The 9G is the Philippines' standard work visa, and at first glance it looks like the wrong tool for an internationally mobile professional. It's a Pre-Arranged Employment Visa — designed for a foreign national employed by a Philippine company. No Philippine employer, no desire to incorporate one? It seems to rule you out on the label alone.
There's a way through, and for a specific kind of person it's the cleanest option on the entire menu: the 9G via an Employer of Record. This page explains what the 9G actually grants, how the EOR structure makes it available to remote professionals, who should use it — and who genuinely shouldn't.
What the 9G is
The 9G grants a foreign national the legal right to work in the Philippines on the basis of employment with a local entity. It's a proper work visa — not a residency-by-retirement product, not a rolling tourist extension. It comes with the Alien Employment Permit machinery, a documented employment relationship, and multi-year validity tied to the employment.
Two consequences matter for our purposes:
Clear [Resident Alien tax status](/tax/philippine-tax-residency/) — like the SRRV and SIRV, the 9G is a long-term visa that establishes your Philippine tax residency through status rather than day-counting: Philippine tax on Philippine-source income only, foreign income outside the net.
A documented employment relationship on Philippine soil — something the tourist route can never produce, and the quiet superpower of this visa. When a bank, a landlord, a visa officer of another country, or anyone else with a checklist asks *"what do you do here?"*, a local employment contract answers the question more crisply than any other status a foreigner can hold.
The catch is in the name: it's *pre-arranged* employment. It assumes an employer exists.
How the Employer of Record route solves it
An Employer of Record (EOR) is a Philippine entity that becomes your formal employer on paper. It holds the local employment contract, runs the associated payroll and compliance, and provides the legitimate Philippine employment relationship the 9G requires.
In practice, you continue doing exactly what you already do: serving your own international clients, or running your own business abroad. Nothing about your actual work changes. What changes is that a compliant Philippine employment structure now stands behind your residency — contract, payroll records, employer of substance, the works.
What the structure delivers:
- •Full legal work authorisation in the Philippines
- •No incorporation — you skip the cost, governance and wind-down burden of owning a Philippine company for the sole purpose of employing yourself
- •Resident Alien tax status from day one, visa-based, no day-counting
- •The tidiest file a foreigner can present. Banks, immigration officers and compliance departments understand "employee of a Philippine company" instantly. No explaining, no raised eyebrows, no follow-up questions.
One design point worth understanding: the salary the EOR pays you locally is Philippine-source income and is taxed normally — that's a feature, not a bug. A modest, correctly taxed local salary is what makes the whole structure genuine, and it typically coexists with your foreign business income remaining outside the Philippine net. How the salary level, your foreign structure and the EOR arrangement fit together is a company-structures conversation, and we design them as one system.
Who should use it — and who shouldn't
The 9G via EOR earns its place when the structure and optics of formal employment are worth more to you than simplicity. Typical profiles:
- •Professionals facing banking or compliance scrutiny — private banking onboarding, mortgage conversations, jurisdictions that interrogate "self-employed nomad" but wave through "employed in the Philippines"
- •People whose home-country institutions (insurers, pension arrangements, professional bodies) treat a formal foreign employment relationship differently from freelance status
- •Anyone under 40 who wants visa-based residency but doesn't want the SIRV's USD 75,000 market position
- •Remote workers who simply want the most conventional-looking status available and are willing to pay for it
It's the wrong tool if: your goal is maximum flexibility at minimum cost (the tourist extension wins), you're over 40 and want the simplest permanent base (the SRRV wins), or the ongoing EOR fees would be resented rather than valued. The 9G is the premium, structured option — it should be chosen for its structure, not by default.
What the structure costs
The 9G via EOR is the premium option, and the pricing is honest about it. Three layers: the government side (AEP and 9G filing fees, ACR I-Card — modest, one-time per term), the EOR's ongoing fee for carrying the employment relationship — the real recurring cost of the route, priced monthly or annually by the provider — and the payroll taxes on your local salary, which scale with the salary level the structure sets. Against that, weigh what the structure replaces: incorporating and maintaining your own Philippine company (formation, accounting, annual compliance, eventual wind-down) costs more and demands more of you for the identical visa outcome. The EOR route is what "buy, don't build" looks like in residency form. Exact figures depend on the provider match and salary design — both are set in your proposal, in writing, before anything is signed.
Family on the 9G
Dependent visas exist alongside the 9G for a spouse and qualifying children, tied to your status as the principal. The practical notes: dependents don't receive work authorisation through your visa (a working spouse needs their own basis), schooling and daily life are unaffected, and the family's paperwork runs through the same BI process as yours — we file it as one package so the statuses land together. For a family where one partner needs formal employment optics and the other doesn't, the 9G-plus-dependents structure is often cleaner than trying to qualify both independently.
The process
- 1
EOR matching
We pair you with a suitable, substantive Employer of Record — the quality of the EOR is the quality of the whole structure, and this is where local knowledge pays.
- 2
Employment contract
The local contract is put in place: role, salary level, terms — designed alongside your existing foreign setup so the pieces reinforce rather than contradict each other.
- 3
Permit and visa filings
The Alien Employment Permit and 9G application run through the Department of Labor and the Bureau of Immigration in sequence; we manage both ends and the timing between them.
- 4
Issuance and ACR I-Card
The 9G is stamped, the ACR I-Card issued, and your status is live — typically valid for multiple years, renewable with the employment.
- 5
The base underneath
Same rule as every route: lease, TIN, BIR registration, bank account. The employment answers what you do; the base proves where you live.
A profile from practice
The clearest way to see where the 9G earns its fee: a 38-year-old consultant, EU passport, six-figure revenue from European clients, in the middle of a Singapore private-banking onboarding. On the tourist route, his file said "tourist, self-employed, no local status" — three follow-up requests and a stalled application. Restructured on the 9G via EOR: Philippine employment contract, payslips, ACR I-Card, Resident Alien registration, Certificate of Tax Residency. Same person, same money, same clients — but the file now answered every standard question before it was asked, and the onboarding closed. He paid the EOR's annual fee for exactly that outcome, knowingly, and considers it the cheapest line item in his banking relationship. That's the 9G's actual product: not the right to work, which his foreign clients never required — the legibility.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need my own Philippine company for a 9G?
No — that's the point of the Employer of Record route. The EOR provides the compliant local employment relationship; you skip incorporation entirely.
Can I keep working for my foreign clients on a 9G?
Yes. Your international work continues unchanged; the EOR employment is the local structure standing behind your visa. Foreign-source income remains outside the Philippine tax net as a Resident Alien.
Is the EOR salary taxed in the Philippines?
Yes, normally, through withholding — and that's deliberate. A correctly taxed local salary is what makes the employment genuine rather than decorative.
How long is the 9G valid?
It's typically issued for a multi-year term tied to the employment contract and is renewable while the employment continues. Exact terms depend on the filing; we confirm current practice at engagement.
Is the 9G better than the SRRV or tourist route?
Different, not better. It's the premium structured option for people who need employment-shaped status. For simplicity, the tourist extension; for a permanent base at 40+, the SRRV; for under-40 investors, the SIRV. We'll tell you straight which fits.
What happens if the EOR relationship ends?
The visa's basis is the employment, so the arrangement is designed for continuity — and if your plans change, we transition you to the appropriate next status rather than letting the structure lapse into limbo.