THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) has issued guidelines for reimbursing the travel expenses of offloaded passengers.
The agency’s joint memorandum circular outlines the criteria and procedures for reimbursing all international-bound Filipino passengers who were deferred by the Immigration department from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2024.
Signed by the bureau, the departments of Budget and Management, and Justice, the memorandum circular will be effective 15 days after its publication in the newspaper of general circulation.
According to the joint memorandum circular, passengers shall personally file a claim with the international port of entry and exit management office.
It said that the BI will not receive and process claims without complete documents.
BI noted that passengers eligible for claims are only entitled to one reimbursement claim per year, regardless of the number of deferred departures.
“Only travel expenses that a passenger or a declared sponsor personally paid for will be considered for reimbursement,” it said,
Further, funding for the reimbursement will be sourced from the special trust fund collected for the year, the Immigration department said. — Ashley Erika O. Jose