First international travel

Last June 2017, my boyfriend and I decided to meet outside the country for a change since he’s always visiting  me here in the Philippines. When we first talk about it, of course I was very excited. Out of the country after 24 years of my existence!!!

But of course, aside from those ecstatic feeling there’s some worries because since it was my first time to travel internationally, I know that you need to convince the immigration officer at the airport that the your purpose of travelling international is for leisure and not to find job.

To be honest, I was hesitant as well since I have a friend of mine that got offloaded when he tried to visit Hongkong. So what I did? I did a lot of research. As in a lot.

So the day came wherein it’s already my flight. I gathered all the document that I can show that I have a stable work here and that my purpose of my travel is for leisure. I bring my COE, ITR, ID, hotel booking,company health card, card I used for booking the ticket, and most importantly, confirmed flight tickets.

Luckily, when I arrived on the immigration officer, he just asked "San ka nagtatrabaho?", " May health card ka?" , "Patinging ng card na ginamit mo to book the ticket."and "Ilang araw ka don?"
After answering all the questions, he asked me to look at the camera andhe stamped my passport!
I was actually shocked that they did not interrogate me like all I heard and read online.

I was so happy and relieved after passing the immigration and finally have a stamp on my passport.

What I can advice with you is prepare all the documents you can prepare so that when the Immigration Officer asks you for that, you can show it to them. It is okay to gather a lot of documents instead being offloaded which will waste the money that you used to book for tickets, hotel and tours.

I hope at some point, it makes you confident to travel especially when it isyour first time and alone.