Philippine Embassy Invitation Letter

My in-laws are coming over here again for their annual vacation during my daughter's birthday. This time my sister in law's best friend is going with them but problem is there has been incidents when random Filipino tourist visiting Singapore are being held at the Philippine Immigration at the airport. When held, the traveling Filipino will not be allowed to board and forfeit his airline reservation.

According to the Philippine embassy website "The Bureau of Immigration in the Philippines inspects all international-bound passengers. This is in line with the Bureau’s mandate under the Anti-Human Trafficking Law of 2003 (R.A. 9233) and the Amended Migrant Workers’ Act of 2004 (R.A. 10022), to stop human trafficking and illegal recruitment."

Personally I don't think this rule or law is very convenient. What the PH immigration does is randomly selects individual interrogate / interview them the purpose of their visit to Singapore, would ask the tourist if they are currently working in some company in the PH, how long would they stay in SG, if they are planning to go back home after few days, etc etc. If they feel you are an eligible tourist, they will allow you to else, you go back home. My sister in law during her first visit here almost didnt make it to the plane. It was her worst experience in traveling.

Until we knew about the Invitation Letter that can be requested from the Philippine Embassy. Still being primitive in a high technology country, the Philippine Embassy doesn't have an option to request this online. You really have to personally go to Nasim Road and process this yourself. What worst is you can't get this right away, you will be ask to go back after a few days when it is ready. Spell hassle. The Philippines has never failed on this part since.

At  the airport’s immigration counter, a Filipino tourist bound for Singapore may be asked by the immigration officer to produce an “invitation letter”. This refers to a letter made by a Filipino based in Singapore, inviting a Filipino relative (the passenger) to Singapore for a visit. The inviting Filipino and the invited Filipino must be relatives up the fourth degree of consanguinity (his/her immediate relatives, up to first cousins) or affinity (which is by marriage, up to the first cousins of the spouse). http://www.philippine-embassy.org.sg/consular/invitation-letter/

And this costs around $45. Spell business. Worst, profiting from their own Citizens.

So with the limitation of the invitation letter, we cannot process this for our friend. She's booked to stay for 9 days, planning to stay 3 nights in a hotel and the remaining days in our house but I'm not sure what's the plan now.

Good luck, Marie.


Blessings ♥

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Tsukada Nojo : Japanese Restaurant

Last week I met with my high school friends to have a mini reunion dinner before our long weekend holiday begins - Gong Xi Fa Cai! I thought of finding a good deal at Groupon, buffet dinner perhaps, but was so busy with other stuff so didnt have the time to research further. I instead suggested we dine at Tsukada Nojo, a Japanese restaurant in Plaza Singapura. Been there twice already because friends are working there - first, we got invited to its soft opening last year and second was a dinner treat by Ate Pinky.

The food is irresistibly delicious. They boast their Bijin Nabe soup -  a milky, savory pot of colleagen-rich organic chicken broth which served in jelly like texture then melts in the heat of the pot. With prawns, vegetables, mushrooms and chunks of chicken to add in - it makes the taste simply heavenly. Take my words, the taste is just perfect.

I think the price is $25 per person and this is good for two so it is $50. This I am not sure, please check with the resto. :) This already includes 1 order of noodles but we still ordered 1 bowl of rice each. HAHAHA

And then as my friend is excited to taste everything in the menu, I recommended we try first the nikumaki unigiri before we get so full. :) Nikumaki unigiri is a rice ball wrapped with thinly sliced meat and topped with cheese, chili and the likes. Sarap di ba? Deym! kakagutom! haha.

So kung may rice na dun for the soup+chicken+veggies plus this, well goodluck! hahaha. Bundat!

Hershey trying to put on the chicken minced meat to the soup.

This is the gang :)

My daughter loves it here very much. She finished 1 and half cup of Japanese rice.  Hee hee. Love to see her enjoy good food :)

We will come back here again soon. Soon, very soon. Watch me!


Blessings ♥

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