153,651 foreigners comply with BI's mandatory registration for 2024
A total of 153,651 foreigners complied with their mandatory registration with the Bureau of Immigration (BI) within the first 60 days of this year compared to 136,065 registered during the same period in 2023.
Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said that this is “a positive sign that more and more aliens are applying for residency in the Philippines, unlike during the Covid-19 pandemic when only few aliens visited the country.”
Under the Alien Registration Act of 1950, BI-registered foreign nationals are required to make the annual report within the first 60 days of every calendar year.
"Only aliens registered with the BI as immigrants and non-immigrants are required to make the annual report, and not foreign tourists or temporary visitors,” Tansingco said.
The BI said that immigrants are permanent residents in the Philippines while non-immigrants refer to temporary residents such as foreign workers, expatriates and students.
Chinese nationals topped the list of registrants with 49,556 in 2024, BI said.
There were 26,123 Indians; 11,671 Vietnamese; 10,912 Americans; 7,800 Taiwanese; 6,448 South Koreans; 6,019 Indonesians; 5,214 Japanese; 3,392 Britons; and 2,804 Malaysians, it said.