THE number of resident foreign nationals who appeared before field offices of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) nationwide this year increased by nearly 12 percent.
In a statement, BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said that 106,036 foreigners reported to BI for their annual reportorial obligation this year, compared to 95,007 aliens who turned out for the 2016 report.
New figures obtained by SunStar showed that Chinese nationals topped the list of registrants with 28,189; followed by 10,980 Americans; 8,799 Koreans; 6,680 Taiwanese, and 5,133 Japanese.
Also included in the top 10 list are British Nationals with 2,886; 1,929 Germans, 1,615 Australians, and 1,332 Indonesians.
The deadline for foreigners to report at BI offices was last March 3.
Morente has attributed the high turnout to the introduction of an online system in 2015 wherein alien registrants could electronically file their application for annual report via the Internet.
The BI also reported that the bulk of the registrants are holders of pre-arranged working visas totaling to 24,514 and native-born aliens numbering to 18,301.
This was followed by 15,765 foreign students who were issued study visas; and 14,060 aliens who became permanent residents in the country by reason of their marriage to Philippine citizens.
Also in the list are 7,329 former illegal aliens who applied for amnesty under the 1995 alien social integration act and 4,094 former Filipinos who applied for permanent residence in the land of their birth.
He added that nearly half of the registrants appeared before its main office in Intramuros, Manila while others reported to immigration field offices in Cebu; Makati City; SM-North Edsa, Quezon City; SM Aura mall, Taguig City; Davao; Clark, Pampanga; Baguio; Subic, Olongapo City and Dagupan, Pangasinan.
The annual report of aliens is implemented pursuant to the 1950 Alien Registration Act that requires all foreigners registered with the bureau to appear in person at the nearest immigration field office and pay their annual report fees. (FP/SunStar Philippines)