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4 ways to make your weak Philippine passport stronger

Let's admit it, our Philippine passport sucks. It's weak and requires us Filipinos to go through great lengths of stress and hassle to obtain visas. Currently, there are only 63 countries that Filipinos can travel to visa-free. 25 of those countries are visa on arrival and 2 of them are Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA).


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Get a US or Canadian visa


By having a US or Canadian visa, you can add more or less 49 and 36 countries respectively. These visas are hard to get but they do significantly strengthen your passport.


Some countries consider the fact that you have been approved for a US or a Canadian visa as a positive factor in assessing your intentions, especially countries with close ties and allies of the US and Canada.


My suggestion is to go for a US visa as recently Canada has allowed visa-free entry to Filipinos with valid US tourist visas. Both US and Canadian tourist visas are mostly issued long term such as 10 years so it really is worthwhile aside from being able to travel both the US and Canada which are massive countries.


Build a strong travel history


Having a strong travel history can positively impact how immigration officials perceive you as they get a clearer indication of the purpose of your travel. Obviously, they are weeding out individuals who are into illegal activities, human trafficking, and of course those who plan to "TNT" or "Tago ng Tago"


Travel history will not directly make your passport strong but it will help in getting visa approvals in the future. It's best to have multiple visits to countries that are visa-free and easy to enter in order to create a positive impact on your travel history.


Remember, a good and trouble-free travel history makes you trustworthy in the eyes of the consulates.


Get a Schengen visa


A Schengen visa will allow you entry to 26 Schengen countries and 39 non-Schengen that honor the Schengen visa.


Unfortunately, unlike the US and Canadian visas, the Schengen visas are usually given short term around 90-180 days so you'll have to travel a lot in such a short amount of time which most of us can't do.


Become rich


No other way to sugarcoat it but if you have a lot of money in the bank and lots of properties under your name then it's less likely you'll get disapproved when applying for a visa that in turn strengthens your passport.


This however is not a guarantee as I do hear stories from very credible sources that even Filipinos who are hundred millionaires getting denied! Crazy but true!


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