Moving to the Philippines from Australia

36 months: Australians can enter without a visa for up to 30 days; the Department of Foreign Affairs' visa-free list names Australia, and so does the Embassy in Canberra. Smartraveller adds that your passport must be valid for at least six months and that you need onward or return tickets for no later than 30 days from arrival. A 29-day visa waiver then brings the stay to 59 days, and after that the Bureau of Immigration grants extensions of one, two or six months at a time. The Bureau says visitors who need no visa may extend up to 36 months, counted from the latest recorded arrival. All of this is visitor status, with no income or savings test. The Bureau's fee tables are marked as updated on 6 March 2014, so the current fees are unknown.

SRRV: the PRA application form, a medical certificate and police clearance each issued within six months, a Bureau of Immigration clearance certificate, an NBI clearance if you have stayed more than 90 days in the Philippines, eight 2x2-inch photos, a passport with a valid tourist visa, proof of a lifetime pension if you apply as a pensioner, the processing fee and the deposit sent as an inward remittance. Documents issued outside the Philippines must be in English and apostilled or authenticated. The Embassy's pages give no processing time for a 9(a) visa or an e-Visa, so that is unknown; the e-Visa fee is paid by bank transfer and the amount is not stated on the advisory. The Embassy says e-Visa holders register on eTravel only after the e-Visa is issued, within 72 hours before departure. Bureau extensions are filed at least a week before the stay expires. The PRA page gives no processing time for the SRRV, so that is unknown.

If you stop being resident, assets other than taxable Australian property, such as many shares, are treated as sold at market value unless you choose to disregard this. You can use a myGov account linked to the ATO from overseas to lodge your return and manage your super.

Pay for an employment exercised in the Philippines is taxable only in Australia if all three of these apply: you are in the Philippines no more than 183 days in the Philippine tax year, your employer is not a Philippine resident, and the pay is not deducted in the profits of a Philippine permanent establishment or fixed base. Income from professional or other independent services is taxable only in Australia unless you have a fixed base regularly available in the Philippines, stay there for 183 days in the year, or earn more than A$10,000 from Philippine residents, in which case the income from those activities may be taxed there; the text lets the two governments change the A$10,000 figure by exchange of letters, and none was found. Australia allows a credit for Philippine tax paid on Philippine-source income.

As a citizen you cannot cash out super because you move: the ATO says citizens and permanent residents leaving Australia stay under the same super rules, so you can't access it until you reach preservation age and retire or meet another condition of release, and the departing Australia superannuation payment is for people on temporary visas who are not Australian or New Zealand citizens or permanent residents. If you have a HELP, VET Student Loan or Australian Apprenticeship Support Loan, you must still repay it: submit an overseas travel notification within 7 days of leaving if you intend to be away 183 days or more in any 12 months, and report your worldwide income each year (the deadline is 31 October). If you get Age Pension, you move to an outside-Australia rate after 26 weeks, and the rate depends on how long you were an Australian resident between 16 and Age Pension age. This is a mechanism, not your bill.

Smartraveller says medical facilities are generally adequate in major cities and limited outside them, and warns that without insurance you might have to pay thousands of dollars up front for medical care; the CDC advises considering travel health and medical evacuation insurance. PhilHealth, the national insurer, lets foreign citizens with a valid ACR I-Card enrol through a Local Health Insurance Office; its 2017 circular set the premium at PHP 17,000 a year (about A$389), which may have changed, and whether someone on a visitor ACR I-Card can join was not confirmed. If you cancel private hospital cover in Australia while you are away, you may owe the Medicare levy surcharge if your income is above the threshold.

Smartraveller says that if you have stayed more than six months you may need an Emigration Clearance Certificate from the Bureau before you leave, with biometrics taken in person, and that unpaid visa fees or fines can stop you departing. The Bureau's 2014 table lists a fine of PHP 500 a month for overstaying.

An SRRV deposit must arrive as an inward remittance to a PRA-accredited bank. On the Australian side, the ATO says a myGov account linked to the ATO lets you lodge your return, manage your super and update your contact details from overseas, so set it up before you leave.

Smartraveller advises against travel to central and western Mindanao and to reconsider travel to eastern Mindanao, excluding Camiguin, Dinagat and Siargao Islands; its page names Davao City only in a list of decompression chambers, so it does not say whether it counts the city as part of eastern Mindanao. Read the current advice, and ask DFAT, before you choose it.