SRRV Documents, Filing Venue and Timing: the 6 Standard Items, the 6-Month Clock, and Where the Delay Really Sits

SRRV Documents Come in Two Sets: One for the PRA, One for Immigration

Short answer: there is no single checklist. There are two sets — one on the Philippine Retirement Authority side and one on the Bureau of Immigration side — and they serve entirely different purposes. Preparing them as one list is the most common way to waste money here, because you end up obtaining a time-limited certificate at the wrong moment.

The PRA side collects evidence for a substantive judgment: that you fall within its current admission basis, that the funds were remitted as required and are in place, and that your health and background stand up. The immigration side collects evidence for implementation: your current lawful stay, the retirement authority's recommendation, and identity documents that reconcile to the same person.

This page covers the immigration side's checklist and ownership, because that side has a citable public source: the BI's 2026 First Edition Citizen's Charter. The PRA side's practical entry points — where the offices are, which banks are designated, where the forms live — already have their own page and are mentioned here only in passing: PRA offices, designated banks and forms. The order in which the two legs run is also not repeated: the two legs and why the order cannot be reversed.

One more thing to be clear about: age thresholds, the form of the deposit, and the annual-fee basis follow whatever the PRA currently publishes. Different sources have circulated different versions in recent years, so have our team confirm the current basis for your case before you file. This page states no threshold figures and no processing days — the last section explains why "how long" cannot honestly be answered on this route. What the visa is and who it suits: the full SRRV guide.

Settle one boundary before you start collecting paper, or you will assemble the wrong list: Philippine law has no such thing as a "green card". At the document level, what Chinese-speaking readers call a green card or permanent residency breaks into four entirely separate checklists — immigrant visas under CA 613 (the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940), including 13(A), 13(G) and the Section 13 quota, handled by the Bureau of Immigration's Legal Division, call for chains of proof about relationship, former citizenship or prior residence; the SRRV, recommended by the Philippine Retirement Authority and implemented by the Bureau, calls for the set described below; the SIRV, endorsed by the Board of Investments, calls for proof of the investment and the path the funds travelled; and naturalisation is not an immigration filing at all but a court proceeding. Not a single item carries across the four, which is why many online "Philippine permanent residency document lists" are in fact the checklist for a different route. For how the four differ, see what a Philippine green card actually refers to and the four routes to Philippine permanent residence. Two points that must be stated plainly: buying property does not come with residency — a purchase confers no immigration status, see whether buying property grants status; and holding a long-stay status does not automatically let you work — the right to be employed comes from the visa category itself, not from how long you may stay.

Tick off the checklist below item by item first; the gaps become obvious and they decide what you obtain first. Ask for an itemised breakdown →

The 6 Standard Requirements, One by One: Why Each Is There and Where People Go Wrong

The 2026 First Edition Citizen's Charter lists 6 standard requirements for conversion to SRRV. Taken one at a time, each answers a specific question rather than padding a list.

• 1. Original passport. The charter's remark is precise: it must carry the latest arrival stamp or latest downgrading order, whichever is later, as proof of authorised stay as a temporary visitor or tourist. The question it answers is: is your presence here lawful right now? The usual failure is bringing an older book, or having the latest entry stamp in a different book — the chain of identity breaks and the item fails.
• 2. PRA application form. A certified true copy is required. The usual failure here is form rather than content: a photocopy you made yourself does not satisfy it. Where the forms come from is covered on the PRA-side page.
• 3. Medical clearance. The charter requires it from a PRA-accredited hospital or clinic, valid 6 months from the date of issuance. Two failure modes: choosing a non-accredited facility because it was nearer or cheaper, which voids the whole document; and obtaining it too early, so it expires while other steps run.
• 4. Police clearance. Required from your country of residence, also valid 6 months from issuance, and in original. The usual failure is the phrase "country of residence" itself — it is not necessarily your country of citizenship but the country you actually live in. Obtain it from the wrong country and you start again.
• 5. Inward remitted deposit or proof of investment. Note the charter's wording, "inward remitted". This is evidence that the money arrived as required, not a payment receipt. The usual failure is the remittance path: a remitter's name that does not reconcile to the applicant, an intermediary account, or funds landing somewhere they should not. Whether the money can later move: withdrawing or converting the deposit.
• 6. PRA endorsement letter. Required in original and bearing the "No Derogatory Record" stamp. It is the output of leg one and the entry ticket to leg two. The charter also notes one endorsement letter may cover a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 5 applications, which is why family cases must be assembled together.

Read as a set: item 1 asks whether you are lawfully here, items 2 to 4 ask whether you as a person pass, item 5 asks whether the money arrived, item 6 asks whether the retirement authority endorses you. A defect in the form of any one of them — not the substance — is enough to send the whole bundle back.

Four Situational Categories: What You Add Depends on Who You Are and How Long You Have Stayed

Beyond the 6 standard items, the charter lists situational requirements that apply only if you fall into a defined category. Place yourself first, and you will know how many items your checklist actually has.

Situation one: overstayed more than 6 months. The charter requires a tourist visa extension order, original or certified true copy. Its presence carries a message of its own: the charter anticipates overstays and provides a route through them. An overstay is not automatically terminal, but it adds a step, and that step has to be completed first.

Situation two: stayed in the Philippines over 30 days from the last date of admission. Add an original NBI clearance. Note that this stacks on top of item 4, the country-of-residence police clearance; it does not replace it. Anyone who has been here a while files both. What the NBI clearance is: the NBI clearance explained.

Situation three: applicants aged 70 and above are exempt from NBI. This exemption is written into the charter's remarks under the NBI item. It deserves its own line because it is the one age figure on this page that can safely be stated — it is not an admission threshold, it is a rule exempting a document. Older applicants are frequently asked to produce an NBI clearance anyway; having the charter's remark to hand gives them something to point to.

Situation four: those with a pension, and those bringing dependants. A pension requires proof of pension as a certified true copy; the thresholds attached to it follow the PRA's current publication and are not stated here. Bringing dependants requires the principal's approved SRRV — the word "approved" determines that dependants' papers sit behind the principal's in time — plus a marriage certificate for a joining spouse and a birth certificate for a joining child, PSA-issued where applicable and apostilled where issued abroad.

The charter also lists requirements specific to the option chosen, including the courtesy branch for former Filipino citizens, retired diplomats, retired officers of recognised international organisations and retired military personnel from treaty countries, each with its own proof: the courtesy category.

The 6-Month Window Is the Real Scheduler: It Decides What You Obtain First

Both the medical clearance and the police clearance are valid 6 months from the date of issuance, and that rule is not a detail — it is what should drive your entire preparation order. It means some documents expire if obtained too early, while others hold up everything if obtained too late.

The correct method is to back-schedule from validity, not to do whatever is easiest first. The logic runs like this:

• Start first, because they are not on the 6-month clock: checking yourself for derogatory records (shared names, homophone spellings and passport spelling mismatches all produce hits), designing and executing the remittance path, and starting apostille on dependants' foreign documents. Apostille runs on your home country's timetable, outside Philippine control, and it is usually the last piece to land in a family case — which is exactly why it must be started first.
• Second: the country-of-residence police clearance. It is obtained abroad, may need further authentication, and has a long chain — but the moment it issues, the 6-month clock starts. So begin it once the funds and the derogatory check are under control.
• Last: the medical from a PRA-accredited facility. It is the easiest of these to arrange and therefore the one that should be pushed latest; it starts its clock on issuance, and it is also the item you least want to have to repeat.
• In parallel: the passport itself. If yours is near renewal, deal with that first, or you will find yourself needing a re-stamping transaction immediately after the visa issues.

Doing this in reverse — rushing to the medical, then slowly sorting out funds and apostilles — is the standard way to fail. By the time a dependant's apostilled document arrives from abroad, much of the medical's 6-month window has gone, and a single round of returned documents can consume the rest. Why the derogatory check belongs first: why SRRV applications are refused. How much of this needs you physically present: presence requirements.

Write down the order you plan to obtain documents in, then re-sort it against the 6-month window. It usually saves a whole round of re-issuance. Ask for an itemised breakdown →

Where It Is Filed: the PRA Side in a Line, the Immigration Side With the Legal Division

"Where do I file" also needs a two-sided answer, and the two answers differ in kind: you can go to the PRA side, and you cannot go to the immigration side.

The PRA side. Office locations, the list of designated depository banks and where to download the forms are already compiled and are not repeated here: PRA offices, designated banks and forms. This is the side you will physically visit.

The immigration side. Under the 2026 First Edition Citizen's Charter, the 5 SRRV transactions — conversion, re-stamping, revalidation, cancellation, and cancellation with downgrading — all sit with the Legal Division, are all typed G2G (Government to Government), and the "who may avail" column names PRA Liaison Officers responsible for endorsing complete applications to BI. You do not file this leg at a counter yourself.

The charter sets out the internal route. Step one: the PRA endorsement letter and the application go to the Certificate and Clearance Section (CCS), Windows 23–25, Ground Floor, BI Main Office, where an assessor checks for derogatory records. On a hit, the applicant is advised to secure a Not The Same Person (NTSP) certificate or to file for the lifting of the record; with no hit, the assessor affixes the "No Derogatory Record" stamp with date and signature. Step two: the file goes to the Central Receiving Unit (CRU), Windows 17–18, 20 and 26, Ground Floor, where fees are assessed against the transaction and an Order of Payment Slip is issued, followed by payment, review and issuance.

Knowing this route is worth two things in practice. You can follow what you are being told rather than accepting "it's still processing" as an answer. And you can see that the derogatory check comes first — the earliest gate in the whole process and the hardest one to remedy after the fact, which is why it belongs at the top of your own to-do list rather than at the end.

How Long Does an SRRV Take? The Delay Is Not on Filing Day — and Why We Give No Number

We do not give a number of days, and that is not evasion: on this route the timeline is not decided on the day you file. The charter attaches the same note to the SRRV transactions: processing time involving PRA liaison action is not included in the published processing times. Put plainly, the official figure covers only the portion inside the immigration counters, and most of what you care about sits outside it.

Four variables actually determine the total, and every one of them lives before or outside the filing itself:

• The 6-month window on the medical and police clearances. It is both a deadline and a metronome. Every returned bundle and every wait consumes it; once consumed, you are not waiting a few extra days, you are re-obtaining a document and pushing the whole chain back.
• The derogatory check. It is step 1 of the immigration leg. No hit means one verification. A hit means securing an NTSP certificate or filing to have the record lifted first, and how long that takes is entirely specific to your situation. There is no general figure.
• The apostille chain for dependants' documents. Marriage and birth certificates issued abroad need apostille, done in your home country on its own timetable, outside Philippine control. In family cases this single item usually decides when the whole family can file.
• Your own travel. Whether you are inside or outside the Philippines at approval pushes you into different transactions — approval while abroad means revalidation under the charter. That is not a penalty, but it is a different set of steps and a different span of time.

So the more useful question is not "how long" but "in my situation, which item is most likely to be the long pole". Start that one first, per the back-scheduling in the previous section, and the total compresses on its own. Do the easy things first and leave the slow ones to the end, and you have built a long timeline by design.

A closing note: this article promises no processing time and predicts no outcome, both of which are for the agencies to determine. For individual disputes consult a practising lawyer; this article is not legal advice. Yixing is a private consultancy with no government affiliation, holding SEC Registration No. CS202009551, BI Accreditation No. CA-202624381-1 (valid to 2027-06-30), DOLE accreditation and PRA accreditation. To have your checklist and sequence reviewed against the current basis, contact Yixing's visa and HR team; what the money is made of is in the cost structure page.