Home 
MANILA, Philippines ? A total of 140 companies based in the Philippines have applied for the special visa for employment generation (SVEG) being offered by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to foreign investors and expatriates, Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said.
Quoting report submitted by lawyer Cris Villalobos, head of the BI-SVEG one-stop shop center, Libanan said the companies represent the 217 principal applicants and their 120 dependents who were granted indefinite stay in the country for providing jobs to Filipinos.
He said that due to the application, the bureau has raised some P4.31 million in revenues since the visa was launched in April this year.
The SVEG was introduced pursuant to an executive order that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed last November to reward foreigners the privilege to stay in the country indefinitely if they provide employment opportunities to Filipinos.
Some of the companies that availed themselves of the job visa included National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, EEI Corp., Fontana Development Corp., Samsung Multi-English Company, Cathay Builders Center Inc., Fort Ilocandia Land Development Co., Ilocos Norte Mining Co., and SME Networks Philippines Training Center.
The 140 companies are located in places where the SVEG one-stop shop centers have been established, including Metro Manila, Laoag, Davao, Subic, Boracay, Cebu, and Angeles City.
Records showed that a combined total of more than 30,300 regular and full-time Filipino workers are in the payroll of the 140 companies wherein the foreign applicants have significant investments or are employed in managerial or technical positions.
Under the rules, the SVEG is issued to a foreigner with an interest in a company or entity that employs at least 10 full-time and regular Filipinos workers either for managerial, executive, professional, technical, skilled, or unskilled positions.
A foreigner applying for the visa shall certify that he or she maintains a lawful immigration status in the Philippines; is engaged in a viable and sustainable business; exercises managerial acts with authority to employ, promote, and dismiss employees; and evinces a genuine intention to indefinitely remain in the country.
