to stay. Look for a status that does not depend on the parent, such as a student visa for a university student or a work visa for someone with a real job offer; see the options for children coming of age. If the other parent holds a different visa, see dependent visas for spouses and children.

Whatever the situation, do not wait for the child's card to expire or for an airport officer to ask. As soon as there is a sign that a parent's status may change, such as marriage problems, a request for more documents on the parent's visa or trouble with a sponsor, list every family member's documents in one table and check each expiry date and each dependency.

When a parent's status moves, the child's card, annual report and exit clearance all need recalculating. Let Yixing map out how your family's statuses depend on each other →

For marital disputes, custody or deportation proceedings, consult a licensed lawyer about your situation; this article is not legal advice. All fees, validity periods and processing times mentioned here are subject to what the BI currently publishes.